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January 25, 2002

Lives are in the balance

Editorial

Tu B’Shevat (this year on Jan. 28) is traditionally known as a time for planting trees and celebrating nature. Over the last decade, people have also begun to see it as a time for serious thought and discussion around environmental issues. The Vancouver Jewish community was fortunate to be able to put into practice this tradition recently at the latest Philosophers’ Café Jan. 20.

SFU Prof. Mark Winston, former head of the Burquest Jewish Community and a world-reknowned academic, brought before the audience a question of ethics surrounding the production of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The scenario to ponder was, How does Judaism inform our decisions in using GMOs? If GMOs can save lives, should we put aside our concerns about the impact these crops may have on their environment or on ourselves?

The scene set by Winston included the unequivocal statement that genetically modified crops can save lives. (By taking genes from daffodils, for example, and transferring them into rice, scientists can create golden rice, which fights Vitamin A deficiency, a disease that kills millions of children every year.)

But members of the audience at the café were quick to raise concerns about the possibilities of detrimental effects from “playing God.” The uncertainty of the long-term effects of GMOs, including the possiblity of carcinogens, led more than one speaker to say that more research was needed before continuing the production of GMOs.

Even when Winston pointed out that, in the 20 years that scientists have been testing GMOs, there have never been any documented cases of medical harm due to commercialized, genetically modified crops, the crowd seemed unwilling to yield. It was if they had come there wanting nothing better than to knock GMOs and no one was going to take that opportunity away from them.

Part of the problem is the reputation of companies that are making GMOs. People who work for corporations like Monsanto, for example, don’t have to do much more than get up in the morning before they’re accused of poisoning the earth, taking advantage of poor populations or otherwise acting out of pure self-interest. But they should no more all be painted with the brush of self-interest than Jews should be colored with the notion that we want to take over the world.

Winston reminded the crowd that the people who work with GMOs have diverse feelings about what they are doing, and are very cautious and rigorous about their tests. Even so, one after another, the speakers pointed fingers at what one young participant called “the corporate beast.”

And therein lies part of the problem. Despite the fact that millions die from diseases that could be prevented through GMOs, paranoia and mistrust of corporations stand in the way of accepting these solutions.

In addition, the fact that we don’t suffer from such diseases ourselves, or know personally anyone who does, also makes it easier to say we should test the research for another 20 years, as one café participant suggested. Twenty years? And how many people will die during that period? Consider if it were a million Israelis dying this year due to a lack of Vitamin A, or some other disease that Jews might be prone to that could be prevented with GMOs. Would that person have made the same suggestion?

We’re being asked to consider the certainty of saving millions of people’s lives against the potential of upheaval in the natural world. Is it really such a hard question to answer? As long as the threat is just a potential and not proven, as long as there are constant efforts to monitor the effects of GMOs, how can we choose to let people die?

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