05-26-2008, 01:44 PM
As I understand from previous posts, this bug won't eradicate Strawberry Guava, only weaken it. After all, it didn't eliminate SG back in their original range. That means we will never be free of either of them. However as things stand now we have no prospect of ever being free of SG. Rest assured, there will always be some SG around.
Frankly, we have all already sold our souls to the devil. Most of us are only alive because of advances in medicine and agriculture that we have only the vaguest understanding of, and if I have a serious illness and the doctor says "here, lets try this. It's new" I'm gonna trust him, pretty much, because the scientific method of investigation has done its job pretty well so far. Don't kid yourself that the doctor really knows exactly what the meds he gives you do. He wasn't the researcher that spent years in the lab researching that particular drug. He does however know that it made it through all kinds of peer review and passed the scrutiny of the FDA which despite its faults is lots better than nothing. And we accept it too. I am not saying that I blindly accept any and all options that science makes possible, but to dismiss biological controls for SG out of hand is inconsistant with the decisions that the majority of us make on a daily basis. The same methods of study are used to derive antibiotics and vaccines. Not sure but I think some people were harmed by early polio vaccines. That didn't stop the further development and use of polio vaccine.
I'm not saying there is no risk. I'm saying that we take the risk and get it right in other fields so we should be consistant about how we view such things.
Frankly, we have all already sold our souls to the devil. Most of us are only alive because of advances in medicine and agriculture that we have only the vaguest understanding of, and if I have a serious illness and the doctor says "here, lets try this. It's new" I'm gonna trust him, pretty much, because the scientific method of investigation has done its job pretty well so far. Don't kid yourself that the doctor really knows exactly what the meds he gives you do. He wasn't the researcher that spent years in the lab researching that particular drug. He does however know that it made it through all kinds of peer review and passed the scrutiny of the FDA which despite its faults is lots better than nothing. And we accept it too. I am not saying that I blindly accept any and all options that science makes possible, but to dismiss biological controls for SG out of hand is inconsistant with the decisions that the majority of us make on a daily basis. The same methods of study are used to derive antibiotics and vaccines. Not sure but I think some people were harmed by early polio vaccines. That didn't stop the further development and use of polio vaccine.
I'm not saying there is no risk. I'm saying that we take the risk and get it right in other fields so we should be consistant about how we view such things.