Seed Today - Q4 2008 - (Page 4)

Editor’s Note A Whining Brat A Publication of Country Journal Publishing Company 3065 Pershing Ct • Decatur, IL 62526 217-877-9660 • FAX: 217-877-6647 www.seedtoday.com joe@seedtoday.com Joe W. Funk Editor Deb Coontz Publisher/Sales Manager/Circulation Jody Sexton Production Manager/Assistant Editor Rod Horve Art Director Sy McElvain Bookkeeper Jeff Miller, Mark Avery Sales For more than 10 years, transgenic crops have been planted, harvested, and consumed by millions of Americans with not one authenticated incident of harm. For nearly as long, the protest industry, spearheaded by Greenpeace, has been loudly whining about the possible harms that might overtake huJoe W. manity as the result of these crops. The factitious claims of Greenpeace and the Soil Association, its British partner in crime, have been aided and abetted by the impotent efforts of an ineffective European regulatory system. Over time, the unrelenting, fatuous Greenpeace drumbeat has flamed into an anti-globalization, anti-technology movement that extends far beyond the initial target of transgenic crops. Like a spoiled brat child, Greenpeace has been preaching its tale of misinformation and fear and deception while its guardian parent stands idly on the sideline. tect is dying from a lack of food. The EU government has allowed Greenpeace to go unchallenged with its chorus of fanciful fears far too long. Enough is more than enough. It is time for the European Commissioners to stop enabling the demonization of technology and demand accountability. Funk Return to Serfdom? The technology that Greenpeace eschews is a continuation of the 20th century technologies that brought prosperity to industrialized Europe and freed it from the serfdom of peasant farming. These anti-GM activists owe their comfortable 21st century lifestyle to 19th century science and technology that transformed their states from laborious agricultural societies into prosperous industrialized nations. Now Greenpeace and its devotees such as Prince Charles romanticize the labor-intensive practices of peasant farming from a bygone era. They would have us believe that the methods which could not keep pace with the demands of a pre-industrialized population can somehow feed a global population twice the size. Seed Today is published quarterly and mailed to members of the following seed associations: • American Seed Trade Association • Atlantic Seed Association • Independent Professional Seed Association • Northern Seed Trade Association • Pacific Seed Association • Southern Seed Association • Western Seed Association The magazine is free of charge to qualifying individuals in the United States and Canada. Foreign subscription rate is $60 per year. Brought to you by the publishers of Grain Journal, Milling Journal, BioFuels Journal and industry specific F.Y.I. e-newsletters. Enough, Already It is past time for the European Commission to do the responsible thing: grab its whining child by the collar, apply the board of education to the seat of understanding and declare, “STOP IT, enough is enough.” This whole anti-GM protest has become more than an effort to keep science out of Europe’s’ fields and cropland. It is keeping food away from Africa’s impoverished subsistence farmers and families at a time when millions are teetering on the edge of starvation with no relief in sight. The fear preached by Greenpeace has created a humanitarian crisis. While these luddites believe they are saving humanity from the evils of technology, the humanity they seek to pro- Commissioners - Take Action European leaders must discipline the spoiled “child” they adopted and expose its whin as a bankrupt idealogy. Fears induced by the precautionary principle do nothing to feed the developing world. Nor can fear and precaution feed tomorrow’s growing masses, huddled and longing for food. It is time for Europe’s leaders to take action and confront the anti-science ideology preached by their unruly, selfabsorbed child. Joe W. Funk, editor joe@seedtoday.com 4 Fourth Quarter 2008 http://www.seedtoday.com http://www.seedtoday.com http://www.seedtoday.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Seed Today - Q4 2008

Seed Today - Q4 2008 Contents Editor’s Notes Syngenta Cornelius Seed Moews Seed Co. Gustafson Equipment DuPont Pioneer Hi-Bred AOSCA Richard Payne, Ph.D. Lou Buice According to ASTA AOSA/SCST New Products Seed Shorts Corporate Notes ANEX Mfg Berg Equipment Popp Engineering New PVP Certificates Ad Index

Seed Today - Q4 2008

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