Claire Hope Cummings over GMO gevaren
Journaliste Claire Hope Cummings waarschuwt
al 10 jaar voor de gevaren van fabrieksmatige landbouw en genetische gemodificeerde
gewassen. Zij wijst op de gevaren die op termijn zullen opduiken en wil de huidige
zaden/gewassen beschermen tegen grote bedrijven zoals Monsanto en zorgen dat de boeren
niet buitenspel worden gezet. Een vrouw naar mijn hart !
Ron
Defender of the seeds - Q&A
with Claire Hope Cummings, author of “Uncertain Peril”
Because GMOs (genetically modified
organisms) don’t seem like an immediate personal threat, their risks to our health
and the environment are fairly subtle. They’re real; they’re just not the kind
you see on the evening news. There’s a lot of information about those risks already
available.
http://www.ethicurean.com/2008/06/30/claire-hope-cummings/
Hawai'i Island Food Summit October
2007
Claire Hope Cummings
There are five solid reasons that genetic
engineering is not right for agriculture:
- One: it's bad science. It was developed on
the basis of flawed assumptions, which have since been discredited by the scientific
community.
- Two: it's bad biology. It was deployed
without regard for its potential for genetic contamination and its risks to human health.
- Three: it's bad social policy. It puts
control over seeds and the fundamentals of our food and farms into the hands of a few
corporations who have their own, not our, best interests in mind.
- Four: it's bad economics. After billions of
dollars and thirty years, only a few products have been commercialized, and they offer
nothing new. No one asked for genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and given a choice,
consumers would reject them.
- Five: it's bad farming. GMOs don't address
the real issues plaguing agriculture; they're designed to substitute for or increase the
use of proprietary weed and pest control chemicals. Patented and genetically altered seeds
perpetuate the very worst problems of the industrial food system, and they are undermining
the autonomy of the farmers who use them.
http://clairehopecummings.com/index.html
Boek: Uncertain Peril
- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Beacon Press; 1 edition
(March 3, 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0807085804
Life on earth is facing unprecedented
challenges from global warming, war, and mass extinctions. The plight of seeds is a less
visible but no less fundamental threat to our survival. Seeds are at the heart of the
planet's life-support systems. Their power to regenerate and adapt are essential to
maintaining our food supply and our ability to cope with a changing climate.
In Uncertain Peril, environmental
journalist Claire Hope Cummings exposes the stories behind the rise of industrial
agriculture and plant biotechnology, the fall of public interest science, and the folly of
patenting seeds. She examines how farming communities are coping with declining water,
soil, and fossil fuels, as well as with new commercial technologies. Will genetically
engineered and "terminator" seeds lead to certain promise, as some have hoped,
or are we embarking on a path of uncertain peril? Will the "doomsday vault"
under construction in the Arctic, designed to store millions of seeds, save the genetic
diversity of the world's agriculture? To answer these questions and others, Cummings takes
readers from the Fertile Crescent in Iraq to the island of Kaua'i in Hawai'i; from Oaxaca,
Mexico, to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. She examines the plight of farmers who have
planted transgenic seeds and scientists who have been persecuted for revealing the dangers
of modified genes.
At each turn, Cummings looks deeply into
the relationship between people and plants. She examines the possibilities for both
scarcity and abundance and tells the stories of local communities that are producing food
and fuel sustainably and providing for the future. The choices we make about how we feed
ourselves now will determine whether or not seeds will continue as a generous source of
sustenance and remain the common heritage of all humanity. It comes down to this: whoever
controls the future of seeds controls the future of life on earth. Uncertain Peril is a
powerful reminder that what's at stake right now is nothing less than the nature of the
future.
Risking Corn, Risking Culture
If genetically modified corn spreads around
the planet, one of
humanity’s greatest creations—a highly diversified and reliable food
source—could be severely weakened or even destroyed. So could many of the human
communities that depend on it.
http://www.p2pays.org/ref/37/36242.pdf
Putting the culture back in
agriculture
In the 1930’s, Hawai’i was
completely food self-sufficient. Today, we import 90-95 percent of what we eat. At a time
when that lifeline is threatened by our dependence on
non-renewable resources and manipulated by corporate claim jumpers, people are beginning
to recognize the importance of finding a different, sustainable approach to agriculture.
Can Hawai’i feed itself? Environmental and native land rights lawyer and journalist
Claire Hope Cummings says yes. The former attorney for the U.S. Department of Agriculture
has served as general counsel for numerous environmental organizations including The
Cultural Conservancy, which she also founded.
http://www.columbia.org/pdf_files/clairecummings2.pdf
