1. I’d need to believe that pesticide companies have a right to contaminate our biological & cultural heritage with GMOs. Petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides are absolutely raping US farmlands. Corporate farming just doesn’t work.
2. I’d need to believe that as government and industry leaders have concluded, U.S. consumers are too stupid to understand GMO food labels. We’re smarter than they think. And getting angrier all the time.
3. I’d need to agree with the U.S. Supreme Court that organic & conventional farmers have no legal recourse or protection from genetic contamination. Since when did we decide to give corporations more rights than people?
4. I’d need to believe that GMOs really are needed to feed a hungry world. Many countries have already proven that you don’t need GMOs to feed the world. Small-scale, organic farms are the way to go.
5. I’d need to believe that GMOs really are substantially equivalent to their natural counterparts. Which means, of course, I’d need to believe they no more merit patent protection than their natural counterparts.
6. I’d need to believe that GMOs should be pushed & promoted onto world markets before long term environmental, animal & human feeding studies have been conducted. In other words, I’d need to believe that the Precautionary Principle is poppycock. If you want to know more about this concept, Nassim Nicholas Talib does a great job of explaining it and also why he calls the EU chief scientist a ‘dangerous imbecile’ for telling us we should all ignore the Precautionary Principle.
7. I’d need to believe that super weeds and superbugs are beneficial byproducts of GMO-based agriculture.
8. I’d need to believe that horizontal gene transfer is no different than traditional crossbreeding & hybridization processes. Farmers and gardeners have NOT been cross-breeding seeds like this for thousands of years, as they will claim within many a comment-section on anti-GMO articles. You can learn more about the difference between cross-breeding and GMO hybridization, here.
9. I’d need to believe that small-scale agro ecological family farms and their communities are best relegated to the history books.
10. I’d need to believe that Roundup is safe. Or if not safe, I’d need to believe that drinking and breathing Roundup, and feeding Roundup-contaminated breast milk to babies is more beneficial than not doing so. The stuff is 125 times more toxic than regulators admit. Enough said.
11. I’d need to believe that agrichemical poisons cease to be poisonous when we eat them. This one is one of the reasons I love Wilcox. In what world do the things we eat not affect us? From MSG to high fructose corn syrup, leafy greens to Vitamin C, everything has an effect on our biochemistry. Agrichemicals are no different.
12. I’d need to believe that good science includes bullying, shaming, belittling, intimidating, and silencing scientists and others who oppose GMOs.
13. I’d need to believe that good GMO related science includes sham research methods that produce sham research results.
14. I’d need to believe that pesticide companies have the right to control the editorial boards of scientific journals.
15. I’d need to believe that industry-influenced scientific journals have the right
16. I’d need to believe that killing super weeds and superbugs with ever more toxic chemicals makes moral, environmental, and fiscal sense.
17. I’d need to believe that GMOs really do have identifiable consumer benefits.
18. I’d need to believe that GMOs have never and will never contaminate their natural counterparts.
19. I’d need to believe that genetic contamination of native and natural plant and animal varieties benefits farmers, the environment, and human health.
20. I’d need to believe that chemical giants have no moral, ethical, or legal liability to the farmers’ whose crops and livelihoods are destroyed by GMO contamination.
21. I’d need to believe that turning plants into EPA-registered pesticide-producing factories provides lasting benefits to farmers, consumers, animals, and the environment.
22. I’d need to believe that privatizing seed through patents is ethical, responsible, and in the best interest of farmers, consumers, and the environment.
23. I’d need to believe that farmers have no right or business saving and replanting seeds.
24. I’d need to believe that Roundup resistant GMO crops really are safe for the environment, animals, and human health.
25. I’d need to believe that plant and animal biodiversity is of little value or importance.
26. I’d need to believe that agricultural imperialism that results from GMO patents benefits poor servant farmers more than it benefits chemical company masters.
27. I’d need to believe that turning GMO corn into ethanol is ethical and provides sound fiscal and environmental policy.
28. I’d need to believe that farmers should continue to grow GMOs in spite of the overwhelming consumer rejection of GMOs.
29. I’d need to believe that it makes sense for the government to burden organic farmers with fees, rules, and bureaucratic nonsense while subsidizing GMO farmers and the chemical companies that own the GMOs with U.S. taxpayer dollars for products that U.S. taxpayers neither need nor want.
30. I’d need to believe that pollinators are dispensable members of the web of life.
31. I’d need to believe that monocultures benefit the environment and reduce global warming.
32. I’d need to believe that doing business with and/or purchasing products containing GMOs is morally defensible.
33. I’d need to believe that Monsanto and the other chemical giants’ place the public good over their bottom line.
34. I’d need to believe that industry executives and scientists are wiser than Mother Nature and/or God.
35. I’d need to believe that the Earth’s seven billion inhabitants should trust Monsanto and gang.
