This holiday as we sit down and enjoy good food with friends and family here’s some links about the future of our food supply.
Monsanto’s Monopoly
Monsanto Squeezes Out Seed Business Competition, AP Investigation Finds- Huffington Post
Declining competition in the seed business could lead to price hikes that ripple out to every family’s dinner table. That’s because the corn flakes you had for breakfast, soda you drank at lunch and beef stew you ate for dinner likely were produced from crops grown with Monsanto’s patented genes.
Kitchen Table Talks No. 6: What You Need to Know About Genetically Engineered Food – Civil Eats
“We’re not talking about beer or yogurt making here. When you alter life in this way [using genetic engineering], it has a universal effect on things that are far beyond what the human eye can see or the human mind can imagine.”
The parable of the sower- the Economist
Today most of Monsanto’s $11.7 billion of annual sales come from seeds, increasingly of genetically modified (GM), or transgenic, varieties (see chart), and from licensing genetic traits.
Obama Expands Bush Biotech Agenda
Despite well-publicized organic gardens at the White House and USDA headquarters, it is clear that the Obama administration is committed to escalating the genetic engineering of the food system, developing new GM biomedicines and biofuels, and even redesigning the landscape with new artificial species of plants, animals, and insects. Those who supported the new president on the basis of his campaign pledges to label GM products and require strict testing on the long term health and environmental effects of new altered seeds, foods, and organisms have been deeply disappointed. With Monsanto declaring war on nature and a popular chief executive touting biotech solutions over the next four to eight years, the campaign to preserve amber waves of grain and keep America and the planet beautiful will be more challenging than ever.
Obama’s Broken Promises, Disappointing and Dangerous for Farmers and Eaters- Civil Eats
Instead of going outside the agribusiness and agrochemical industries, Obama has kept the revolving door spinning and appointed the very lobbyists and special interests he said would find no home in his administration.
Monsanto stalwarts Michael Taylor, special assistant to the FDA Commissioner for food safety and Roger Beachy, head of National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
The Multiple Ways Monsanto is Putting Normal Seeds Out of Reach
People say if farmers don’t want problems from Monsanto, just don’t buy their GMO seeds.
Not so simple. Where are farmers supposed to get normal seed these days? How are they supposed to avoid contamination of their fields from GM-crops? How are they supposed to stop Monsanto detectives from trespassing or Monsanto from using helicopters to fly over spying on them?
Monsanto’s Mission
via blogger Empress of Dirt who writes “Monsanto is on a mission to, basically, take over the ownership and control of all food seeds on earth. Be afraid. Be very afraid.” – check out her collection of anti GM links
Helpful Resources
OCA’s Millions Against Monsanto
Map of GMO Free regions across the globe
Free the Seeds
Order seeds grown by the people for the people from FreedomSeeds.org
Scary! Especially if you are uneducated about what you eat. It is amazing what they are allowing the American people to ingest… I wonder if these company execs and the president eat organic, all the while letting the good hardworking people, the back bone of this great country, eat food that has been laced with these chemicals. Sickening.
Thank you for posting!
[Reply]
Thanks for posting. My husband, children, and I were having a great discussion about this very subject the other day. Our question Does the increase of obesity, allergic reactions to foods, and rise in diebeties over the last 20 years are correlated with the rise in GMO Foods in the mass market?
[Reply]
Thank you again! Since I went vegan last year, the goal of going GMO free is my next pursuit. I am passing this information/link out to my friends via FB. I hope it will sink in. I feel it is very important. Thank you!
[Reply]
Great article and links, thanks. Ive been to eastern europe many times. They dont have peanut allergies, milk allergies, etc. Its totally unheard of there. Completely unheard of! Cancer is extremely rare there too. Now that my wife is here in America… she is astonished that every other person we know now has cancer, died of cancer or is “cancer free” for x amount of years. SCARY. I’m actually scared of my health now living in this country. Frankly, I dont know if there is a way to get around all these GMOs now. When I buy raw milk for $6 in the store, everyone I know freaks out at the price, but in my mind I’m hoping I wont have wealth problems like they do later on in life. Isnt it generally true that you get what you pay for? $1 big mac or a $2 home cooked meal with heirloom, raw and organic foods?
[Reply]
Thanks for bringing up this highly pertinent info! Found a “free” commercial laden link to Future of Food here:
http://www.snagfilms.com/films.....e_of_food/
Deborah Koons Garcia, the former Greatful Deads Jerry Garcia’s wife, has done a good job highlighting the food industries unhealthy technology avenues. Look forward to finding Food Inc illuminating as well.
Commend you all at PTF for highlighting a road to a sustainable food chain & better health. Keep up the great fight! Bon Appetite all!
[Reply]
This very thing, including what Monsanto is really doing to farmers, is in a documentary called “The Future of Food”. It’s pretty good and, uh, pretty darn terrifying. They say that they’re now making sterile seeds that won’t reproduce so farmers will HAVE to buy from them. It’s scary to think of what might happen if the wind carries pollination from those fields with sterile plants to non-sterile. What will happen if they make it where we can’t grow anything at all? The documentary is pretty clear that it appears they are actually TRYING to take over other farmers’ fields, running people out of business who don’t want to use their products. Farmers have reported plants in their crops that aren’t theirs (how they tell, I don’t kow!) and that they have been threatened by Monsanto.
I have a distinct allergic reaction to GMO and pesticided foods, especially corn. We can only eat organic now because of my allergies and support local whole foods markets. I keep telling my husband we need to move out to the country and grow our own dang food. Your website is very enlightening and helpful, thanks so much!
EMY
[Reply]
It’s a long-standing axiom: Control the food and you control the people. That’s why home gardeners and farmer’s markets are so dangerous. I don’t worry about the genetics of the food I ingest as much as I fear the people who want to control what I eat.
[Reply]
Recently there was a show called “The 100 Mile Diet” on Canadian TV and now it shows on Planet Green. It is about a small town that tries to eat local. It shows just how little people know or even think about their food or where it comes from. In the beginning the families do not even plan what or how they will eat on their first day of this new diet and so they spend several day of eating eggs and potatoes. They just assumed that their food would somehow get into their homes and onto thier plates. They assumed that the local food would appear in their stores. They learned a lot in their time on this local eating adventure.
Walk down the isles of your local grocery and think: How would I know where all the ingredients in each can or box came from? It’s a daunting thought with thousands of food items. And in this country we can’t just look on the label to know about our food. There are ingredients that are not required to be put on the label. There are GMO foods and irradiated foods too. And what about foods fed to animals? As we eat higher on the food chain we accumulate more of the polution that is out there. Eat a veggie and eat low on the chain. Eat something that ate the veggie and you get a higher dose of polution. Eat something that ate something, that ate something else, and you get a much higher dose. Humans are at the top of the food chain. When it comes to polution, that can be dangerous.
But the most dangerous thing of all is the complete lack of awareness in this country. People just go to the store and buy what LOOKS good. The majority never stop to question what they are buying. They assume the government will be looking after the safety. Right now the United States looks like a herd of lemmings. I wonder if we are near or already at that cliff, with the GMO issue.
[Reply]
Just found this VERY INTERESTING article on the Organic Consumers Association website:
Bayer Admits GMO Contamination is Out of Control
Here’s the link: http://www.organicconsumers.or....._19856.cfm
Quick summary: Bayer has admitted it has been unable to control the spread of its genetically-engineered organisms despite ‘the best practices [to stop contamination]. …. $2 million US dollar verdict against Bayer confirms company’s liability for an uncontrollable technology …. This verdict confirms that the responsibility for the consequences of GE (genetic engineering) contamination rests with the company that releases GE crops.
[Reply]
My husband and I are new at homesteading and have an acre of ground in the country. I’ve sewn my own clothes for 45 years, canned food from my garden for the past 30 years (I’m 55), thrift stores are my favorite shopping outlets and I love it! Last year we planted seeds, probably GMO, (Sorry, I didn’t know any better) and most of them didn’t grow…thank goodness. This year, after much research and mind boggling info retained, we are going to ALL non GMO seeds. Hubby is building a greenhouse, we’ve used chicken coop cleanings to top our garden this winter…you name it. I saved seeds from organic tomatoes and peppers that we bought last year to replant this year. The old addage of “you are what you eat” is so true. Look at the younger generations. They are larger framed, tend to develop adult characteristics faster, tend to be sicker…longer… and with more serious illnesses than we did as we were growing up. This whole GMO thing is frightening! Look at the gov’t regs! Look at the health outcomes! No thanks! We are going as self sufficient as possible. It’s a little more work, but well worth it in the end. We’ve learned alot from this site. Thank you for sharing and enlightening us!!!
[Reply]