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at bottom, this is a political question, but a serious one that involves a conflict between the centralized monocrop industrial food system in the states and the more complex, decentralized models that operate in most european countries. there's something parallel in the ambivalences generated by the proliferation of supermarkets---i know how it plays out in paris, which is basically that folk have the option of supermarkets or older-school markets and that typically it seems folk shop for food from both, getting more generic items froma supermarket and produce, meat, cheese, etc. mostly from markets. the state plays a role in this as well...but at this point, it'd get kinda complicated and particular to talk about, so i'll leave it at that.
another matter, which is probably more important politically, is that what is called "globalization" in the states elsewhere has translated into forms of american economic domination. this point was made politically (again, using france to talk about things just because i know it better) by folk like josé bové, who directed much of his political agitation around a nationalist position wrapped up as a position about sustainable agriculture that took mcdonalds as the symbolic center of an american invasion of food. this resonates more than one might think: for example a similar donnybrook has been playing out in slow motion over wine.
then there are the problems with how approval of gm foods was done--and these problems are real. the best outline of them that translates these questions into political matters in the process is the documentary "the future of food"--which does quite a job on monsanto, the scope of it's influence, the appalling revolving door that connects it to the fda and department of agriculture (via political appointments) and so forth.
it'd be interesting to hear what you make of that film, gg, if you haven't seen it because you bring to the table a level of understanding about what's being rehearsed that i do not.
that's a short version of an explanation for why this is such a political issue.
personally, i find the politics of gm crops most compelling as raising questions of scale and sustainability in agricultural production in general.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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