The Future (88 page)
Authors: Al Gore
494
Blue Cross for hospital charges
“Health Insurance,”
Encarta
.
495
preexisting conditions
Noah, “A Short History of Health Care.”
496
twice took preliminary steps—in 1935
Kyle Noonan, New America Foundation, “Health Reform through History: Part I: The New Deal,” May 26, 2009,
http://www.newamerica.net/blog/new-health-dialogue/2009/health-reform-through-history-part-i-new-deal-11961
.
497
feared the political opposition of the American Medical Association
Ibid.
498
regarded as more pressing priorities
Paul Starr, “In Sickness and in Health,” On the Media, August 21, 2009,
http://www.onthemedia.org/2009/aug/21/in-sickness-and-in-health/transcript/
.
499
offered a quixotic third opportunity to proceed but Roosevelt
Noonan, “Health Reform through History: Part I: The New Deal.”
500
During World War II, with wages (and prices) controlled
Noah, “A Short History of Health Care.”
501
extensive health insurance as part of their negotiated contracts
“Health Insurance,”
Encarta
.
502
revive the idea for national health insurance, but the opposition in Congress
Starr, “In Sickness and in Health”; Noonan, “Health Reform through History: Part I: The New Deal.”
503
employer-based health insurance became the primary model
Noah, “A Short History of Health Care.”
504
new government programs were implemented to help both groups
“Health Insurance,”
Encarta
.
505
needed health insurance the most had a difficult time obtaining it
Noah, “A Short History of Health Care”; “Health Insurance,”
Encarta
.
506
believe that genetically engineered food should be labeled
Gary Langer, “Poll: Skepticism of Genetically Modified Foods,” ABC News, June 19, 2011,
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=97567&page=1#.UGIUS7S1Ndx
.
507
adopted the point of view advocated by large agribusiness
Tom Philpott, “Congress’ Big Gift to Monsanto,”
Mother Jones
, July 2, 2012.
508
However, most European countries
Amy Harmon and Andrew Pollack, “Battle Brewing Over Labeling of Genetically Modified Food,”
New York Times
, May 25, 2012.
509
genetically engineered alfalfa
Ibid.
510
which plants twice as many acres in GM crops as any other country
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, ISAAA Brief 43-2011, Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2011,
http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/briefs/43/executivesummary/default.asp
.
511
California defeated a referendum in 2012 to require such labeling
Andrew Pollack, “After Loss, the Fight to Label Modified Food Continues,”
New York Times
, November 7, 2012.
512
approximately 70 percent of the processed foods
Harmon and Pollack, “Battle Brewing Over Labeling of Genetically Modified Food”; Richard Shiffman, “How California’s GM Food Referendum May Change What America Eats,”
Guardian
, June 13, 2012; Center for Food Safety, “Genetically Engineered Crops,”
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/campaign/genetically-engineered-food/crops/
.
513
as enthusiastic advocates often emphasize, hardly new
Michael Antoniou, Claire Robinson, and John Fagan, “GMO Myths and Truths, Version 1.3,” June 2012,
http://earthopensource.org/files/pdfs/GMO_Myths_and_Truths/GMO_Myths_and_Truths_1.3a.pdf
, p. 21; Council for Biotechnology Information,
“Myths & Facts: Plant Biotechnology,”
http://www.whybiotech.com/resources/myths_plantbiotech.asp#16
.
514
genetically modified during the Stone Age by careful selective breeding
Council for Biotechnology Information, “Myths & Facts: Plant Biotechnology.”
515
“plants in the process of domesticating our food crop species”
Anne Cook, “Borlaug: Will Farmers Be Permitted to Use Biotechnology?,” Knight Ridder/Tribune, June 14, 2001.
516
merely accelerating and making more efficient a long-established practice
Council for Biotechnology Information, “Myths & Facts: Plant Biotechnology.”
517
has ever produced any increase in the intrinsic yields
Doug Gurian-Sherman,
Failure to Yield
(Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists, 2009).
518
ecosystem concerns that are not so easily dismissed
Michael Faure and Andri Wibisana, “Liability for Damage Caused by GMOs: An Economic Perspective,”
Georgetown International Environmental Law Review
23, no. 1 (2010): 1–69.
519
normal pattern of the organism’s genetic code and can cause
Antoniou, Robinson, and Fagan, “GMO Myths and Truths, Version 1.3.”
520
FLAVR SAVR
G. Bruening and J. M. Lyons, “The Case of the FLAVR SAVR Tomato,”
California Agriculture
, July–August 2000.
521
remain firm for a longer period of time after it ripened
Ibid.
522
consumer resistance
Ibid.
523
less rounded bottom to accommodate
“Square Tomato,” Davis Wiki, 2012,
http://daviswiki.org/square_tomato
.
524
catastrophic loss of flavor in modern tomatoes
Dan Charles, “How the Taste of Tomatoes Went Bad (and Kept On Going),” NPR, June 28, 2012,
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/06/28/155917345/how-the-taste-of-tomatoes-went-bad-and-kept-on-going
; Kai Kupferschmidt, “How Tomatoes Lost Their Taste,”
ScienceNOW
, June 28, 2012,
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/06/how-tomatoes-lost-their-taste.html
.
525
Almost 11 percent of all the world’s farmland
Matthew Weaver, “Report: World Embraces Biotech Crops,”
Capital Press
, March 1, 2012.
526
number of acres planted in GM crops
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, “Pocket K No. 16: Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops in 2011,”
http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/pocketk/16/default.asp
.
527
Although the United States is by far the largest grower
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, ISAAA Brief 43-2011, Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2011,
http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/briefs/43/executivesummary/default.asp
.
528
Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, are the largest GM crop globally
Ibid.; “Monsanto Strong-Arms Seed Industry,” Associated Press, January 4, 2011.
529
Corn is the second most widely planted GM crop
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, ISAAA Brief 43-2011, Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2011.
530
In the U.S., 95 percent of soybeans planted
“Monsanto Strong-Arms Seed Industry,” Associated Press, January 4, 2011.
531
must purchase from Monsanto or one of their licensees
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, ISAAA Brief 43-2011, Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2011.
532
known as “rapeseed” outside the United States
E. S. Oplinger et al., “Canola (Rapeseed),”
Alternative Field Crops Manual
, 1989,
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/canola.html
.
533
three generations, or waves, of the technology
J. Fernandez-Cornejo and M. Caswell, “The First Decade of Genetically Engineered Crops in the United States,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, 2006; Gurian-Sherman,
Failure to Yield
.
534
The introduction of genes that give corn
Gurian-Sherman,
Failure to Yield
.
535
Genes introduced into corn
Ibid. “Monsanto Strong-Arms Seed Industry,” Associated Press; Beverly Bell, “Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds,”
Huffington Post
, May 17, 2010,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beverly-bell/haitian-farmers-commit-to_b_578807.html
.
536
designed to enhance the survivability of crops during droughts
Fernandez-Cornejo and Caswell, “The First Decade of Genetically Engineered Crops in the United States.” It is worth noting that plant geneticists have also engineered a new variety of rice designed to survive complete submergence in water for more than two weeks; it is now being tested in rice fields in the Philippines that have been hit hard by flooding.
537
report initial reductions in their cost of production
National Research Council, “Impact of Genetically Engineered Crops on Farm Sustainability in the United States,” 2010.
538
strain that is engineered to produce its own insecticide
Ibid.; Calestous Juma, “Agricultural Biotechnology: Benefits, Opportunities and Leadership,” Testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Agriculture, Subcommittee on Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology and Foreign Agriculture, June 23, 2011,
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/juma-house-testimony-june-23-2011-rev.pdf
.
539
In India the new Bt cotton made the nation a net exporter
Juma, “Agricultural Biotechnology.”
540
have begun to protest the high cost of the GM seeds
Gargi Parsai, “Protests Mark 10th Anniversary of Bt Cotton,”
Hindu
, March 27, 2012; Zia Haq, “Ministry Blames Bt Cotton for Farmer Suicides,”
Hindustan Times
, March 26, 2012.
541
that field trials of GM crops “under any garb”
Pallava Bagla, “India Should Be More Wary of GM Crops, Parliamentary Panel Says,”
ScienceInsider
, August 2012.
542
the
intrinsic
yields of the crops themselves are not increased at all
National Research Council, “Impact of Genetically Engineered Crops on Farm Sustainability in the United States,” 2010.
543
unexpected collateral changes in the plants’ genetic code
Gurian-Sherman,
Failure to Yield
.
544
both greater yields and greater resistance to the effects of drought
Personal conversation with author.
545
offer the promise of increased yields during dry periods
Union of Concerned Scientists, “High and Dry,” May 2012,
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/food_and_agriculture/high-and-dry-summary.pdf
.
546
tremendous interest in drought-resistant strains, especially for maize
Gurian-Sherman,
Failure to Yield;
Andrew Pollack, “Drought Resistance Is the Goal, but Methods Differ,”
New York Times
, October 23, 2008.
547
genes working together in complicated ways
“Why King Corn Wasn’t Ready for the Drought,”
Wired
, August 9, 2012.
548
“limited at best”
Union of Concerned Scientists, “High and Dry.”
549
introduction of genes that enhance the nutrient value
Fernandez-Cornejo and Caswell, “The First Decade of Genetically Engineered Crops in the United States.”
550
higher protein content in corn (maize) that is used primarily for livestock
Calestous Juma,
The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
551
new strain of rice that produces extra vitamin A
Juma, “Agricultural Biotechnology: Benefits, Opportunities and Leadership.”
552
enhance the resistance of plants to particular fungi and viruses
Pamela C. Ronald and James E. McWilliams, “Genetically Engineered Distortions,”
New York Times
, May 14, 2010.
553
The third wave of GM crops
Fernandez-Cornejo and Caswell, “The First Decade of Genetically Engineered Crops in the United States.”
554
with high cellulose and lignin
National Research Council, “Impact of Genetically Engineered Crops on Farm Sustainability in the United States”; Fernandez-Cornejo and Caswell, “The First Decade of Genetically Engineered Crops in the United States”; Fuad Hajji, “Engineering Renewable Cellulosic Thermoplastics,”
Reviews in Environmental Science and Biotechnology
10, no. 1 (2011): 25–30.
555
in a world with growing population and food consumption
Hajji, “Engineering Renewable Cellulosic Thermoplastics.”
556
because of the unprecedented complexity of the challenge
Matt Ridley, “Getting Crops Ready for a Warmer Tomorrow,”
Wall Street Journal
, July 6, 2012.
557
temporary reduction in losses to pests
Gurian-Sherman,
Failure to Yield;
Antoniou, Robinson, and Fagan, “GMO Myths and Truths, Version 1.3.”
