Labeling Foods with Genetic Fears

An ear of corn isolated on a white background

Shoppers wanting organic products don’t need new warnings

by George Landrith

America feeds the world.

During the past half-century, improvements in productivity, land management and agricultural sciences have made this nation the world’s storehouse. It’s a good thing, because with more than 7 billion people living on Planet Earth, no other country is up for the challenge.

One discovery that is positively changing food production is Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). In the agricultural sector, GMOs use genetic manipulation to produce crops that are more disease-resistant, can thrive in harsher condition, or in some other way permit the farmers who use them to produce higher yields.

To some, GMOs are controversial — be it for health or safety concerns, or even religious beliefs. Rather than looking at the benefits of GMOs, such as the fact that they add considerable gross tonnage to the food pyramid, anti-GMO activists are trying to hamper these benefits by demanding a new regulatory regime to label GMOs. [Read more…]

Intellectual Property Rights and Regulation of Technology

Intellectual Property - Brain

by George Landrith

One of the most important parts of the Constitution is one of the least recognized. While American’s appreciate the importance of free speech and free elections, few realize that America may well have become the world’s unmatched economic superpower because the Founders wisely authorized Congress to protect intellectual property rights. This, in turn, provided the incentive to innovate and create.

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution authorizes Congress to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries….” With this under-appreciated constitutional provision, the Founders made the U.S. the engine of innovation that drove technological, economic, and medical advances for the entire world.  [Read more…]

Taxpayers should fear Cape Wind project

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by George Landrith

Lurking off the coast of Massachusetts like a shark out of a Steven Spielberg movie is a green energy project that is being rushed through the permitting process to meet statutory deadlines. If it goes under, it could end up costing U.S. taxpayers millions.

For almost two decades, efforts have been underway to build a wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound, off the coast of Cape Cod. For almost as long, the effort has been opposed by local residents worried about the project’s cost and potential impact on the environment.

It’s not a small venture. The project would consist of 130 wind turbines, each 440 feet tall. It’s expected to cost $2.6 billion to build. [Read more…]