Q1: Which system (type of stakeholder) that Easterbrook identified did you find your own understanding of GMOs most aligned with? Why? What are some of the stakes of these stakeholders?
System 8, A system of sustainable agriculture, with long time horizons, is the system I aligned with my understanding of GMOs. As a student with the food safety background and who graduated from an agricultural university, I have studied specific assessments and safety laws for GM foods. In fact, GM foods are subject to systematic and comprehensive safety evaluation before they are marketed. China has established a safety evaluation technology system that is in line with international standards, which includes nutritional and toxicological evaluations in the area of food safety. Therefore, after the safety evaluation of these products, there is no problem in terms of food safety.
As for sustainable agriculture, we rely on excessive inputs of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to achieve high yields in agriculture at present, which actually puts pressure on the environment, and this problem is becoming more and more prominent.In terms of labor demand, rural laborers are gradually moving to the cities and towns, and this contradiction is becoming increasingly prominent. To solve these problems, we need large-scale, mechanized and intensive cultivation, and GM crops can meet such needs. However, GMOs are helping to solve these problems, although I’m not a 100% supporter I think using GMOs to break through bottlenecks that other biological breeding technology occurred is necessary. We still need to evaluate of the effectiveness, the ability to compete for survival, and the evaluation of biodiversity, including plants, animals, and other aspects.
The stakeholders of system 8 might be farmers, government, enterprises and customers.
Q2: Using your own topic for research, can you Identify 3 stakeholders (groups or phenomenon) with different perspectives, and then describe the system (the stakes) from which they are operating?
Stakeholders of Satellites:
- Users, satellites improve our living system for example safety, remote connections/communication, entertainment, etc.
- Government, the initial idea of satellites use is for national security system and some military needs.
- Rocket manufacturer and related services company, operating in a system of business. The system reduces launch costs and ramped-up orbital space tourism.
I appreciate your thoughts on large-scale, mechanized, and intensive cultivation. I would add that when the USDA policies began to favor large-scale enterprise agriculture, the farming scene suffered severe transformations. These policies urged farmers to plant commodity crops, promoted the rise of large agribusinesses, and brought about a cultural shift by changing food consumption patterns.
What are the system and set of stakeholders responsible for replacing subsistence farming with commercial farming (a well-known one is the replacement of village food crops with coffee bean crops in South America)? How does that shift affect communities previously outside the major capitalist systems?
Thinking of “Small is Big” – I wonder if there are other alternatives to “we need large-scale, mechanized and intensive cultivation.” What if there is no arable land (through contamination or overuse)? Is a system of dependency on any organization the most sustainable way forward?