Over and over, I hear proponents of industrialized agriculture dismissively say that we don't want to go back to the 19th century. Another way I've heard that put is that we shouldn't keep doing what Grandpa did on the farm, because if Grandpa were around today he'd be out of business - and the world would be hungry. Recently, this was said again, this time by science advisor to Hillary Clinton, Nina Federoff.
"We accept exactly the same technology (as GM food) in medicine, and yet in producing food we want to go back to the 19th Century."
Dr Fedoroff, who wrote a book about GM Foods in 2004, believes critics of genetically modified maize (corn) and rice are living in bygone times.
"We wouldn't think of going to our doctor and saying 'Treat me the way doctors treated people in the 19th Century', and yet that's what we're demanding in food production."
Federoff's got a PhD and I don't, but I'm going out on a limb here to say that she doesn't have a freaking clue what she's talking about. Why? Because nobody who advocates for sustainable or regenerative agriculture is actually advocating "Grandpa-style" farming. Even the modern day Amish farmers are more sophisticated than that!
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