Someone finally had the balls to tell environmentalists to shove their anti-nuclear power bellicosity.
My favorite print mag lists 10 ways to be more green, most of which require taking action opposite of what hippie Luddites extol.
Of those listed I particularly liked farming forests, accepting genetic engineering, living in cities and of course, nukes. All of them are fairly well-written and filled with a number of interesting studies.
The other green revolution
A quick point regarding genetically modified crops. Nearly all of the food the developed world currently eats is genetically modified in some manner or other and I don’t mean artificially concocted in labs.
Fruits and vegetables have naturally evolved over the course of thousands of years adapting to new climates and geographic locales. However, since the advent of agriculture, humans have cultivated them to meet our own needs. For instance, the domestication of the banana began in SE Asia several thousand years ago and continues today.
Unfortunately much of the sensationalism today surrounds what could happen if some researchers design a hybrid that includes the genes that people are allergic to. This in itself is not a bad thing either unless they refuse to tell others about it (they aren’t transparent which amounts to fraud). But this does not seem to have occurred.
If anything, various consumer groups (plus you and I) have continually tested and studied the produce over the last 30 years and haven’t found much to be alarmed at. As a matter of fact, farmers have been artificially selecting, breeding and splicing flora for centuries without anyone turning into Frankenstein (in fact, we have all gotten a lot sexier looking compared to our ancestors).
The easiest example of this: think of the local orchid down the road where seedless watermelons are grown. These farmers of course are super evil because they figured out how to cross the chromosomes of different seeds to create everyone’s favorite summer fruit (I still have a dozen or so small watermelons growing inside of me because I swallowed seeds as a kid).
As far as the accidents or deaths that have occurred most involve packaging errors (toxic seepage) at the manufacturing level or adverse effects to the fertilizers used — not by the new foods themselves.
Putting the culture back into the ag
Incidentally, the university I attended is one of the larger agriculture schools in the country (both in terms of physical size and research volume). The “farmers” at A&M spend a lot of time doing cell cloning and gene manipulation to create some bad ass veggies, like onions that contain all of the betakarotene of carrots and are also naturally resistant to various bugs and diseases.
In fact, back in the summer of ‘04 I met Leonard Pike the scientist behind the famed 1015 onion and the BetaSweet carrot. He discussed these developments at length and currently works in a series of buildings you might mistake as your stereotypical biology lab, complete with vials, tubes and genetic markers hanging on the wall.
Does it taste like chicken?
Which brings us to in vitro meat — meat that can be grown in petri dishes. This little guy has been in the news lately because PETA is actually doing something productive by offering a $1 million award to someone that can create synthetic meat that looks, tastes and digests just like the natural variety. Not a new idea, but certainly laudable for the possible hygienically safe, mass produced meat that could be available at super low prices.
And speaking of automated production, vertical farming uses skyscrapers as an alternative form of farm ground. It is yet another area entrepreneurs are looking to capitalize on (i.e., installing hydroponics stations on each floor and harvesting plants or even in vitro meat). It’s a win-win for those concerned about buying local produce due to “food miles” — thus in the words of Sir Mix-a-Lot: jump on it.
Viva the second agricultural revolution.
See also: Italy Joins Nuclear Power Revival
Stross & Metcalfe, meet Carbon & Technology