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6 economist sunsuntribune saturday april 2 2005 suntnbune a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave 3rd floor stouffville on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director production interactive media john futhey advertising director distribution director marketingpartnerships retail flyer sales nicole fletcher advertising director classified real estate events management gord paolucci circulation barry black director circulation systems lynn pashko director debra weller york region printing general manager bob dean letters to road rage in story hit home re asphalt anger march 19 road rage is not only happening on busy highways on weekdays during rush hour traffic or bad weather it is also happening on quiet weekend evenings in nice neighbourhoods such as the angus glen subdivision in unionville- our family encountered this the same evening the road rage article appeared in the economist sun we were going out in my soninlaws car with my wife daughter and two granddaughters 3 and 6 to celebrate my other daughters birthday while travelling on a main alleyway a car suddenly came from a side alley ignoring a stop sign to avoid an accident and alert the dri ver my soninlaw honked his horn the other driver got mad rolled down his window and started shouting and swear ing at my soninlaw who calmly explained to him his reason for honking he was still swearing and got out from his car i asked my soninlaw to ignore him but he also got out of his car both were arguing my granddaugh ters were crying in our car so i got out to defuse the situation as they were argu ing the other drivers car was rolling back with a young girl sitting in the front seat my soninlaw drew this to the other drivers attention and he put his hand brake on to stop it from rolling back at this point he started backing off realizing he could not bully us and he sped off sureshpatel markham the editor dont blames buses drivers re tired of poor public transit letter to the editor march 12 i agree we need buses to be running on schedule but that is where my com passion for the writer stops i regularly use our transit system and find it to be on time to within a couple of minutes 90 per cent of the time unfortunately buses are mechanical and when theyre on the road for 16 hours a day 365 days a year they occa sionally break down unless youre living in a bubble you will notice what these drivers have to put up with in traffic acci dents not their own detours road clo sures and construction ive seen drivers verbally abused screamed at sworn at and spat on but they still manage to maintain their com posure and carry on with their duties most drivers are courteous helpful and more importantly get us to our des tinations safely in all kinds of weather cost have you tried purchasing a car lately or how about just insuring one maybe that smack in the head the letter writer mentions would be put to better use by waking her up to todays traffic nightmares and secondly reserved for our politicians and their road planning departments yrt drivers keep up the good work and dont let a few negative comments by some naive individual dissuade you peter tsirigotis markham longterm effects of factory farming worry biologists while debate over the benefits and dangers of genetically modified crops may have quieted down studies are continuing on the effects thesy might have on the natural world recently the last of a series of british farm- scale evaluations was completed and once again genetically modified crops didnt come off very well the farmscale evaluations conducted in england over several years are considered to be the worlds largest ecological experiment on how new farming practices can affect nature- the first of these studies published in 2003 examined sugar beets canola and corn it reported that while transgenic corn faired bet ter than its conventional counterpart in its impact on the environment both the spring canola and the sugar beets fared worse for the latest study researchers compared conventional winter canola to its transgenic variety in this case the transgenic plants had been modified to resist a specific herbicide allowing farmers to spray fields liberally and kill weeds without harming crops however the herbicide is also effective at killing broadleaf weeds which are preferred by bees and butterflies researchers found that as david suzuki a result butterfly populations dropped by up to two thirds in the transgenic fields and bee pop ulations by about 50 per cent some biologists are concerned about the longterm impact this could have on biodiver sity in britain and on creatures such as birds further up the food chain if the crop were grown on a large scale while these findings are certainly not a death knell for transgenic crops it shows that tinkering with tlie genes of an organism can have repercussions far beyond the minor modification intended by biotech scientists thats because scientists focus on controlled tests done in a lab or growth chamber but thats not the real world where there are birds insects rain and wind that complicate things the british study also shows that we must pro ceed cautiously with all transgenic crops every modification could have profound repercussions to the natural world and should be tested thoroughly both in con trolled situations and in field evaluations before wide release in north america genetically modified crops are treated like their conventional coun terparts they are considered substantially equivalent and not subject to special regula tions in fact the canola tested in the british studies has not been approved in that country but is already widely grown in canada companies making transgenic plants insist their crops are monitored and have not caused problems but recently it was found syngenta one of tlie worlds largest biotechnology com panies had for years been selling transgenic corn not approved for human consumption about 133 million kilograms of the corn made it into the food chain in the united states that doesnt exactly inspire confidence in spite of these sorts of problems biotech nology is still considered the darling of modern agriculture thats unfortunate because wed be better off looking at our entire food system not just a tiny part of it in the farmscale studies for example transgenic crops were tested against conven tional counterparts using standard commer cial agricultural practices yet we already know these standard prac tices are causing problems due to soil erosion nitrogen runoff and pesticide use it would have been even more interesting to compare the transgenic and conventional crops to an organic system which has proven to produce similar yields without many of the problems associated with conventional agriculture ultimately what matters is to develop a sustainable food system that provides healthy food and does not degrade natural systems that sustain us and other life forms genetically modified crops may or may not eventually become part of that system but right now they are being treated like our best bet if our goal is to make money in the short term then maybe thats true but if our goal is to create a safe sustainable food system the evidence just isnt there take the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters submissions must be less than 400 words and include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribune reserves the right to publish or not publish and edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune 34 cmc ave box 154 stoutfville on l4a7z5 jmason0yrngcom editorial editor jim mason jtnasonynigcom administration office manager vivian oneil voncilyrngcom production manager pam nichols pniclwlsyrngcom advertising classified manager ann campbell acampbellymgcom retail manager staceyallen sallenyrngcom managing director new business flyer sales dawna 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