Where Our nose Begins

There is a quote about freedom that states the freedom to swing your arm stops where my nose begins.

I think most of us accept this as comon sense but of course lots of things impact others in a less clear way.

Consider agriculture.

With a few exceptions, modern agriculture is based on the use of ever more sophisticated seeds and weed killers to keep production high and cheap.

The image of the family farmer tending his modest acreage is iconic but generally not very realistic.

We have vast acres dedicated to single crops in wide swaths leading to a number of challenges, not at all related to most peoples image of farmers.

They need to plant modified seeds that are patented or copywrited by a company like Monsanto.  They then need to protect those plants by using sophisticated pesticides which in many cases are designed to be used on plants genetically modified to resist them.

This of course leads to a dependency where most farmers are becoming more and more dependent on science to raise crops.

Now I'm not one who opposes genetically modified crops in general, but I'm not sure this dependency is going to end well.

There is an issue this year in the soybean harvest based on a new pesticide resistant soybean and the pesticide it is resistant to.  The pesticide seems to have migrated to other fields.

Of course this devastates the other crops and trees.

Now the EPA is supposed to regulate these issues but it has always been pretty reliant on the industries it regulates for data.  As we see a new push to reduce regulations and get products to market we are likely to see more and more mistakes happen.

Of course the FDA is going the same way, and in that case the nose is one us, not the soybeans.