Fair Discourse

Fair Discourse

Just what sugar beet growers don’t need during the on going litigation over the rights to plant biotech sugar beets is a judge that considers himself the Laurence Olivier of the judicial stage, quoting Shakespeare and other less noteworthy story tellers. I’m speaking of federal Judge Sidney Thomas, who is presiding over the court case which pits environmentalists and organic sugar beet growers against the USDA and the mainstream sugar beet industry. Thomas recently used the book Jurassic Park as an example, issuing forth possible parallels between the real world sugar beet issue and the piece of fiction about dinosaurs. Yes, a judge has to take into consideration all views and possibilities, but to what extent should the “what if game” be pursued? Perhaps Judge Thomas should explore further the very Shakespeare he’s so fond of quoting to discover  “fair discourse”, he may find that “conscience does make cowards of us all”.  Will the development of biotech crops be slowed to a mere crawl by requiring longer and longer environmental studies, or even worse, stopped entirely because of a fear of the unknown?

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