Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Genetics


"Will she soon have blond hair and blue eyes?"

The genetic manipulation of the species we eat has me scared. At first, natural selection chose which plants and animals would survive. But starting with the Fertile Crescent and the ancient civilizations, artificial evolution had a hand in choosing which were to survive based on amicable characteristics. But now man has gone a step further and 'fixed' the problem before it occured. Nevermind the ethical ramifications, I think that toying with our food's genes isn't safe, period. I fear for the time when the 'Terminator' gene, which makes seeding impossible, cross-pollinates and spreads out of the lab. The film 'The Future of Food' delves into how quickly a GMO crop can spread by revealing traditional Mexican corn cross-bred with the new strain. Add that to the fact that NO GMO foods are labeled as such in the United States, and you begin to see what has me so worried. The film lays out very clearly that there are unknown risks to GMO food that are being shushed by the gov- I mean, corporations. I think that it is a secondary human right (kudos to the Human Rights presenters) to know what I am eating; to not know seems to me like walking on ice with an unknown thickness.


This image sets the tone for genetic manipulation: if we are splicing any gene with another, what godawful creations and "bovine abominations" are possible? They post this up at bus stops in the Netherlands because the Europeans, unlike Americans, foresee the pitfalls. In Taussig's article, the cow is compared to the Nazis who wanted, in the words of a farmer, a monoculture of blond hair, blue-eyed people. Compare the idealistic one-size-fits-all view of Hitler to our standardized produce and homogenous food, and I see startling parallels. So what if my tomato has a little wart on it, it tastes the same either way! When I gardened in Austin, I used to try to find the weirdest shaped tomatoes i could, and lo and behold, those often had more taste that the 'perfect,' ball-shaped fruits!

I decided on a recipe that is simple yet solid:

Vegetable stir-fry

1 pepper, red or yellow
1 cup broccoli, chopped
2 carrots, diced
3 cups rice
2 cloves garlic
1 cup onion, diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 sprig rosemary
Several leaves chopped basil

Add oil and garlic and heat until hot, then add vegetables until slightly browned. This is not a difficult recipe, people, so you should be able to make it! If you can’t make stir fry vegetables, then just give up cooking.

Based loosely on the recipe from:
<http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1641,128183-249192,00.html>

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