The public debate regarding genetically modified (GM) food has for the most part been driven by practical considerations. For those on the side of GM food, the economic and social benefits far outweigh any possible negative consequences (if there even are any). In this vein, Reason magazine science correspondent Ronald Bailey points out, “With biotech corn, U.S. farmers have saved an estimated $200 million by avoiding extra cultivation and reducing insecticide spraying. U.S. cotton farmers have … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2005
How Will We Feed Africa?
Environmental activists are spending millions of dollars in their campaign to ban genetically modified foods, as millions of Africans starve. These activists, who must believe that ideology is a good substitute for bread on the table, need to understand some simple truths. Human activity is based on living a healthy life. Sufficient food is the first requirement for health, which gives people the strength to flourish and live productive lives. Hunger and undernourishment undermine human society, … [Read more...]
No Sure Bet: Two Replies to Andy Crouch’s “Environmental Wager”
The August 2005 issue of Christianity Today (vol. 49, no. 8, p. 66) carried an alarmist piece about global warming by Andy Crouch titled “Environmental Wager” that condemned critics of global warming alarmism and prescribed endorsement of the Kyoto Protocol to reduce CO2 emissions and mitigate global warming as a new variation on Pascal’s Wager that is so obviously the right thing to do that anybody who objects must be a cretin. The article generated critical responses from two founders of the … [Read more...]
Fruitful Dominion: Time for a New Environmental Ethic?
Responsible stewardship can bring prosperity to all of the earth’s inhabitants Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 (NKJV) When it comes to mankind’s relationship to nature, the idea of “dominion,” as expressed in the opening chapter of the Book of Genesis, is for some people one of the most … [Read more...]
Get Out Your Bed Nets:
We must let Africans fight mosquitoes and disease the same way we do: with pesticides Gulf Coast residents are slowly recovering from Katrina’s winds, floods, anarchy, and tardy local, state and federal disaster responses. Now they face yet another peril. Millions of acres of brackish, polluted water could become fertile breeding grounds for billions of mosquitoes. Some fear the hordes could infect survivors with West Nile virus and encephalitis – or even malaria and yellow fever. They point … [Read more...]