Count me among the bystanders shouting encouragement to the gladiator to go in for the kill.
The GMO arena seems to speak to our society’s bloodlust, or at least that is the impression I get reading anti-GMO rants on various blogs and Facebook feeds.
It may seem callous to be pushing our gladiator, Neal Carter, president of Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc., Summerland, British Columbia, deeper into the fray. His small company, which is being acquired, is marketing the Arctic apple technology, which prevents browning on fresh-cut granny smith and golden delicious apples.
While the apples will have the Arctic apple logo, Carter said the company has no plans to label the product as genetically modified. As he said, no one want to be the first to put “genetically modified” on its product.
However, we are approaching a tipping point, and we need someone to charge ahead.
We need a photogenic charmer to lead the charge for GMO produce. Apples! They are attractive, and everybody is familiar with them and eats them. They are the perfect poster child for GMO fresh produce items.
Synthethic biology company Intrexon Corp. is acquiring Okanagan Specialty Fruits. This should put more resources at Carter’s disposal, more bullets in his holster.
The anti-GMO rhetoric sometimes resembles dialog in the 1985 movie “Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome.” Our Thunderdome is a battlefield of rhetoric where logic and alarm come to blows.
My lizard brain would cast Carter as Mad Max and send him, armed with the Arctic apples, into the biotech arena.
Read full, original article: Send Arctic apples into the GMO Thunderdome
