Take cover, everyone! The sky is falling again! Another boon to mankind is alleged to be a perilous poison! Oh, never mind. It's just another false alarm from Greenpeace.
The Grinches from Greenpeace are at it again, but this time they've decided to pick on an enemy their own size: the soybean. Jamie Creamer of the Alabama Farmers Federation reports that "members of the radical international environmental group are going after a new, genetically engineered soybean that debuted in a limited number of soybean fields across the U.S. this year and helped usher agriculture into the age of biotechnology. This new breed of soybean," he says, "has been genetically altered to make it resistant to the safe, effective, and widely used weedkiller Roundup."
The new, improved, super soybean will benefit both farmers and consumers, as well as the environment. Writing in the Greensboro Watchman, an Alabama weekly, Creamer explains that, "instead of having to make several applications of several different herbicides to keep weeds out of their soybeans, farmers with Roundup-resistant beans can give their fields the once-over with the familiar systemic herbicide and zap their weeds but not their crop. The gene-altered soybean," he says, "is a technological breakthrough that will translate into lower production costs, higher yields, and a dramatic reduction in chemical use."
Sounds like a cause for celebration, doesn't it? Nevertheless, the self-appointed protectors of Mother Earth are on the warpath. The griefmongers at Greenpeace are belaboring a new bogeyman. Creamer reports that "Greenpeace activists are waging a big-time protest against the biotech bean, warning that it could pose major health threats to humans and do who-knows-what kinds of freaky things to other plants and the environment. The protestors," he adds, "are demanding that these soybeans be segregated from other beans, labeled as genetically engineered, and, ultimately, banned from Europe."
Do they offer any evidence to support these serious charges, or to justify the drastic steps they propose? Of course not. Creamer turns the spotlight on the "one thing missing from all of Greenpeace's anti-soybean hype: sound science. The protestors," he says, "are making dire predictions about the bioengineered bean's impact, but they have no scientific data to back up their claims. Researchers with the Monsanto Corporation, on the other hand, have invested many years and millions of dollars in developing the product, testing it, and getting it approved by not one but three federal agencies."
Jamie Creamer concludes that "Greenpeace activists aren't just protesting this soybean; they're protesting the whole concept of genetic engineering and progress. Never mind that biotechnology is vital to meeting world food demand; they're on a mission." Like all simpering socialists, these energetic environmentalists rely on manufactured scarcities to justify their coercive schemes. They'll unleash their full fury on any agricultural breakthrough that threatens to foil the famines of their fancies. No matter what they may say about soy, however, it's obvious that the Grinches at Greenpeace don't know beans.
