Driessen is obviously doing the bidding of corporate interests that want access to the world’s markets without any accountability for environmental risks or concern for sustainability. The world does not need monoculture and genetically-engineered crops to eliminate hunger. It needs the political and moral will to share. Current food production is enough to feed a population 50% greater than the world’s current population. Greedy corporations, dictators hoarding wealth, and international agencies that favor export crops over sustenance crops are to blame for hunger, not environmentalists. Don’t let this mouthpiece for Monsanto and Dow fool you.
Anonymous Amazon.com reader (Note: The author has never received any funding from either Monsanto or Dow – though both companies, and many other corporations, ought to be supporting the life-saving efforts promoted by his book, website and other projects, and by the organizations with which Driessen works.)
I agree that some of the excess of the environmental movement have had a negative effect on the poor people in this world (like the DDT ban may have had unintended side effects). But, whatever well-meaning environmentalists have done to hurt the poor is nothing compared to what not-so-well-meaning rabid imperialists/capitalists have done to ruin the lives of the poor in most of the developing world. By manipulating their societies and political institutions, the rich imperialists/capitalists in the West (whom it appears you are seeking to promote) have raped many countries and left the people living in misery. Mass executions, torture, banning labor unions, overthrowing democratically elected governments and supporting repressive dictators (e.g. Guatemala 1950s, Brazil 1960s, Chile 1973, etc.) have all kept wages and living conditions down, so Western capitalist interests could benefit from the exploitation.
You name it, the imperialists/capitalists (not the environmentalists) in the West have done more to ruin the lives of the poor, and hurt their opportunities for advancement both economically and socially in the developing world than anyone else (including the greens). If their societies were allowed to developed without Western interference, the standard of living would be much higher. Just take a look at Haiti as an example, a country in which the Western imperialists/ capitalists just overthrew to make sure is safe for sweatshop labor and exploitation.
Get a reality check dude.
John Coviello, USA
I just watched your speech on C-Span 2, and found it interesting. You are making a good case. However, in this case I never once heard your outrage address the assault of the Bush Admin. on the Planned Parenthood’s funding for education and birth control practices in the very countries that we obviously have a great humanitarian responsibility toward. The very compelling case here is this administration is undermining education and about birth control in the Third World. Talk about Imperialism! Talk about Poverty! Talk about Social Economic responsibility! Talk about Genocide! The very crux of the problem lies in overpopulation, especially on the deprived Third World Continents!
You are talking about whaling now, among indigenous peoples of Alaska. Next I expect you’ll will be defending the rights of the Asian assault on the Tiger population for its penis to make their potions for ancient practices to promote male potency! These animal species have been protected because left unchecked they are very nearly perishing from this earth. And that is forever!
People are important of course, and with aid they also have the intelligence and responsibility to control their birth rates. If you would just take it all into consideration instead of pointing your finger at one aspect of deprivation the third world experiences at the hands of Eco-Imperialists, I would support you.
Beverly Woodin, USA
I heard your interview on “Morning Air” today and must respond. My most fundamental area of disagreement is that, instead of advocating the export of the “first world’s” extravagant and wasteful lifestyle to ”developing” countries, we should, instead, adopt certain aspects of the simplicity of the so-called “third world.” I would gladly accept the “pollution” of horses over the devastating effects of the automobile and industry. Horses did not create global warming or a hole in the ozone layer. In “third world” countries, real estate developers are not turning every square inch of natural, open land into cookie-cutter subdivisions, strip malls and condominiums. Sprawl is a “first world” concept. We build homes in flood plains and then bemoan our fate when floods occur. The simple logic is “don’t build there.” I am reminded of Edward Abbey who said “Why is it that the destruction of something created by humans is called vandalism, yet the destruction of something created by God is called development?”
To use a phrase in vogue today, I am “shocked and awed” that anyone would continue to advocate the use of DDT, one of the most destructive chemicals ever unleashed on our planet. Sure it kills mosquitoes, but it also kills everything else in its path. Why not Agent Orange? That would kill mosquitoes too.
Of course I don’t wish to see anyone die, that’s why I’m fighting to prevent our carcinogen-spewing way of life from reaching other parts of the world in the name of “progress.” I believe you have placed excessive reliance on technology. In fact, technology run amok is the cause, not the cure, of many of today’s problems. The “first world’s” gadget-obsessed, conspicuous-consumption, throwaway society has raised more issues than it has solved. We are even running out of places to dispose of the mountains of garbage we generate each day. We don’t need more technology. We need a basic lifestyle revision. For example, we don’t need more oil drilling, we need more energy conservation.
I fear that most of this “eco-imperialism” claptrap is driven by the business community in its eternal quest for profit. It never ceases to amaze me that virtually every argument against sound environmental policy eventually gravitates to “it would be bad for the economy.” In other words, greed.
Stanley Wojciechowski, USA
Y’all are a bunch of retarded, s**t-sucking tools of the Military Industrial Complex. F**k off, shut up and die painfully, a**holes.
Bob Dobbs, USA