Feel-good

“The technology presents itself as a feel-good solution for politicians who’d rather not face the more profound, persistent and difficult questions of politics and distribution…[T]he danger of such crops…is not merely that they are ineffective publicity stunts.  They actively prevent the serious discussion of ways to tackle systematic poverty…

…The structural problems facing rural communities can only be addressed by concerted public action.  The intervention of genetically modified seed, however, postpones the need for this action, delaying the imagination and creation of more robust alternatives”

-Raj Patel, on GM crops, 2007 (Stuffed & Starved. Brooklyn NY: Melville House. 2007. pg 137…157)

The English Malady

“Since our wealth has increas’d, we have ransak’d all the parts of the globe to bring together its whole stock of materials for riot, luxury, and to provoke excess…Is it any wonder, then, that the diseases which proceed from idleness and fullness of bread, should increase in proportion, and keep equal pace with those improvements of the matter and cause of disease?”

-George Cheyne, early advocate of vegetarianism, 1733

(via Stuffed & Starved. Raj Patel. Brooklyn NY: Melville House. 2007. pg 77.)