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i live above some very large coffee plantations. i know all the finqueros in my hood and i have spoken to all of them about GMOs and gotten them to be part of the protests. there are at least 7 coffee growers right in my neighborhood, and i know at least 6 more in other parts of the country who are vehemently opposed to monsanto and anything they represent, esp trans-genicos.
i’m not playing your game. it wouldn’t matter if i knew 10 or 100 or 1000, you and that “other person” would say it had to be 500 or 5000 to be a valid point.
yes, i drink coffee, and no, i won’t drink GMO coffee, and i doubt seriously that it will ever come into play. i know too many coffee farmers who wouldn’t even think of growing such a thing.
david, i’m not sure free drugs are going to encourage drug use. if all the heroin in the world were free, i still wouldn’t use it. same for cocaine, meth, crack, pcp, ecstasy, mdma, lsd, opium, and hash. and people who are inclined to use these sustances will do so regardless of cost or risk or whether they are legal or not. and i totally agree with elinder that sugar addiction is damn near as deadly — just look at all the fat people we are now a drain on health systems around the world for the problems caused by their poor diet choices — heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer (yes, those things are all related to sugar consumption!). they should outlaw Coke! or tax it so heavily that nobody can afford to drink it as they did in NYC when they slapped cigarettes with a hefty tax making a pack of ciggies more than $13.00 a pack.
i’ve renewed my cedula 4 times and never once did they ask for the proof of conversion. last year, however, they did make me get a letter from the embassy verifying my SS income, and i had to take that to the migra before they would give me my cedula. i also went with a bundle of receipts, the spreadsheet, etc. and they had no interest in that at all. but. . . after 8+ years here, i know better than to NOT save the receipts. and no, an ATM receipt will not suffice. the receipt must have your name on it, and either cedula # or passport #.
it’s not just the Ticos who live with less and are happy. there are cultures all over the world who will never ever have what the average american has, but they place greater value on health, family, and the simple everyday things that weave the fabric of life. consumerism is like shooting smack — you always want more, you think you can’t live without it, and you will do anything to get it. in the 8+ years i’ve been here, i’ve seen so many people come and go and what always entertains me is the stuff they bring with them that they think they can’t live without: a collection of snow globes, stuffed animals (that would’ve been better if they’d been given to a homeless shelter or underprivileged kids), and other do-dads and chingadera that really wasn’t worth the cost to ship it here. but the consumerism model tells us that you ARE your stuff, your identity is tied to your stuff, and your stuff tells the rest of the world who you really are. when you strip away all the extraneous stuff you are left with you and it is up to you to figure out who you really are without all the things you previously used to define yourself. i find the happiest people in costa rica are the people who did just that — who found peace with themselves, who see the world from a different viewpoint besides the haves and have-nots, and that is when you truly become part of the human race. and what i really find amusing is that many of the people who schlepped their “stuff” here can’t afford to ship it back when they bail out so they wind up selling it anyway, which is what they probably should’ve done in the first place.
No, I am not going to waste my time trying to enlighten you. You and I both know that there will not be one single study that I could present to you that would convince you of the dangers of GMO food. You will find fault with the methodology, the people conducting the study, the journal in which the study was published, or any number of a dozen other specious issues you will raise, not to make a cogent argument, but rather to obfuscate the issue. Unless you have been following the GMO disaster from the beginning, as I have, (starting in 1996!) you could not possibly be brought up to speed in one message on WLCR. I doubt you remember the GMO tomato that was taken off the market because besides being tasteless and disgusting in many ways, it made some people sick. Then came StarLinks corn, which was never ever approved for human consumption because of the Bt toxin that it contained – the very same Bt toxin that is now in all GMO corn. Thousands of people suffered allergic reactions, and who knows what other side effects, from ingesting this corn when it accidentally got co-mingled into the human food supply. And then there was the issue of spontaneous abortions in cattle and women who had ingested this corn in Mexico. Pay-outs of more than $1Billion occurred after this disaster. I think you just like to be contrary for the sake of being contrary. You cite science as the be-all and end-all when, in fact, anyone who has spent one lick of time researching these issues knows that scientists are paid all the time to present the corporate view that has a product at risk. The Seralini study was criticized by whom, Victoria?? By the corporate interests who stand to gain from GMO food. When you start following the money, you begin to see that even Univ’s such as Stanford are on the take and will put out whatever statement they get paid to create, as they did when they took an obscene amount of money from the right-wing org to say that organic food wasn’t any better than regular food doused in cancer-causing chemicals. So please, don’t ask me to do your work for you. If you cared about this issue, which clearly you do not even though your own health may be at risk, you would take the time to read the objections to the introduction of these organisms into the mainstream food supply. I am not a Luddite as you suggest. I am all for progress, but I do not want my food messed with; I do not want Monsanto to control the world’s food supply as they would like to do. And GMOs are not the answer to the food crisis, because #1 there is no food crisis — there is plenty of food; and #2 yields on organic farms are higher than on pesticide-laden GMO crops. But then you knew that, didn’t you? I take what I put into my body very seriously and I do not want some money-grubbing, psychopathic corporate entity taking my choices away from me so that can boost their bottom-line. The people who oppose this abomination are scientists themselves, and agronomists , and ecologists. They’ve seen the studies; they do the studies, they know the risks. They are trying to stop something that may be a danger to everyone, including YOU!!!
As for your comment denigrating yoga, reincarnation, and mental telepathy, I am sure the CIA would welcome your criticism and skepticism of mental telepathy, even though they spent millions of dollars and many years trying to find ways to incorporate mental telepathy into brainwashing techniques under the guise of their black-op MK-Ultra mind control project.
These four links will at least give you some background. I don’t expect that they will convince you of anything.
http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/36491/PDF
http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1204&context=auilr
http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/ge_corn_starlink.cfm
http://www.startribune.com/local/143017765.html?refer=y
The ultimate ignorance is the rejection of something you know nothing about yet refuse to investigate. Dr. Wayne Dyer
just bring it all with you and wait until the ladrones pay you a visit and liberate you of all those gadgets. that’s the easiest way to find out how to live with less.
europe cast them out, as did india, peru and chile, oh, and bolivia too. many more countries have done it as well. in the ones that didn’t kick them to the curb outright they are forced to label this crap so at least you know what the hell you are eating and can make an informed choice. your insulting comments, victoria, about luddites, and conspiracy theorists, brings to mind this slogan:
the highest form of ignorance is condemning that which you know nothing about.
i have two very good gringo friends who have had the epiphany that less is more and that simple is better and they can’t wait to jettison all the trappings of that consumer-oriented life that the States forces on you in favor of the simple life in Costa Rica. Every time you turn on the TV you are being manipulated to want this or that, need this or that, eat this or that, take this or that pill, buy more crap than you will ever need or use, and adhere to a false value system that does nothing but make the bankers and the retailers rich while you struggle to pay for all the crap you were told you should have. eventually, smart people wake up to this delusion and the mouse-wheel they are on and either give it up, pare down, or die.
you’re a hoot, victoria!!! screw science. it’s been adulterated anyway by whoever has the biggest checkbook. Talk to a Native American about his hair, and if you’ve never practiced yoga, then you have no clue what you’re talking about (as usual!), and yes, mental telepathy does exist — just because you have no experience with it, doesn’t mean it isn’t valid. and the suburbs are the scourge of our society — they basically destroyed the fabric of American life.
and yes, right now, 61 (i think it is) cantons/municipalities have declared their area to be free of trans-genicos. there are rallies and marches and meetings taking place all over the country with the main affront headed by Bloque Verde which is run by Fabian Pacheco. Bloque Verde has a facebook page where anyone who is interested can get updates on what is happening area by area in Costa Rica.
are you looking for a steak or a side of beef? i’ve seen black angus grazing, so yes, it’s available but our beef here is not cornfed — they are grassfed, maybe the do a finish with corn, that i’m not sure of.
