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25 May 08
The Beast in our Garden.
Imagine a world where the food supply is controlled by a single entity much like OPEC. A world where food and dairy products are genetically modified without care and thought given to their impact on your health. A world where all farmers are mandated to use specific seeds and herbicides and subject to legal repercussions if they refuse to do so. Our frustration with current gas prices would pale in comparison with the rising cost of our food as we watched Corporate Agriculture profits soar while world consumers struggled.
This horrific world is closer than you think and it is nothing less than an attempt to modify and control our agricultural biodiversity for nothing less than profit, without regard to your health and well being.
Agricultural biodiversity is the first link in our food chain and contributes to the security of our food resources. Food security is simply the availability to have food on your table. Understand that any influence, good or bad, on our agricultural biodiversity has impact, in some form and fashion toward somebody’s food security. Like Oil, those who control the source, will manipulate supply to maximize profit. Those who are able to control what seeds are used, what herbicides are used, control the market.
One such company is Monsanto.
Where does one begin to ferret out the truth about Monsanto’s impact and control on the worlds agriculture. A good place to start is Marie-Monique Robin, whose documentary, ‘The World According to Monsanto’ is circulating around the net. It’s well worth your time to watch!
Another question is to ask, is simply, ‘How much of our food supply is genetically modified?’.
Question: Why don't the food manufacturers and the biotech companies want you to know if your foods have been genetically engineered?
Answer: Because if they are labeled, you will start asking questions such as "Have these genetically engineered foods been safety tested on humans?" The answer to that question is NO!
The larger truth in all this as I started doing some basic research is that Monsanto has their hands in everything regarding agriculture. From buying out Delta and Pine Land,
The United States Government has been financing research on a genetic engineering technology which, when commercialized, will give its owners the power to control the food seed of entire nations or regions. The Government has been working quietly on this technology since 1983. Now, the little-known company that has been working in this genetic research with the Government’s US Department of Agriculture-- Delta & Pine Land-- is about to become part of the world’s largest supplier of patented genetically-modified seeds (GMO), Monsanto Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri.
to a cozy relationship with our USDA. But it’s just not Government agencies Monsanto is involved with, it’s politicians as well, much to the companies benefit, and of course Monsanto’s track record leaves something to be desired. Clearly, Monsanto is not only concerned with polluting our agricultural gene pool, but our overall environment as well, hiding decades of PCB pollution.
They also know that for nearly 40 years, while producing the now-banned industrial coolants known as PCBs at a local factory, Monsanto Co. routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills. And thousands of pages of Monsanto documents -- many emblazoned with warnings such as "CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy" -- show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew.
Indeed, Monsanto disregard for Humanity is seen in their BT cotton Fraud in India.
There are warning signs, for instance, of the bollworm's resistance to the Bt toxin. The media and nongovernmental organisations point to a worrying rate of suicide among cotton farmers in parts of India, though a direct link between the deaths and Bt cotton has not been established.
as well as their belief in the terminator or suicide seed. While by my understanding, this technology is banned, the fact that it even actually exists is threatening. I haven’t even touched on the concerns about RBGH
Clearly, the abundance of available information regarding Monsanto and it’s practices should be cause for concern. As should their political contributions and their consistent litigation of farmers. The depth, width and breadth of this corporation is global with nothing less than a desire to control our agricultural biodiversity. Just as clear, we no longer can accept the argument that Corporations be allowed to run roughshod over Humanity for the benefit of the free market, in the false belief that doing so will benefit Humanity in the long term. The sole truth regarding who benefits can be found by looking at who financially benefits at four times the industry median, as well as overall corporate profits of 2.1 billion, up 36 percent from a year earlier.
Granted, it’s a far cry from Shells 27 billion dollar profit, but I can’t help but wonder where the profit will be in just a few short years once they control the global food supply.
They are indeed a beast in our garden, out of control with little or no accountability.
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