Environmentalists Tell Africans To Starve

When is principle more important than human life? When the human life at risk isn't your own.

Environmentalists are opposed to genetically modified food in principle. They put forth arguments that GM food will take over the world crowding out natural (and therefore more safe and pure) strains of food.

I haven't done any research on the effects of GM crops, but from personal observations, it seems that these new crops are every bit as safe to grow as natural ones. I don't see them spreading across America like a cancer. Might there be long term health effects? Possibly, I don't know. But I do know that the long term effects mean nothing if you starve to death for lack of food in the short term.

And that is what the environmentalists are essentially proposing for Africans. The environmental lobby wants African nations to reject GM food aid until "more research" has been conducted. And in the meantime, Africans starve for lack of food.

As an example, Zambia has banned GM food, yet they have two million people on the brink of starvation. Villagers have stolen banned GM food so that they might survive. Yet some among us continue to encourage the government to starve the people, rather than to let in GM food.

The environmentalists are failing to recognize the difference in needs between themselves and Africans. Viewed through the filter of Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs, the Africans are at the bottom trying to satisfy their basic needs, while the environmentalists are trying to satisfy their needs for self-actualization. If you're starving, making the world better isn't real high on your list of priorities.

There are times when it is acceptable to risk human life for a principle. That's the theory behind a just war.

But is it acceptable to risk human life to oppose a food that may create problems 50 years from now? I don't think so when the alternative is death by starvation.

The environmentalists need to quit encouraging the African governments to starve millions of innocent people. Is it really right to oppose GM food by promoting someone else's death?