Gregory Dennis’s “Between the Lines” column (Aug. 28) challenging liberal doctrine is a laudable example of one Vermonter’s willingness to respectfully challenge widespread dogma. In that same spirit, I would like to clarify reasons for concern about GMOs that transcend political ideology.
GMOs are part of an agro-industrial strategy to promote the intensive use of herbicides and pesticides by producing GMO-modified crops that withstand heavy use of persistent chemicals. Even if GMOs by themselves prove to be harmless, we do know with certainty that increasing exposure to man-made pesticides and herbicides is harmful to consumers, not to mention agricultural workers who apply them.
And this year, many of us in Vermont are noticing the decrease or total of absence of monarch butterflies. These miracles of nature and source of joy for many suffer from exposure to ever stronger pesticides and also suffer from the dramatic decrease in milkweed in fields sprayed with herbicides that are part of the GMO strategy.
Tragically, weeds are rapidly evolving and becoming resistant to the herbicides that are designed to be companions of GMO crops. Consequently, even stronger herbicides are in the offing, and even more chemically resistant GMO crops are being designed.
These are the reasons that some of us who are progressive leaning liberals buy organic food when we can find it. We are sometimes criticized for this because, some claim, there is no evidence that organic food is more nutritious. Possibly the notion that organic foods are more nutritious is yet another liberal lie. But it is an established fact that organic foods are not laden with chemicals that GMOs encourage.
Randy Kritkausky
Whiting