GMO MO

RE: "It's the Mercury's Endorsement Guide!" [Feature, Oct 22], particularly our endorsement of a "No" vote on Measure 92, which would require companies to label any foods made through genetic engineering.

DEAR MERCURY—As [a] physics major in my senior year, I've come to appreciate that science is about observation. In physics we isolate single body systems a lot to identify the fundamental interactions—then we can apply those fundamentals to a system of many bodies. But if observation does not align with what we think we know, then we don't claim to "know" it. It is instead called "hypothesis," and if well founded, "theory." Biology, I'm sure, does a lot of the same. Health, though? Health is an overlap of multiple sciences involving thousands of interactions with thousands of lifestyles, choices, and distributors. Therefore no one is in a better position to make observations than YOU the observer. Labeling GMOs simply informs us our food underwent a process scientists can define. The rest is up to us to observe.

Wayne W.

DEAR MERCURY—Measure 92 is not a matter of dishonesty, but rather just the opposite. As consumers, we have the right to know what is in our food. The notion that this campaign is a scare tactic is also false. When it comes down to it, GMOs are just like any other piece of nutritional information and should be labeled as such. The access to this information may make us think more critically about our food choices, but it won't scare us.

Sarina Klein

DEAR MERCURY—In total there are 26 nations who have banned GMO foods and 46 that have outright banned them or require labeling. In order to buy GMO seeds you have to sign a license agreement, which includes [having] to go to a licensed seed dealer and sign a technology license agreement, which states that you won't do any research on the seeds, which includes agronomic, health, environmental research. Surprise, surprise, only Geotech companies have done research on them, none of which [has] been long-term or on humans. “The poor consumer is going to be all confused and might not buy it.” Well, I always check labels to determine how much artificial ingredients are in my food, and for some reason my simple little brain doesn't get confused. Following your logic, why buy organic foods? Get off your asses and do some research.

Greg Judkins


SEXUALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS

RE: "The Mercury Sex Survey" [portlandmercury.com/sexsurvey], the self-explanatory survey about you! And your sexing! Fill it out by Friday, October 31!

DEAR MERCURY—I want to thank you for the Portland Mercury Sex Survey! It started out as a stilted but playful interrogation of each other's sexual habits: laughing at how absurdly inapplicable some survey answers were; guessing what the other's answer would be; smirking after guessing right and loving it even more when we guessed wrong because that meant we learned a little more about each other. But soon after, my boyfriend of three years and I were prying the secret, deep-down kink genres and tastes in porn out of each other that we had never talked about—I had even promised myself I'd never tell him about my secret "-philia." We played sexy rounds of Hangman to coerce the kinks and -philias out of each other that were too hard to say out loud at first.

After telling all, an astounding weight was lifted from my shoulders that I had never even realized was there and—as if by osmosis or some tricked-out kind of alchemy—quickly morphed into a raging boner on his end. Since then, sex has been so much more fun and just plain sexier because we can both pull from each other's interests much more than before. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks. It was a great survey and really breached a divide between us that I never knew was there. You've got a fan for life ;)

Lex

THANK YOU, Lex, we couldn't make a better argument for taking our Sex Survey! You get two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater, where you can sometimes see sex scenes filmed in amazing Technicolor!