Are We Striking The Right Balance ?

[Canary42]

The thread on plastic consumption ( https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1670671.html ) raises an issue which has bothered me for some years now, and I wondered what the general view here was.

The issue is whether we strike the right balance when implementing/introducing new food/medicine/technology etc.

The two extremes we are faced with are consider it safe until proved otherwise or consider it unsafe (and therefore don't implement it) until proved safe.

Obviously the latter takes longer, but we've had some spectacular failures in the past (e.g. mercury, lead, DDT, thalidomide, X-Rays, asbestos, CFCs, diesel, glyphosate) which have been significantly harmful.

Chlorinated chicken is on the horizon (US food safety seems inferior to EU regulations), how can we be sure it isn't harmful ?

GM also worries me somewhat.

The rush to make money seems to have an ever-increasing influence on such decisions, and the power now exercised my mega-corporations (e.g. Monsanto) is alarming.

Should we clamp down on, or ease, such regulation ?

[spathiphyllum]

Clamp down. We're alive, we're living. Humans are always striving to evolve... but at what cost?

Lets just calm down a bit.. Chill out. Take our time. It's not like it's limited, and the more we rush, the less time we have ironically.

[Spicerack]

GM crops have probably saved millions of people in the third world from dying. Ditto, DDT.
But if spath's got a full belly, yeah, let's just chill out and relax.