GMOs and Apple Pie
Yeah, the pro-GMO folks here in Jackson County want us to believe the
lost opportunity to make more for the few of them is worse than the harm
to all the rest of us. And they simply manufacture harm to themselves and the taxpayer. They make the tradition of
farming out to be a kind of terrorism that war needs to be waged on.
The framers of our constitution found the rights of aristocracy to be repugnant, so they wrote in protections for everyman. We here in Southern Oregon need to keep our eye on this ball. The only red herring pro-GMO folks haven't pulled out of their tackle box is that it is a partisan issue. And maybe too, the use of paid 'experts.' Oh, wait, I think they have being doing that in the Mail Tribune: a big-shot rancher writing for Syngenta. And of course, the 'economic impact report' of the CEO of the County.
That's how they did it in Alaska. To get their 'rights to the fish,' never mind about anyone else's rights to them, the big companies paid Eastern Washington State University over $200,000 to provide a economics professor to massively confuse the issue in their favor. When they reframe the issue, you're a dead duck. Just don't go there. When they reframe the issue in public, like in the Medford Mail Tribune yesterday, it's easy to suck in a lot of folks. (Read the little book,'Hypnotizing Maria'). Come to think of it, I've never heard the expression, 'Say the truth loud enough and long enough and eventually they will all come to believe it.'
Sure, we are bound to be influenced by the charm of the aristocrats; just keep your rights in mind when in the voting booth. If you have to, tie yourself to the mast and put wax in your ears. Homer knew about influence peddling thousands of years ago. It's the stock-in-trade of many a politican, and of course all lobbyists and PR men and women. There is a whole industry of deception. Like one anti-GMO bumper sticker I have says, 'GMOs, We Don't Buy It.' Let the buyer beware, whether on a wholesale or retail level I say..
That brings me to another Southern Oregon issue; we are being led to believe one gubernatorial candidate is about neck-to-neck in the campaign with the current governor, simply by dissing the incumbent. I don't buy the 'tied in the polls' business any more than I do the business that the incumbent is responsible for a bunch of IT geeks screwing up so bad on a major state computer system. And a local politican, who is a Doctor, and promoted re-tooling health care, is being painted as the sole culprit with the same brush. Can't have it both ways, guys.
It becomes not amazing after awhile; you finally realize there are lots of folks out there that have shucked their empathy a long time ago. And that there are going to be plenty of recruits to replace them. Discounting, of course, military personnel who are hired to hang up their empathy with their civies when they enlist. Political writers go on and on about this stuff, to even extrapolate it out to Armageddon. And there is another old saying that says you should keep laboring until that time. So, I guess there is going to be a lot of head-butting to come. And it's no mystery, to the spouses of the folks who are doing the head-butting, about who is empathetic and who isn't. That's as far as I'll go down that rabbit trail. Some like Ayan Rand become famous for espousing a lack of empathy and others like Billy Graham become famous for promoting empathy.
I guess in these contests where the public gets to decide issues, it's one side's job to clarify the issue and the other side's job to muddy the waters. Personally, I don't think these are partisan, sectarian, or any other 'ian,' issues, but I do think they are issues of empathy. And you aren't going to change anyone's empathy level any time soon. So if you don't have anything you want to make transparent, you just have tricks.
That brings to mind a fellow pilgrim I met in Florida at a Bob Dylan concert long ago. Later on, he came through the little Alaska town I was in, heading for the construction camps of the Alyeska Pipeline project. He was from good New York stock and had even flown small planes, but he'd been on the streets too long and frankly, looked like death warmed over. But he told me "I may not have a trade, but I have tricks."
Maybe that's what bothers me about institutions of higher learning; you don't come out of them with a trade. You are expected to parlay a partial trade, with a generous dose of tricks, into a living. But most people don't have a bag of tricks, especially if you have a large streak of empathy for your fellow man. It's a 'Catch 22" with no end in sight. And to be quite honest to my kids, I admit to not sticking with a trade while harboring a large dose of empathy. Not that I don't have skills, I just can't bear to be a trickster and I don't espouse being one.
I guess 'social entrepreneur' would describe me best. There just isn't a lot of money in it. That's why I'd rather throw fertilizer into the salmon streams to make it better fishing for everyone else than go fishing for the last fish myself. Speaking of that, I was heartened that the local television news channel did a piece on the Coastal Conservation Association's work to spread the salmon and steelhead carcasses from the Lost Creek Dam hatchery out into Southern Oregon creeks. It's natural and extremely beneficial, that's the way stocks of fish flourish. I've thrown my share of carcasses into creeks in recent years with them. Kudos to the CCA folks.
Although, I wouldn't mind help pioneer more commercial fisheries, one in particular in Alaska, to get my wild side 'fix' once again. My last adventure up there, helping turn an old Alaska State ferry into floating fish factory, was short lived. And definitely more looking out for the rest of the crew than myself. But sure was fun, even though I lost ten pounds in a couple of months due to shivering. Note to self, don't go onboard any more dead ships. The one I have access to now is the most capable small cruiser I've seen. Just need someone interested in doing something like coastal research or exploration to get me going again. And maybe spare me from this Catch 22 in the valley here and becoming any more cynical than I already am.
I just don't see the solution for keeping folks from sending this valley to heck in a hand-basket. I wish the family farmers a lot of luck, they are going to need it before their Measure to ban genetically modified organisms from being planted around here comes up for a vote in May. Expect to see a lot more tricks to take away their right to farm the way God meant crops to be grown. And you can't expect any help from the State; they were the ones we had to fight to let us throw carcasses into the creeks the way God meant that food system to work too.
Is what the gubernatorial candidate from this valley should do is have at least one plank in his platform and that would be to point out that his opponent threw the whole state under the bus and took away citizens' right to decide for themselves how bad they wanted GMOs living in their midst. But a hefty chunk of the voting public doesn't know much about GMOs, so it's far from a motherhood and apple pie issue. Although, in Washington, the bio-tech companies wanted the state to grow GM apples. They got turned down flat. The message was clear; don't mess with apple pie. What about our apple pie around here?
The framers of our constitution found the rights of aristocracy to be repugnant, so they wrote in protections for everyman. We here in Southern Oregon need to keep our eye on this ball. The only red herring pro-GMO folks haven't pulled out of their tackle box is that it is a partisan issue. And maybe too, the use of paid 'experts.' Oh, wait, I think they have being doing that in the Mail Tribune: a big-shot rancher writing for Syngenta. And of course, the 'economic impact report' of the CEO of the County.
That's how they did it in Alaska. To get their 'rights to the fish,' never mind about anyone else's rights to them, the big companies paid Eastern Washington State University over $200,000 to provide a economics professor to massively confuse the issue in their favor. When they reframe the issue, you're a dead duck. Just don't go there. When they reframe the issue in public, like in the Medford Mail Tribune yesterday, it's easy to suck in a lot of folks. (Read the little book,'Hypnotizing Maria'). Come to think of it, I've never heard the expression, 'Say the truth loud enough and long enough and eventually they will all come to believe it.'
Sure, we are bound to be influenced by the charm of the aristocrats; just keep your rights in mind when in the voting booth. If you have to, tie yourself to the mast and put wax in your ears. Homer knew about influence peddling thousands of years ago. It's the stock-in-trade of many a politican, and of course all lobbyists and PR men and women. There is a whole industry of deception. Like one anti-GMO bumper sticker I have says, 'GMOs, We Don't Buy It.' Let the buyer beware, whether on a wholesale or retail level I say..
That brings me to another Southern Oregon issue; we are being led to believe one gubernatorial candidate is about neck-to-neck in the campaign with the current governor, simply by dissing the incumbent. I don't buy the 'tied in the polls' business any more than I do the business that the incumbent is responsible for a bunch of IT geeks screwing up so bad on a major state computer system. And a local politican, who is a Doctor, and promoted re-tooling health care, is being painted as the sole culprit with the same brush. Can't have it both ways, guys.
It becomes not amazing after awhile; you finally realize there are lots of folks out there that have shucked their empathy a long time ago. And that there are going to be plenty of recruits to replace them. Discounting, of course, military personnel who are hired to hang up their empathy with their civies when they enlist. Political writers go on and on about this stuff, to even extrapolate it out to Armageddon. And there is another old saying that says you should keep laboring until that time. So, I guess there is going to be a lot of head-butting to come. And it's no mystery, to the spouses of the folks who are doing the head-butting, about who is empathetic and who isn't. That's as far as I'll go down that rabbit trail. Some like Ayan Rand become famous for espousing a lack of empathy and others like Billy Graham become famous for promoting empathy.
I guess in these contests where the public gets to decide issues, it's one side's job to clarify the issue and the other side's job to muddy the waters. Personally, I don't think these are partisan, sectarian, or any other 'ian,' issues, but I do think they are issues of empathy. And you aren't going to change anyone's empathy level any time soon. So if you don't have anything you want to make transparent, you just have tricks.
That brings to mind a fellow pilgrim I met in Florida at a Bob Dylan concert long ago. Later on, he came through the little Alaska town I was in, heading for the construction camps of the Alyeska Pipeline project. He was from good New York stock and had even flown small planes, but he'd been on the streets too long and frankly, looked like death warmed over. But he told me "I may not have a trade, but I have tricks."
Maybe that's what bothers me about institutions of higher learning; you don't come out of them with a trade. You are expected to parlay a partial trade, with a generous dose of tricks, into a living. But most people don't have a bag of tricks, especially if you have a large streak of empathy for your fellow man. It's a 'Catch 22" with no end in sight. And to be quite honest to my kids, I admit to not sticking with a trade while harboring a large dose of empathy. Not that I don't have skills, I just can't bear to be a trickster and I don't espouse being one.
I guess 'social entrepreneur' would describe me best. There just isn't a lot of money in it. That's why I'd rather throw fertilizer into the salmon streams to make it better fishing for everyone else than go fishing for the last fish myself. Speaking of that, I was heartened that the local television news channel did a piece on the Coastal Conservation Association's work to spread the salmon and steelhead carcasses from the Lost Creek Dam hatchery out into Southern Oregon creeks. It's natural and extremely beneficial, that's the way stocks of fish flourish. I've thrown my share of carcasses into creeks in recent years with them. Kudos to the CCA folks.
Although, I wouldn't mind help pioneer more commercial fisheries, one in particular in Alaska, to get my wild side 'fix' once again. My last adventure up there, helping turn an old Alaska State ferry into floating fish factory, was short lived. And definitely more looking out for the rest of the crew than myself. But sure was fun, even though I lost ten pounds in a couple of months due to shivering. Note to self, don't go onboard any more dead ships. The one I have access to now is the most capable small cruiser I've seen. Just need someone interested in doing something like coastal research or exploration to get me going again. And maybe spare me from this Catch 22 in the valley here and becoming any more cynical than I already am.
I just don't see the solution for keeping folks from sending this valley to heck in a hand-basket. I wish the family farmers a lot of luck, they are going to need it before their Measure to ban genetically modified organisms from being planted around here comes up for a vote in May. Expect to see a lot more tricks to take away their right to farm the way God meant crops to be grown. And you can't expect any help from the State; they were the ones we had to fight to let us throw carcasses into the creeks the way God meant that food system to work too.
Is what the gubernatorial candidate from this valley should do is have at least one plank in his platform and that would be to point out that his opponent threw the whole state under the bus and took away citizens' right to decide for themselves how bad they wanted GMOs living in their midst. But a hefty chunk of the voting public doesn't know much about GMOs, so it's far from a motherhood and apple pie issue. Although, in Washington, the bio-tech companies wanted the state to grow GM apples. They got turned down flat. The message was clear; don't mess with apple pie. What about our apple pie around here?
posted by Alaskacafe at 4:53 AM
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