After years of insisting that chemically-filled grain was necessary for large scale food production and that opponents were anarchists or luddites opposed to change, the industry says now that it accepts there is a need to consider the impact of pesticides on the environment and also the views of sceptics. As a result, they claim to have created wheat that has been modified so that it is pesticide free and beneficial to wildlife while simultaneously being less vulnerable to aphid attack. Additionally they are keen to have peaceful interaction with protestors rather than the previous war, in a spirit of co-operation rather than antagonism. If this all is true, it would be wonderful.
The new approach, particularly concerning sensitivity to environmental needs, would not have occurred without a vocal, sometimes forceful expression of opposition from very many people. While I do not advocate violence, ever, I believe in taking peaceful action when your heart is stirred - sometimes in support of a cause not just against it: I call it active acceptance – accepting a situation as being how it is, now, but trying to do something about it rather than just being passive.
Change is inevitable and constant, and most of us would not be alive if the ancient farming methods of thousands of years ago were in use today. Food production has evolved, rightly, and will continue so to do, but it is getting the balance correct between our needs and those of the world of nature – without which, too, we could not exist – which is important. While scientists can go too far in their quest for perfection, so too can protestors: it may be, at last, that science and nature can develop in harmony together, for mutual, indeed universal, benefit.]]>
