Seems to me there is a world of difference between the two cases. They
are different ethically.
First, one was there first. That would, in most market ideologies,
establish a property right. Even in the absence of market ideologies,
there seems to be a prima facie case that those who come later respect
those who were there first, especially with regard to basic issues like
making a living. I can hear someone object, well, what of new
technologies putting old technologies out of business, etc. Still not
the same. there was no decline in demand for the organic crops - in
fact, quite the contrary. The new methods could more justly be accused
of seeing the elimination of even the possibility of competition as a
side benefit, and therefore actively promoting contamination.
Relative to Steve's response on this issue, both legally and in terms
of consumer preference as well as the desires of organic farmers, GM
cannot be labeled organic.
Second, organic farming is simply a more sophisticated version of
farming as it has existed for thousands of years. There is no such
thing as pollution and trespass in the sense you use it - unless
perhaps someone has set up SM agriculture on an island somewhere and an
organic farmer then sets up shop there. Reminds me of the arguments of
Washington salmon fishermen that Indians were ruining their fishing by
exercising their treaty rights.
Third, some GM crops will destroy - not replace, destroy - existing
methods of organic pest control by breeding bugs resistant to BT. That
has for the corporations the happy result of reducing alternatives to
their product. Methods that were once flexible and with many suppliers
are replaced by a single supplier with monopoly control. Anyone blind
to the ethical dimension of this probably needs psychiatric help more
than philosophical discourse.
Fourth, that a discharge cannot be controlled is a powerfully weak case
for the right of making the discharge. Perhaps GM should be postponed
until they perfect heavier pollen, or perhaps till they can so modify
an organism that it cannot cross pollinate others (a new species) which
would have the additional benefit of silencing the Genesis is right
types.
For example, if we use crops to produce medical drugs, does the fact
that the drugs can spread into food crops through pollination make any
difference as to the ethics of planting such crops next to food crops ?
Most people would have no problem saying "yes."
Quick response to Steve -
An issue can be legal as well as moral. Think slavery, civil rights,
gay marriage, etc. I am focusing only on the moral. Corporate money
pretty much dominates the legal these days anyway.
Gus diZerega
On Thursday, March 11, 2004, at 03:25 AM, Paul Kirby wrote:
> Dear all
>
> Is there an ethical issue in a 'right' not to have your farm
> 'contaminated'
> by genes you do not approve of? I am thinking of the organic farmers
> and I
> have sympathy with that point of view but I am not sure it is
> defensible.
> Nature itself is perfectly capable of flinging pollen around without
> regard
> to fences.
>
> The only parallel I can think of is that of breeders of thouroughbred
> dogs
> who might have rights that prevent passing strangers letting their
> rampant
> mutts loose to go splashing about in the purified gene pool.
>
> In those cases they might be lucky and get a restraining order placed
> on
> the offender but would that be legitimate if, in the case of GM, the
> vector
> of 'contamination' is effectively uncontrollable (pollen). If it is
> ligitimate and it were possible to sue a neighbour for genetic
> contamination might it not backfire on the organic farmers (in my
> example)
> who themselves might be sued if their strains cross pollinate the GM
> crops
> next door. (That the the coss pollination of the GM crops does not
> overly
> concern the GM seed suppliers does not I think undermine the principle
> here). Do ethics not require this equallity of justice as between
> Organic
> and GM farmers?
>
> I am sure that readers of this list will be able to tell us if there
> are
> precedents in the industrial/environmental world were two adjacent
> manufacturers were in conflict over each other's pollutants. Does this
> tells us anything? It might be easier to resolve such a dispute by
> prohibiting both (equally) from offensive discharges. It would not
> however
> be feasible to institute a general prohibition on the discharge of
> pollen.
>
> Should we wish to escape this bind we would need to establish that the
> equlity principle does not apply because GM farmers and Organic
> farmers
> can be viewed differently both ethically and under the law.
>
> Does growing something intrinsically unontrollable remove the
> responsibility for controlling it? If I raised tigers in my back
> garden I
> suspect that I might be required to take ' all reasonable measures' to
> protect my neighbours' sheep. What might reasonable measures against
> pollen be?
>
>
> Regards
>
> Paul K
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