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Sunday, March 09, 2008

negative ramblings

Snow lies heavy and long around here, big storm yesterday, highways and airports had big problems. March break, great timing.
Personally I worked yesterday 5am to 3pm, which came after working night shift 11pm to 7am for the past while. That leads to a definite fuzzy brain syndrome, never enough sleep.
Since the factory is going to close permanently this summer I have to grab money while its available, work any overtime offered.
Will get a pension as of May 31st, which will be my last day at Siemens. Not really enough to live on, but better than a slap with a wet fish.

Someone asked what i think of GM foods - well the idea in itself follows what nature does already (bacteria borrow genetic material, so do viruses). However scientists and marketers are not the best combination to ensure everything is properly safeguarded and thought out. Same pĂȘople who insist nuclear power is both safe and pollution free, as well as cheap. Sure it is safe, statistically a low accident rate. Problem is accidents can be very very damaging and with widespread consequences. Pollution similarly is low when looked at through a very narrow time frame- say the 3 year contract or tenure time of a plant manager - but lasts for 10s of thousands of years. Costs, again, are low if looked at over a short term, and use creative accounting that ignores government subsidies and repair and scrap disposal costs. We here in Ontario pay a surcharge on every electric bill for "debt disposal" which is to pay off the large debt incurred by the nuclear plants here.

Sorry, back to GM foods, which is supposed to be the subject. Plants can get disease resistance or extra protein content or whatever by adding genes from elsewhere, but obviously this is only a good thing when using the good ol narrow lens view.
Their modified genes spread outside the field they are planted in, regardless of Monsantos insistence otherwise. Short term demand for profit means testing for negative consequences is limited in scope and duration. Again, like nuclear, these consequences extend well beyond the tenure of their initiators.
So then, like in the nuclear industry --
Accidents do happen, when they do they spread very widely.
Costs are to others, not the producing companies, so dont count.
Consequences are very long lasting.