Biotech and the Individual Consumer Im beginning to think that what I like best about these particular biotech potatoes, what makes them different is that I have this choice. And until I know more, I choose not (Pollan 475). After many months of tending to his New Leafs, and numerous hours of gaining knowledge of them, Michael Pollan still chooses not to consume his New Leafs after harvest. Pollan goes to show in his writing the benefits and risks of farming biotech crops. He included the perspectives of conventional farmers, organic farmers, the biotech industry, advocacy groups, and government agencies in his discussion, but he failed to mention how we as consumers are affected by this new trend of biotech crops. Pollan, as a consumer, in the end chose not to eat the New Leafs, let us evaluate his decision.As consumers, moral issues do not concern us as much, but rather its the issue of the price, quality, and availability of the goods. First, let us examine the price of the goods. Since the New Leafs are equipped with pesticides and other toxins at birth, they eliminate the need of additional spraying of these chemicals which are currently the bulk of the cost of farming. The economics are daunting: a potato farmer in south-central Idaho will spend roughly $1,965 an acre (mainly on chemicals, electricity, water and seed) to grow a crop that, in a good year, will earn him maybe $1,980 (Pollan 468). Now as we eliminate the need to spray these chemicals in costly procedures, in theory the price of the potatoes when the hit they market should be cheaper than average potatoes. But the farmers, who once were barely making profit off of their crops, could also decide to claim these savings for themselves. Even if the farmers wanted to lower the prices, it does not necessarily mean that Monsanto would want to also.That is, the potatoes I will harvest come August are mine to eat or sell, but their genes remain the intellectual p...
