“Do I believe in evolution? Heck, I’ve seen it with my own two eyes!”
Periodically—usually when the Texas Board of Education is reviewing textbook standards, or when evangelical conservatives organize to win control of a small town school board—there’s a wave of outrage from the American left about the damage done by those crazy people who “don’t believe in evolution”.
After reading Prof. Marion Nestle’s latest column, I’m more concerned with the damage being done by scientists, engineers and corporate executives who apparently “believe” in evolution as scientific fact, but don’t take their “belief” seriously.
How else to explain the actions of corporations like Dow Chemical and Monsanto in creating genetically-modified crops that are resistant to particular herbicides (thereby expanding the markets for both the GM seeds and the herbicides—a win-win!), apparently without considering the likelihood that herbicide-resistant weeds would, ya know, evolve (Superweeds!)?
Now that the Superweeds! are here (it only took about 20 years), Big Agri-Chem wants permission to market new and improved GM seeds—ones that can be sprayed with herbicides containing 2,4-D, one of the key ingredients in Agent Orange.
Gee, I wonder what happens in 2035 when 2,4-D resistant Superweeds! are everywhere?
Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/