The Year in Ideas: "Precautionary Principle"
By: John Doyle
Newspaper: The New York Times
The "precautionary principle" is just a clever way of banning scientifically improved foods of the sort that the European Union recently called "probably even safer than conventional plants and foods" (Michael Pollan).
By: John Doyle
Newspaper: The New York Times
The "precautionary principle" is just a clever way of banning scientifically improved foods of the sort that the European Union recently called "probably even safer than conventional plants and foods" (Michael Pollan).
Consider the words of the antibiotechnology activist Martin Teitel, who said earlier this year, "It's difficult for me to go around saying that I want to shut this science down, so it's safer for me to say something like, 'It needs to be done safely before releasing it."' Teitel said that implementing the precautionary principle really means: "They don't get to do it. Period."