Recommendations of the Task Force on Earth Resources and Population (George H. Bush, Chairman)

Congressional Record | July 8, 1970 | George H. Bush's Task Force

[Askel5]

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As a result of reduced death rates, there are more people in their non-productive years than ever before. More children and more elderly people unable to participate in the world's work force increase the burden on the productive age group. [...] The National Academy of Sciences has said:

Either the birth rate must go back down or the death rate must go back up.

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Earth Resources and Populations—Problems and Directions

Report and Recommendations of the Republican Task Force on Earth Resources and Population. House Republican Research Committee

House Republican Research Committee
Robert Taft, Jr., Ohio, Chairman

Task Force on Earth Resources and Population
George H. Bush, Texas, Chairman

July 8, 1970 Congressional Record, pp. 23188 and contining.

(Current excerpts taken from Section II on Population)

SECTION II. Population Control

It is almost self-evident that the greater the human population, the greater the demands for natural resources and the greater the danger to ecological balance. The paramount questions deals with an optimum human population.

How many is too many people in relation to available resources?

No one seems to honestly know but many believe that our current environmental problems indicate that the optimum level has been surpassed.

A fair analysis would seem to be that our population and consumption rates have grown more rapidly than our ability to develop and supply the resources being consumed while protecting our environment. […]

Congestion and Density

Many of our nation's social problems can be attributed to population density and the congestion of our urban areas.

Projections of the Urban Land Institute place 60% of our population in the year 2000 in just four huge megalopolis areas— (1) from Boston to Washingon, D.C., another from Utica, New York, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a third from San Francisco to the Mexican border, and the fourth from Jacksonville to Miami, across to Tampa and St. Petersburg. Most of the remaining 40% of the population is expected to live in urban areas as well. Metropolitan areas of over 150,000 grew faster than the national average of 9.8%.

This trend toward density creates immense stress on the public services necessary to accommodate the population. Police, fire, sanitation, transportation—all of these and many others, including education, health and housing, have been unable to keep pace with the demands created by this congestion.

Sociologists believe that this density of population has been a prime cause for increased automobile traffic deaths, drug addiction, broken marriage, alcoholism, crime, homosexuality, suicides, venereal disease and heart attacks as a result of the social stresses that man encounters in his struggle to exist in such a congested environment.

In both his Population Message of July, 1968 and his State of the Union message of January, 1970, President Nixon stressed the need for America to begin developing a national growth policy.

In his State of the Union address, the President said:

The violent and decayed central cities of great metropolitan complexes are the most conspicuous area of failure in American life. I propose that, before these problems become insoluble, the nation develop a national growth policy.

Our purpose will be to find those mean by which federal, state and local government can influence the course of urban settlement and growth so as to affect the quality of American life.

In the future, decisions as to where to build highways, locate airports, acquire land or sell land should be made with the clear objective of aiding a balanced growth.

In particular, the federal government must be in a position to assist in the building of new cities and the rebuilding of old ones.

At the same time, we will carry our concern with the quality of life in America to the farm as well as the suburbs, to the village as well as the city. What rural America most needs is a new kind of assistance. It needs to be dealt with, not as a separate nation, but as part of an overall growth policy for all America. We must create a new rural environment that will not only stem the migration to urban centers but reverse it.

If we seize our growth as a challenge, we can make the 1970's an historic period when, by conscious choices we transformed our land into what we want it to become.

Family Planning and Birth Control

The role of family planning services as part of an overall medical health care system was covered in the Task Force report on Federal Family Planning Programs—Domestic and International which was released on December 22, 1969. In that report, we stressed that an estimated 5.3 million American women do not have access to information or techniques available to the rest of society about how to limit their fertility.

It was further noted that this inaccessibility of knowledge undermines the morals of our society and was not in keeping with the basic principles of a democratic system.

Family planning is more than simply birth control.

It includes many aspect of maternal and child healthcare which must be made available to all our citizens. Birth control must be kept within the total context of Family Planning and should be considered always as an available option for any individual.

The belief that Family Planning constitutes population control must be rejected. Over 97% of American married couples utilize maternal and child healthcare services and an estimated 90% [2] practice birth control in some form and still the United States experience a population growth of 1%, a doubling every 70 years.

Family Planning constitutes the knowledge base for regulating births and reducing infant mortality. Population control is to limit birth, not to regulate births. It is necessary to understand the difference.

The practice of birth control is an accepted norm for American married couples. There is, however, concern among many demographers over the widespread desire on the part of Americans to produce three and four children in the belief that such family sizes constitute the practice of birth control. Without failsafe contraceptive devices, available to both men and women, that are medically safe and easily administered, it is not realistic to believe that an honest, free choice decision is available to those who prefer to limit their families to two children.

Population control is not a function for federal, state or local governments. However, Family Planning services, within the context of maternal and child healthcare services, must be made more accessible to the poor in providing these services as a proper function of all governments at a sensible level of costs.

As part of Family Planning Services, birth control information as well as devices and techniques to regulate fertility should be available to all those who want them and cannot afford them through private sources. The major problem in providing these specific birth control services has been the availability of trained personnel. Medical doctors and nurses are hard-pressed for services in more specialized areas of medicine. Also, providing family services to the poor has not been considered an appealing avocation of the medical profession.

Ideally, our entire healthcare system should be overhauled to create less reliance on specialized medicine and overburdened hospitals and more dependence on para-medical professionals in providing healthcare services and more reliance on providing proper nutrition for all Americans.

The legality of abortion and of sterilization does not come under the jurisdiction of the federal government, but they are properly within the purview of state governments where medical laws are widely divergent. The most disturbing aspect of the abortion issue that was brought before the Task Force, is the disparity between the availability of professional abortion services to those women who can afford the $500-$700 to obtain a therapeutic abortion and the estimated one million illegitimate abortions performed by the unlicensed practitioners for those women who cannot afford professional service. It is apparent that many women who desire abortions take extreme measures, and subject themselves to dangerous methods in order to obtain an abortion.

It therefore seems that the main objective of abortion law revision should be to eradicate the increasing number of unlicensed and unqualified practitioners who jeopardize the health and safety of these women and to establish a system that eliminates discrimination resulting from present pricing structures.

Recommendations and Conclusions

The Task Force is committed to the development of a national population policy. We believe education, family planning services, contraceptive research and development as well as transportation, and community planning and development should be important components of such policy.

Before we can begin to remedy a problem, we must first realize that we have one.

Despite the increased interest regarding this problem, there is still a vast number of Americans who are unfamiliar with even the most essential understanding of this potentially dangerous population growth rate.

The Task Force feels that one of the most important functions of the federal government is to supply the public with the latest and most accurate data. This should be done in a non-judgmental fashion that will enable the citizens to be well-informed and to influence their own remedial action.

It is expected that the Council on Environmental Quality and the recently established President's Commission on Population Growth and the American Future will provide the public with this necessary information and ensure continuing data regarding the latest developments.

Death tolls have been reduced in every country to negligible rates from epidemics and diseases such as malaria, measles, smallpox, cholera, polio and tuberculosis; major advances have been made against heart disease and cancer, artificial organs can now prolong life.

Since we accept these intrusions into nature's control of population as morally justified, are we not unwise to consider birth control with equal moral justificiation?

If we continue to support government activities to reduce disease and improve health in order to prolong life under the auspices of what is good for society, then should we not consider birth control as a government activity for similar reasons?

In the Task Force report on "Federal Government Family Planning Program" it was recommended that Congress increase appropriations for contraceptive research in the amount of $380,000,000.00 over the next five years.

In conjunction with this research, the Task Force now feels research in the methodologies of pre-determining sex before insemination must be considered and pursued.

For birth limitation and regulation to be an honest free choice goal of Americans to undertake, pre-determination of the sex of children and failsafe contraception must be available to everyone.

The Task Force believes that much more knowledge is needed by the public in general about fertility control, contraception techniques and sex determination, as well as the social and material consequences resulting from increase population, in order that the broadest number of options are available to everyone in making personal decisions that affect the use of natural resources, family size and ultimately our environment.

There must exist a greater sensitivity to these problems which cannot be provided by the federal government. The government can provide leadership and direction but should never be put into a position of having to enact controls on population as a result of public ignorance and indifference.

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^[2] Charles F. Westoff and Norman B. Ryder, Recent Trends and Attitudes Toward Fertility Control and in the Practice of Contraception in the U.S. University of Michigan, November, 1967, p. 10,2 Ibid

[Pistias]

He does have a touch of the Luddite in him.

Good for him.

[ishmac]

to post something he sent me about Medjugorje

Is this about the Belgian (?) nun who supposedly attended a seance where seven demons were invoked and one allegedly presented himself? EMJ told me that the demon named himself, and was associated with family strife and break-ups. Pretty weird....

Funny you should mention Medjugorje. The Medjugorje Deception was a real work of mercy for me. I read it right before being confirmed into the Church. I was just then learning about Fatima and Lourdes and might have been a real sucker for something like Medjugorje in my initial enthusiasm. His book sobered me up real quick. It's probably the one book by him that I think of most fondly.

As far as Libido is concerned, I get a little depressed reading it. It's a great book and all, it deserves much more recognition than it's gotten. There it is, all the frauds, lies, and Machiavellian deceptions of the modern age's sex mania laid out in black and white, proven indubitably. But I can't read the thing through. It's depressing to know how thoughly all of us have been hoodwinked in these matters. One always sensed it, but his book proves it. I told EMJ after it came out that I didn't want to know more about how Sartre was a cad, Kinsey was a liar and a degenerate, Reich was a hater of God and a savage, etc. The whole thing left me with the feeling summed up by the title of Sartre's first novel--Nausea. I didn't need to know I was in a labyrinth--I wanted to know how to get out!

[toenail]

GEN. WILLIAM H. DRAPER, JR.
HON. GEORGE BUSH
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, September 18, 1969
[pg. 26231]

Mr. BUSH. Mr. Speaker, I wish to pay tribute to a great American, William H. Draper, Jr., major general, U.S. Army, retired.

Last week on September 10, General Draper celebrated his 75th birthday. Holding to a promise he made to his wife, General Draper retired as national chairman of the Population Crisis Com­mittee, a responsibility that he has had since establishing the PCC 5 years ago.

As chairman of the Republican Re­search Task Force on Earth Resources and Population, I am very much aware of the significant leadership that General Draper has executed throughout the world in assisting governments in their efforts to solve the awesome problems of rapid population growth. No other per­son in the past 5 years has shown more initiative in creating the awareness of the world's leaders in recognizing the economic consequences of our population explosion.

The general has had a very meaningful life. He was an infantry regiment com­mander in the Pacific theater during World War II. He was economic adviser to Gen. Lucius Clay during the rehabili­tation of West Germany. From 1947 to 1949, General Draper was Under Secre­tary of the Army, and in 1952 was ap­pointed by President Truman as U.S. representative in Europe with ambas­sadorial rank to coordinate the mutual security program for Europe and to rep­resent the United States in the North At­lantic Treaty Council.

In November of 1958, President Eisen­hower appointed General Draper Chair­man of the President's Committee To Study the U.S. Military Assistance Pro­gram. In October 1962, President Ken­nedy appointed the general head of an interdepartmental survey team to study and report on the situation in Brazil.

Fortunately, we will be hearing more from Bill Draper as he is now the hon­orary chairman of the Population Crisis Committee, and will continue to be avail­able for consultation on world affairs for which he is so well qualified.

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HOUSE REPUBLICAN TASK FORCE ACTIVITIES

HON. GEORGE BUSH
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Tuesday, July 29, 1969
[pg. 21304]

Mr. BUSH. Mr. Speaker, during the past 2 weeks the House Republican research committee task force on earth resources and population, of which I am chairman, has heard from Gen. William H. Draper, Jr., national chairman, Population Crisis Committee, Mr. J. Steele Culbertson, director, National Fishmeal and Oil Association, and Dr. William Moran, president, Population Reference Bureau.

In order to keep the Members informed of the program of the task force activities, I offer the highlights of these hearings for the RECORD:

HEARING HIGHLIGHTS OF THE POPULATION CRISIS COMMITTEE, JULY 15, 1969

Gen. William H. Draper, Jr., National Chairman, Population Crisis Committee.

Members Present: Bush, Gubser, Horton, McCloskey, MacGregor, Henry Smith, Taft, Wold.

Special Guest: Frank Borman.

General Draper claimed that because decisions on the population problem do not face federal officials every day, the problem is like a rising tide. We don't realize the full implications until we are up to our necks.

Despite political promises of prosperity, economic growth in the underdeveloped nations has been neutralized by the population explosion. In India and Pakistan, public frustration is beginning to show in political, economic and social breakdowns.

General Draper stated, "Our strivings for the individual good will become a scourge to the community unless we use our God-given brain power to bring back a balance between the birth rate and the death rate."

The governments of Latin American countries realize the significance of their own population growth rates, but cannot politically support family planning programs due to the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church.

General Draper stated that he would like to see the number of people assigned to population control in AID increased from the present 67 to approxamately 400.

General Draper pointed to three areas which are related to population control, which have not been adequately covered:

• (1) the 1970 and 1971 censuses should be supported on a world-wide basis.
• (2) contraceptive research should be accelerated both here and abroad.
• (3) the World Health Organization should step up its proposed international programs.

Referring to a possible trend to liberalize abortion laws, General Draper pointed out that the Executive Committee of Planned Parenthood World Population has adopted a policy resolution claiming that abortion is not a legal matter, but rather one for the husband, wife and doctor to decide without the help of the state.

Col. Frank Borman added that he personally couldn't see any hope for a meaningful life on earth, "living in a cubical apartment with a bowling alley in the basement."

HEARING HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NATIONAL FISHERIES INSTITUTE, JULY 17, 1969

Mr. J. Steele Culbertson, Director, National Fishmeal and Oil Association.

Members Present: Bush, Frey, Horton, Lukens, McCloskey, Pettis.

In order to negotiate beneficial fishing treaties with the Russians, we need an expanded research program in the United States. Mr. Culbertson explained that very little is known about the migratory patterns of our Atlantic specie and that by negotiating we are "taking a broad step in the dark."

According to Mr. Culbertson, the death of the California sardine fisheries can be attributed to a lack of research. In the 1930's those fisheries were producing 1.5 billion pounds of fish annually, until the fish began to inexplicably disappear. Research projects were begun too late to save the industry.

The meat-feed ratio for poultry is approximately 1 pound of meat for 2 pounds of feed. Producing 1 pound of catfish meat requires only 1.6 pounds of feed. Ten pounds of catfish can be produced on 17 cents of fishmeal feed.

Mr. Culbertson claimed that harmful marine pollution can be prevented by careful plant processes analysis. In Alaska pulp mills are allowed only if they use a magnesium process which does not endanger the salmon industry.

Our national fish production has decreased from 23 pounds per person to 10 pounds per person in the last 10 years. Mr. Culbertson predicted that without federal action that in five years we would be producing only 5 pounds per person.

HEARING HIGHLIGHTS OF THE POPULATION REFERENCE BUREAU, JULY 24, 1969

Dr. William Moran, President, Population Reference Bureau.

Members present: Bush, Horton, McCloskey, Pollock, Smith, Taft, Wold.

Dr. Moran, President of the Population Reference Bureau expressed considerable concern over projected resource consumption rates. In 190O the United States used 40.9 billion gallons of water. In 1960 that amount had increased to 322 billion gallons of water annually. Furthermore, these growing consumption rates apply to almost all of our resources.

One of the major problems the United States has in resource management is attitudinal. Dr. Moran feels that we have adopted a "frontiersman" attitude and seem to believe that there will always be new resources available. The fact is that we are already failing to replenish some of our most essential resources. For instance, in the Southwestern United States we are tapping fossil water, or water left from the last ice age.

In this country today we produce only 60% of the oxygen we consume. We have introduced into our atmosphere more carbon dioxide than our plants can absorb and convert to meet our oxygen requirements.

We have in the United States, 6% of the world's population, but we are presently using 1/4 to 1/2 of the world's resources. If the world is to someday manage its resources better, the U.S. must assume an important leadership role.

Dr. Morau believes that our efforts should be spent convincing young couples that their family will be happier and that their children wiil have a better chance for an education if family planning is practiced. Finding a way to convince and motivate the general public should be our first priority.

The Population Reference Bureau concentrates a great deal of its resources in both Latin and South America. Dr. Morau explained that the influence Catholicism has over national family planning programs varies with each country. Nationalism in countries like Brazil also limits the extent to which family planning services may be introduced. Brazil allows only 15% of those women who are considered fertile to receive any family planning services or information.

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[toenail]

POPULATION GROWTH AND ITS FUTURE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES
HON. GEORGE BUSH
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Monday, August 4, 1969
[pp. 22186-22187]

Mr. BUSH. Mr. Speaker, the House Republican task force on earth resources and population, of which I am chairman, is continuing its efforts to learn what is going on in Government and private organization to combat our pressing population growth and its future social consequences, as well as the rapid utilization of our resources and our concern for an environment of quality.

I offer for the record the highlights of our most recent hearings:

HEARING HIGHLIGHTS, THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1969--POPULATION REFERENCE BUREAU

Dr. William Moran, President, Population Reference Bureau. Members Present: Bush, Horton, McCloskey, Pollock, Smith, Taft, Wold. Staff From: Vander Jagt.

Dr. Moran, President of the Population Reference Bureau expressed considerable concern over projected resource consumption rates. In 1900 the United States used 40.9 billion gallons of water. In 1960 that amount had increased to 322 billion gallons of water annually. Furthermore, these growing consumption rates apply to almost all of our resources.

One of the major problems the United States has in resource management is attitudinal. Dr. Moran feels that we have adopted a "frontiersman" attitude and seem to believe that there will always be new resources available. The fact is that we are already failing to replenish some of our most essential resources. For instance, in the Southwestern United States we are tapping fossil water, or water left from the last ice age.

In this country today we produce only 60% of the oxygen we consume. We have introduced into our atmosphere more carbon dioxide than our plants can absorb and convert to meet our oxygen requirements.

We have in the United States, 6% of the world's population, but we are presently using 1/4 to 1/2 of the world's resources. If the world is to someday manage its resources better, the U.S. must assume an important leadership role.

Dr. Moran believes that our efforts should be spent convincing young couples that their family will be happier and that their children will have a better chance for an education if family planning is practiced. Finding a way to convince and motivate the general public should be our first priority.

The Population Reference Bureau concentrates a great deal of its resources in both Latin and South America. Dr. Moran explained that the influence Catholicism has over national family planning programs varies with each country. Nationalism in countries like Brazil also limits the ex­tent to which family planning services may be introduced. Brazil allows only 15% of those women who are considered fertile to receive any family planning services or information.

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HEARING HIGHLIGHTS, TUESDAY, JULY 29, 1969, FORD FOUNDATION

Mr. Oscar Harkavy, Program Officer in Charge.

Members Present: Bush, McCloskey, Mosher, Wold.

Staff From: Anderson, Taft, Vander Jagt.

Current research in reproductive biology has given us many new ideas as to how the fertility cycle can be controlled. Mr. Harkavy explained that if mankind hopes to some day control the world's population, we must continue to develop new methods of contraception and to extensively examine these new research areas. $30 million will be spent this year on specific contraceptive research. Mr. Harkavy stated that we should increase these efforts to a $150 million level of expenditure over the next several years.

The population explosion is commonly recognized as one of the most serious problems now facing the nation and the world. Mr. Harkavy suggested, therefore, that we more adequately fund population research. It seems inconsistent that cancer research funds total $250-275 million annually, more than 8 times the amount spent on reproductive biology research.

Mr. Harkavy explained that finding solu­tions to the population problem is a long-term project. Grants given on an annual basis allow only short-term research plans. If these grants were distributed over a pe­riod of there years, it would be possible to thoroughly staff the projects and to plan the necessary long-term research programs.

Mr. Harkavy stated that often U.S. motives are questioned when foreign countries re­ceive AID funds for family planning. It does not seem to matter how humanitarian our own motives may be. Mr. Harkavy agreed with the Presidential statement empha­sizing the importance of unilateral funding through the United Nations.

By the year 2000, experts have predicted that we will have a population of 7 billion. Even more astounding is the fact that by 2025 that figure will have doubled to 14 billion.

HEARING HIGHLIGHTS, THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1969, NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

Dr. William D. McElroy, Director; Dr. Louis Levin, Executive Associate Director.

Members Present: Bush, Fulton, Horton, Mosher, Pettis, Pollock, Buppe, Wold.

Staff From: McCloskey, Taft, Vander Jagt.

Dr. McElroy explained that in order to return an ecological system to its original condition, the ecologlst must enlist the assistance of experts in almost every science. No mechanism presently exists to coordinate these individual efforts. The National Science Foundation is funding an ecological analysis project in Jamaica which involves a complete examination of the food chain in bays and estuaries. It is hoped that from this study scientists will learn more about how to manage estuary resources.

Scientists are now learning to use waste heat from energy plants to actually Improve ecological systems. Organisms have a faster growth rate in warm weather, and if properly planned, an energy plant can actually speed the recovery process of a polluted area.

Dr. McElroy suggested that family planning projects rely more heavily upon paramedical personnel, particularly in foreign countries. In India an expenditure of $700 million to train midwives and to make family planning services available would result in the direct contact of 25 million Indian women. Dr. McElroy considers this personal contact during periods of pregnancy to be vastly more effective than national information programs.

One of the crises the world will face as a result of present population growth rate is that assuming the world population increases 2% annually, urban population will increase by 6% and ghetto population will increase by 12%.

Dr. McElroy acknowledged the national population problem but urged that we not forget our neighbors. In a country like Jamaica which is "heading for trouble" in terms of population and available living space, Dr. McElroy feels that a modest investment of $2 million would significantly affect the future of Jamaica.

[Askel5]

I knew somehow "sustainable" would have worked its way in -- or not -- to the story as it was brought up to date.

I find that last bit interesting as well.

What is it about these religious folks and their fixations on genes and stem cells, which animals they will or won't eat and when and who they will or won't cannibalize for humanitarian research?

As if there is something of the pig in the plant or of the human in the therapeutic clone.

The Rockefeller Foundation, working in Mexico, has developed something known as miracle wheat, which might be able to take up where the fastly diminishing supply of American grain runs out. And both Rockefeller and Ford, operating through the International Rice Institute in the Philippines, have developed a miracle rice-IR-8-which if produced on a huge scale will do much to save millions of Asians from starvation.

Genetically Modified Rice Tests Alarm Philippine Farmers

By Michael Bengwayan

LOS BANOS, Laguna, Philippines, August 17, 2000 (ENS) - Rice farmers in the Philippines are apprehensive about a plan by the International Rice Research Institute, the world largest rice research agency, to field test the controversial genetically modified bacterial blight rice - BB-rice.

The farmers are afraid that entry of genetically modified rice into the Philippines will further deplete traditional rice varieties that are sustainable. They also fear that it will mark the beginning of the monopoly and control of rice seeds by multinational companies.

Some of the thousands of varieties of rice in the world. (Photo courtesy IRRI)

BB-rice is a genetically modified crop of the rice variety IR-72 that is produced by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). It is engineered with a gene called XA21 to resist the common rice disease bacterial blight (Xanthomonas oryzae).

Pedring Pangan, a farmer in the town of Calauan still recalls the time when the International Rice Research Institute introduced the so-called "miracle rice," IR-8.

"We planted IR-8 and threw away our traditional seeds," said Pangan. "We had a good first harvest, after that, we harvested almost nothing." IR-8 caused the proliferation of the deadly pest brown planthopper which was the carrier of the deadly rice disease tungro.

The brown planthopper was not limited to the Philippines. At the time it devastated rice fields in India, Indonesia, Thailand and Pakistan - an area covering about one third of Asia's ricelands.

Farmer Tata Gonying Velasco says the use of International Rice Research Institute varieties has not only eroded the diversity of rice the farmers have nurtured for years, it has also wiped out much of farmers' history as "stewards of seeds."

IRRI's genebank in Los Banos, Philippines contains the most comprehensive collection of rice genetic resources on earth. (Photo courtesy IRRI)

But Duncan MacIntosh, information officer for the International Rice Research Institute, disputes and brushes off the farmers' claims. He told ENS in a letter, "IR-8 is recognized around the world as one of the most popular and successful cereal varieties ever developed."

But farmers whose fields are near the test areas are also afraid that the tests on BB-rice may go wrong and genetically modified material may be released into the environment.

Then there is the problem of blight developing a resistance to the BB-rice. According to researcher Devlin Kuyec of the Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN) who first revealed the Rice Institute's plan to conduct the field tests last July, "The XA21 [gene] is not resistant to all races of bacterial blight. Some bacterial blight races, discovered in 1990 by IRRI itself, can overcome the gene XA21."

"These races exist in the Philippines. So, BB-rice is not a solution to bacterial blight," Kuyec said.

Even Dr. Pamela Ronald who holds the gene's patent with the University of California Davis acknowedges the problem of blight resistance. "Eight existing bacterial blight isolates can overcome XA21. It is a likely possibility that if XA21 is overcome by the resistant bacterial blight strains, then an epidemic of unknown proportions can occur," she said.

Plot of genetically modified rice with gene marker strip (Photo courtesy IRRI)

When that happens, "Bacterial blight disease can spread not only in the Philippines but in Asia like wildfire," Kuyec said.

Robert Verzola, secretary general of the Philippine Green Party and a member of the country's National Committee on Biosafety in the Philippines, agrees. "There is no need to create genetically modified rice to control bacterial blight. Again, we are seeing the creation of a technology intended to solve a problem created by no less than creators of the problem," said Verzola.

But the International Rice Research Institute, which has received government approval to conduct the field tests together with the Department of Agriculture's PHILRICE, still plans to plant the test crops regardless of the arguments made by critics of the BB-rice.

International Rice Research Institute maintains that BB-rice is needed because of the world food crisis. "To ensure food security and to continue against the advancement against poverty in rice consuming countries of the world, farmer will have to produce 40 to 50 percent more rice to meet the consumer demand in 2025."

MacIntosh says the Institute is merely awaiting the approval of the National Committee on Biosafety in the Philipines. Once approval is received, the community where the field tests will be conducted will have 60 days to comment on the tests.

IRRI Researchers work on genetically modifying rice (Photo courtesy IRRI)

The last time a field test was conducted on a genetically engineered crop, corn modified with the naturally occuring pesticide Bacillus thuringiensis, was in Los Banos and in General Santos City. The protest turned ugly.

Thousands of demonstrators, mainly farmers, clashed with police. Five people were injured.

Verzola claims he is the only anti-GMO member of the National Committee on Biosafety in the Philippines. He says the committee will likely approve the BB-rice field test. "But I will strongly vote against it," he said.

Kuyec says the Rice Institute's BB-rice test is a ploy to convince the public of the benign nature and benefits of biotechnology.

Genetically engineered seeds with specific traits can command a very high market value, Kuyec points out. BB-rice could emerge from the field tests as a very valuable commodity for the world's rice farming sector, he said.

What fails to erase suspicion is that the Rice Research Institute has been working closely with giant agrochemical and agribusiness companies in its research on the BB-rice. Its research on BB-rice was done with Novartis and AgrEvo, two companies that are among the top 20 seed corporations who virtually control the global food market.

"Patents on seeds illustrate the extent to which transnational companies want to establish monopolies on life, maximize profit and dominate the world," farmer Leopoldo Guilaran said. He belongs to MASIPAG, a network of scientists and farmers promoting sustainable agriculture in the Philippines.

Floating rice field (Photo courtesy IRRI)

"A patent on seed is a patent on freedom. If you have to pay for patented seeds, its like being forced to purchase your own freedom," said Memong Patayan, another MASIPAG farmer.

MASIPAG recommends six cultural management practices to control bacterial blight instead of planting BB-rice. These include low use of nitrogen fertilizer, adequate irrigation and drainage, seedbanking of blight resistant plants, and maintenance of crop diversity as well as appropriate transplanting and proper disposal of infected plants.

Kuyec says that bacterial blight, a water borne disease aggravated by the use of heavy nitrogen fertilizer, was made worse by the introduction of International Rice Research Institute rice varieties especially the IR 8 in the mid-1960s.

In a related development, lawmaker Wigberto Tanada has filed a congressional bill requiring the mandatory labeling of food and food products containing genetically modified organisms as well as food produced by genetic engineering technology.

Tanada, a former senator who is now a congressman, said, "Besides considerations for risks to human health, all civilizations respect the very basic right of individuals to religious belief."

"Unlabelled GMO food and food products will violate this right," he said. Citing the Muslims, who are subject to religious restrictions against eating pork, Tanada said, "They have the right to know if the food they are eating have been spliced with genes from pigs."

[Dales]

I think a little context should be given here. Back in 1970, Roe V. Wade had not yet happened, and the primary controversy over family planning was birth control, not abortion.

But let's take a look at what GHWB did when in office, when he actually had the power to act on his beliefs.

During all four years of his Presidency, he tried to kill Title X, which he had worked to pass as a congressman. Why the change? Because Roe v. Wade changed it from essentially a birth control program to an abortion program. Congress would not rescind it. As a matter of fact, Congress tried to overturn the Reagan administration's "gag rule" which prohibited all clinics receiving Title X funding from giving abortion advice or counseling, even if a patient requested it. In 1991, Bush vetoed a bill that would have overturned the gag rule.

Bush vetoed the entire 1989 foreign aid bill of $14 billion because it included $15 million for the UNFPA. He also vetoed the annual foreign bill again in 1990 because of its UNFPA funding and pledged to keep U.S. funds out of the agency in the future.

The United States adopted a policy, announced at the World Conference on Population in Mexico City in 1984, that withdrew funding from International Planned Parenthood. The new policy denied U.S. population assistance to any private program in another country, or to any international program, which provided counseling, referral, or even basic information about abortion. Bush continued to enforce this “international gag rule” policy.

He hamstrung the State Department in its efforts to advance the abortion issue. The staff of the State Department’s population affairs coordinator was cut back from three to one full-time staff person in 1991, leaving it with extremely limited resources to prepare for that year’s U.N. Conference on Environment and Development.

Bush the elder is someone you have generally been quite critical of. However, there is a reason that groups like Planned Parenthood considered him an enemy.

[Askel5]

Dales ... trust me, I've been through all that. (Check out some of my notes within the "Abortion is VITAL to the solution" thread.)

Bush's effortless backhanded vetoes of a series of slow pitch softballs tossed on his desk by the Democratic Congress don't quite do it for me. GREAT way to make it look as though actions speak louder than words ... assuming you ignore the other evidence ... including his 11th hour Executive Order establishing a fetal tissue bank (which someone probably figured -- quite rightly -- should be left to the likes of Clinton).

If you don't understand how closely linked are the Interlock and the State where issues of propagandizing the masses and controlling their reproduction are, you should. Given that close cooperation, it wouldn't surprise me at all that -- with 7 billion incoming from the likes of Bill Gates (alone), Ted Turner, Warren Buffet, et al. -- it doesn't cost much to win some public approval points by having a President wipe out a measly million here or there in international "AID" monies.

I think Bush's ballyhooed break with Planned Parenthood is a load of crap. It's not just the fact that his opposition to abortion stands out like a sore thumb compared to his absolutely consistent support of the Earth First Culture of Death, it's that in these Records are laid the foundation for Legal Abortion as well as the crystal clear stand of the International Planned Parenthood Foundation: it's a Private Matter into which the State should not intervene.

EXACTLY the basis on which the State intervened to make that particular bit of homicide a mother-only "Constitutional Right" extrapolated from the right of privacy.

Where is his problem with that?

(Face it ... his problem stems solely from the fact abortion was too popular with exactly the wrong type of people. Regardless the rank leftist and utopian pseudo-science and illogic championed by Chairman Bush throughout these excerpts, the FACT remains that population growth is WEALTH and STRENGTH for a nation. All the talk in the world about "reducing" abortions or cringing as "abortion became the rallying cry" of Planned Parenthood rings a bit lame from one who had no problems whatsoever opening the door and ushering in abortion with Clear and Present knowledge of exactly the intent of Planned Parenthood -- at home and abroad.)

If you wish me to believe your thesis, you will have to offer me the evidence I've yet to find in three years of researching this subject.

Likewise, it would help to show me someone that your thesis does not require Bush be one of the lamest, most shortsighted, ignoramuses the world has ever seen.

I do believe him to be a Useful Idiot on many counts. I think he knew exactly what he was doing as Chairman of the "Earth First -- Let's Re-align the Death Rate" Committee. He's just not that stupid.

Besides, his family had been immersed in the Eugenics movement his entire life. Thanks to his own father's experience with busybody Catholics, he knew damn good and well what the policical stakes were Appearance-wise and exactly the arguments that had been raised -- across the board, not just abortion-related -- to the panoply of Deathist ideas he champions as Chairman.

If you like, I could gather together salient points from the research notes within "Abortion is Vital to the Solution" as well as Randy Engel's excellent research on the Mexico City and Cairo confabs. I understand perfectly how you might think he appears pro-life and I admire your defending him. It's just that he's precisely the sort I mean when I speak of a Potemkin Pro-life Movement.

[Askel5]

I do believe him to be a Useful Idiot on many counts. BUT I think he knew exactly what he was doing [as chairman]

[Dales]

Probably trying to advance his career by being a team player. At the time, the team was being led by Nixon.

Now that administration was rotten to the core.

[Askel5]

Oh Dales ... don't be silly. Tricky Dick's about the ONLY member of that gang not STILL a part of the "team". Talk about the truth staring you right in the face.

Anyway ... here's a good example of a pro-abort "pro-lifer" who insists on wedging her foot in the door so that the pro-aborts can carry the day. Our own Mary Landrieu ... who, it may be argued, unlike Bush has the brain of a smooth green pea.

As her parents take a Letter-Writer to task, please note the following KEY components of every conservative criticism of anyone with the audacity to be uncompromising with regard to the Right to Life of every human being from conception to natural death:

• The uncompromising who humbly admit it is not for them to decide at what point in the continuum from conception to death human life has a right to live are somehow "self-righteous"

• Roe v. Wade is the law of the land and therefore due some respect. (See Howlin if you have any questions about this point.)

• There are certain exceptions under which abortion is not a crime.

• The point is to "reduce" abortions.

• Viability outside the womb (regardless the fact we all rightfully developed inside the womb from the moment we were implanted by our own "Smart Genes") -- not conception -- is the bright line of IS/IS NOT for human beings.

UNWARRANTED DISTORTION

John Martinez (Readers' Respond, June 19, 2002) is so blinded by his self-righteousness that he is drive to distort Sen. Mary Landrieu's position as well as her record.

Roe v. Wade is the law of the land. It limits how far states and the federal government can go in restricting a woman's right to an abortion. Both Mrs. Barbara Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush have stated that they are pro-choice. President Bush has stated that he has no intention of trying to reverse Roe v. Wade. Neither does Mary.

Mary is not for abortion, nor is she for "unrestrained abortion access"; however, she does not believe that abortion should be a crime under all circumstances.

Within the limitations imposed by Roe v. Wade, Mary has tried to reduce the number of abortions. She voted to make partial-birth abortoins illegal and she voted to override President Clinton's veto.

[You're not going to get 67 votes ... let's remember that such votes are made at absolutely no cost to those who can be confident of the ultimate outcome in advance.]

In addition, she introduced and voted for legislation that would make illegal all abortions after viability except where two doctors certify that the woman's physical health is gravely threatened. Unfortunately, that legislation was defeated.

Mary has aggressively advocated adoption, heads the Congressional adoption caucus and, with her husband, has adopted two children.

On a different life issue she had coauthored a bill with Senator Brownback to make human cloning illegal.

Mr. Martinez needs to get his facts straight and not bear false witness.

MOON and VERA LANDRIEU

Moon's a former New Orleans mayor and Mary's daddy.

Having spent many years working for some of the city's premiere Women healthcare attorneys, I think perhaps it's Moon who doesn't have his facts straight where his daughter's appeal as a pro-abort within those Emily's List circuits is concerned.

But ... like your defense of Bush, one might be tempted to think poor little Mary's out there busting her tail to "reduce" abortions within the confines of the incontrovertible -- thanks to the likes of President Bush and his pro-life AG Ashcroft -- Roe v. Wade.

Total joke.

[Dales]

Tricky Dick's about the ONLY member of that gang not STILL a part of the "team".

You can't be serious.

[Askel5]

Did you miss the way Kissinger was among those standing behind Bush on May 23, 2000 as he announced he could do foreign policy?

You're familiar with Dick Cheney? Young buck groomed in the Nixon White House?

You missed the fact that General Haig still is raking it in from his Cosco buddies even after the misstep that was his failure to clear his deep throat and think for a minute before blurting out "I'm in charge here"?

You're somehow unaware that the likes of Liddy and Colson, even, have ended up national figures -- heroes of a sort, even -- as they rehabilitated themselves and serve to corral conservative and Christian opinion?

Even Rumsfeld was there as Defense-Secretary Designate.

Who are YOU kidding? Not yourself, I hope.

I've no doubt that were I to cruise any number of "conspiracy theorist" sites, I could pull up in a moment lists of National Security Council, Tri-Lateral and CFR sorts who've been permanent fixtures of one sort or another since the Nixon administration and without the usual "partisan furloughs". I'm not going there because (as usual) I like to stick to the facts Joe Schmo could proffer off the top of his head.

Being somewhat a Joe Schmo myself.

[toenail]

"Even Rumsfeld was there as Defense-Secretary Designate."

Rumsfeld testified to the House Republican Task Force on Earth Resources and Population on November 13, 1969.

[toenail]

"I was totally unprepared for the "predetermination of sex" to be thrown in ever so casually in the final paragraphs of their Recommendation."

A Girl Or Boy, You Pick

[Askel5]

The NSSM-200 link is not to be missed either.

Naturally, it was the GOP who decided "abortion was vital to the solution" of pop-control at home and abroad and incorporated legal abortion in our national defense memoranda.

[redgolum]

For those interested here is the link Askel sent me.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/719579/posts

Thanks Askel!

[cpforlife.org]

BUMP

[Coleus]

bttt

[Dumb_Ox]

bump from the past. I think I missed this the first time around, pity.