Christina writes

> Peter, ... To say that we are performing better than nature does by manipulating the genome or trying to create specific allelic distributions is naive at best and arrogant at worst, and I don't care who you quote on that.

I could very easily view that as a direct insult. I don't know why you have to make this so personal. On the other hand, the notion that we can go back to some idyllic state is simply wishful thinking. We have to get better at breeding, not worse. 

To say that large scale agricultural is some sort of evil is to suggest that the 7 going on 20 billion people have no right to expect to share in the bounty that the developed world enjoys. We have learned how to get more food out of the ground than any civilization before us. And it's been done principally through genetic improvement and high input agriculture. 

I understand nature worship as well as anyone; that used to be my religion. But by becoming totally steeped in the writing if Henry Thoreau, I discovered that it leads to despair and misanthropy. To be suspicious, resistant and fearful of change is the hallmark of the conservative mindset. The true liberal attitude is: the future is absolutely unknowable -- bring it on.

PLB

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