They are comparing us to Al Qaeda, seriously!

By Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero
Puerto Rico Project on Biosafety
February 6 2014

Industry consultant and outspoken GMO advocate Paul Christensen has spent a lot of his time and energy studying "our movement" for his clients. Just going over his blog postings I found this item from last September, which suggests this guy has really gone off the deep end: http://www.intlcorn.com/seedsiteblog/?p=1723

The Origins of Al-Qaeda and the Evolution of Opposition to GMOs and the Seed Industry

And now for some delicious excerpts:

I began this article on the assumption that there were similarities worth mentioning between al-Qaeda and the anti-globalization and food movements.  Both think that another postmodern world is possible.  In the case of al-Queda it is an Islamic fundamentalist world that is to come after the modern period and reconstitute the pre-modern Islamic world.  In the case of anti-globalization and food movements the new world would be regional, directly democratic, organic and environmentally conscious, nonviolent and have a kind of social justice in which markets would be socially managed.

In some sense the two organizations are competing over some of the same intellectual ground. 

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Although both al-Qaeda and the anti-globalization and food movements reject modernity, they do so in ways that are quite different. 

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The anti-globalization and food movements sometimes have charismatic leaders and frequently have beliefs which are not objective and so strongly held that they seem as though they are religious. 

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Both al-Qaeda and the anti-globalization and food movements are inclined to symbolic action. 

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The village level government ideal of low technology and grass roots democracy supported by the anti-globalization and food movements leaves societies vulnerable to authoritarians like bin Laden, if they can muster enough charisma to propose an ideal which will capture imaginations for a while.

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Mohandas Gandhi, Osama bin Laden, José Bové, Mohammad Morsi, Subcomdant Marcos, Adolf Hitler and Michael Pollan make strange bedfellows, but they all share a fundamental and unshakable rejection of the usual kind of liberalism. 

End of quotes

Is Christensen a great guy to have a beer with or what? But on a serious note, how can there be a reasoned dialogue and debate with those who lump us together with Osama Bin Laden and liken us to the zombies in World War Z?

How the enemy sees us

Peter Rosset brought this document to my attention. It reads like a CIA case officer reporting to his superiors in Langley headquarters. In fact, it reads like a Wikileaked document. As I read it, it felt like a top secret intelligence report that we were never meant to read.

Twelve Myths, Food First and Via Campesina
June 30, 2013 by Paul Christensen
http://www.intlcorn.com/seedsiteblog/?p=1597

Author Paul Christensen has as much modesty as Muhammad Ali. Here is how he describes himself:

I am retired Coordinator of the Seed Technology and Business program at the Iowa State University Seed Science Center and Staff member of BIGMAP, the Biosafety Institute for Genetically Modified Agricultural Products. I have also worked for Monsanto, DEKALB Genetics, and Funk Seeds International, which is now part of Syngenta, and worked for USAID in Africa. Much of my technical activity has been associated with product testing and development. As a University Faculty member, I was exposed to many forms of opposition to agricultural biotechnology and the commercial seed industry, and I think that I have developed a unique understanding of some of the philosophical opposition to modern plant technology. I have a well-developed understanding of the kinds of arguments used for and against seed and biotechnology regulation and policy. (Boldface added) http://www.intlcorn.com/seedsiteblog/?author=1

Notice he regards the opposition to GMO's as "philosophical". He does not acknowledge any scientific or social validity to our critiques. To the likes of Christensen, we are just being philosophical.