Marking World Food Day this year is a grassroots effort called March Against Monsanto with protests planned in more than 400 cities in over 50 nations. But who is Monsanto, and why should you know about them?
Monsanto has been around over a hundred years, and while it has a history of questionable ethics and practice—including helping to create and hide health risks associated with DDT and Agent Orange—its more recent trend toward pushing unregulated and unlabeled Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) into our food supply is what's really alarming. For this Monsanto has earned the dubious distinction as the most “Evil Corporation of the Year” by NaturalNews readers.
The hardest thing about writing what’s wrong with Monsanto is knowing where to start. You may not think you are familiar with them, but you are. You probably eat Monsanto created GMOs every day. The company creates harsh pesticides that are designed to kill everything natural they touch, the most popular of which is called “Roundup.” The company then creates GMOs that are unaffected by this specific poison (in the case of Roundup these are called “Roundup Ready”) so that farmers can blanket their fields and kill weeds, pests and everything else. The company has pushed hard to monopolize strategic markets and now controls 93% of the soybean, canola seed, and cotton crops, as well as 86% of corn crops. Monstanto has consolidated its position by creating ‘suicide seeds’ which do not reproduce and forces the farmers to return to Monsanto each year. The GMO suicide crops also cross pollinate with non GMO crops, forcing more farmers who may have initially held out to also rely on Monsanto.
What are the long term effects of consuming GMOs? Truthfully, no one knows. Monsanto created the first GMO in 1985 and only within the past few years has their use become widespread in our food supply. In essence we are all unwittingly participating in the trial of long-term health effects. Monsanto argues that because their GMO corn has been manufactured to have roughly the same amount of vitamins and minerals as natural corn then it must be safe. Meanwhile, scientific studies done over an entire lifespan of rats have shown that GMO corn causes tumors, organ failure, cancer and premature death. The widespread adoption of Monsanto's products has also been linked with significant nitrogen run-off which is creating dead zones in the oceans and an alarming mass die off of bees.
At this point you may be wondering how this can be allowed. A revolving door exists between Monsanto and US regulatory and judicial bodies making key decisions. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a former Monsanto lawyer, was the one who wrote the majority opinion on a key Monsanto case. Michael Taylor once worked for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), later represented Monsanto as a lawyer, and is now the current FDA Deputy Commissioner for Policy.
There is a growing global resistance. Farmers and activists have been burning fields of GMO crops and a growing list of nations have banned GMOs all together. But while there has been progress it is still an uphill battle. In the US state of Washington a ballot initiative for November 2013 to institute GMO labeling—which would be the first of its kind in the country—is being outspent 3 to 1 because of large donations by Monsanto and its allies.
These are just the basics. There is an enormous amount of information out there and a growing number of organizations working to create change. Read the links here, share this story, do your own research and get involved.
First published on TRUTH IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE