GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS

(Snopers.com, Mother Earth News, James Clive)

(American Association for the Advancement of Sciences)

(Huffington Post, Russian Times, Stanley R. Johnson, Frazer Chronicle)

 

I stumbled across an article in the Russian Times yesterday about an American company, Monsanto, and how Congress passed an act that in effect would protect the seed company from litigation for any health risks for at least another three months. The act, called The Monsanto Protection Act by opponents, was a budget rider, shielding biotech behemoths like Monsanto, Cargill and others from the threats of lawsuits and bars federal courts from intervening to force an end to the sale of a GMO (genetically-modified organism) even if the genetically-engineered product causes damaging health effects.

 

The biotech rider first made news in March when it was a last-minute addition to the successfully-passed House Agriculture Appropriations Bill for 2013. Riders also called piggy backers are kind of like 11^th hour additions of special interest bills that hitch unto popular bills that are assured to pass.

 

Like most Americans I’ve heard about what these food modification company’s products might do to the country’s food chain. I used to drive a truck over the road, meaning that I would be gone days at a time from my family, and with nothing else to do I listened to the radio and all sorts of talk shows…..from both sides of the aisles.

 

Some of the stuff regarding Monsanto was to me, bizarre I figured somebody, some group, or some financially backed industrial outfit had a bone to pick, and was using Monsanto as a kind of sounding board for complaints. Of course I also figured that those people making the loudest noise probably had the most to lose…..or gain.

 

Several years have passed since I paid much attention to Monsanto or any other biotech seed producer in the country, I’m not a farmer, my wife and I plant a really small garden, tomatoes only, so why would we care what any of those outfits did.

 

Then earlier this year I heard Bill Maher talk about Monsanto not wanting to list ingredient on their food products that we eat. The hub-bub was out in California, and everybody knows how Californians are, kind of fickle, and I again forgot about the subject. Of course that was before I came to a stunning discovery that I’ll share herein later.

 

Now I read an article about Monsanto and Cargill, and I thought, “what in hell is going on here” so I did a little research last night and early this morning…..and say, maybe Monsanto isn’t quite kosher in how they conduct their business here in the United States as well as abroad…..hence, a poisoned pen blog from yours truly.

 

A G$$D MONSANTO MORNING TO YOU

Monsanto Company is a publically traded American multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation with its headquarters in Creve Coeur, Missouri, population 17,855. The company employees between 20 and 25,000 with more than 3700 employed in Creve Coeur.

 

The company was founded in St. Louis, Missouri in 1901 by John Francis Queeny and its first product was the artificial sweetener saccharin which was sold to the Coca Cola Company. In 1919 the company entered into a partnership with Graesser’s Chemical Works at Cefn Mawr, near Raubon, Wales, to produce vanillin, aspirin and its raw ingredient salicylic acid, and later rubber processing chemicals.

This site was sold and closed in 1910. In the 1920’s Monsanto (which was Queeny’s wife’s maiden name) expanded into basic industrial chemicals like sulfuric acid and PCB’s and McQueeny’s son, Edgar took over the company in 1928.

 

Highlights in Monsanto’s history include the founding and incorporation of a town in Illinois called Monsanto, (today the city is known as Sauget, Illinois) the town was formed to provide a liberal regulatory environment and low taxes for the Monsanto chemical plant at a time when local jurisdiction had most of the responsibility for environmental rules.

 

In 1936 Monsanto acquired Thomas & Hochwalt Laboratories in Dayton, Ohio in order to acquire the expertise of Charles Allen Thomas and Carroll ”Ted” Hochwalt, and made the laboratories into Monsanto’s Center Research Department.

 

The company operated the Dayton project and later Mound Laboratories in Miamisburg, Ohio assisting in the development of the United States first nuclear weapon. Today the Mound facility sits unused, is on the country’s Superfund list, and has been scheduled to be closed on several dates.

 

Other innovations were All Laundry Detergent, marketed with chemical German giant Bayer to form Mobay the sale of polyurethanes in the United States. Manufactured DDT along with 15 other companies and in the 1960’s and 1970’s was the most important producer of Agent Orange.

 

DDT, PCB’s, and other pesticides’ have been band over the years, and everybody knows what Agent Orange did during Vietnam. Monsanto has developed hundreds of other pesticides, and seed altering innovations during their hundred and twelve year history. In many cases the process and the patens have been sold to other companies, and resold to other companies, so that the trail to follow is extremely hard, if one desires to discover the initial innovator.

 

Today Monsanto is a giant food group (as I like to call them), they have 67 subsidiaries; all are food processers here in the United States. Want to know who you’re dealing with whenever you desire to take a break from your daily routine and enjoy a quick snack, or a can of soda-pop, well take a look at this list:

Aunt Jemima, Quaker, Betty Crocker, General Mills, Bisquick, Duncan Hines, Hungry Jack, Jiffy, Ms. Butterworth, Pepperidge Farms, Campbells, Aurora Foods, Kraft/Phillip Morris, Post cereals, Hershey’s Nestle, Carnation, Holsum, Interstate Bakeries, Best Foods, Knorr, Kellogg’s, Nature Valley, Nabisco, Pillsbury, Heinz, Hellmans, Hunts, KC Masterpiece, Frito-lay/Pepsi, Delicious brand cookies, Famous Amos, Keebler/Flowers industries, Banquet, Green Giant, Healthy Choice, ConAgra, Kid Cuisine, Stouffers, Lean Cuisine, Marie Callenders, Ore-ida, Smart ones, Power Bar Brand, Chef Boyardee, Hormel, Loma Linda, Morningstar, Lipton, Unilever, Uncle Ben’s, Rice-o-roni/Pasta-roni, Tombstone Pizza, Totinos, Orville Redenbachers, Pop Secret, Pringles, Procter and Gamble, Coca Cola, Minute Made, Pepsi, Cadbury/Sweppes, Capri-sun, Cool-aid, Ocean Spray,V-8, Prago Pasta Sauce, Ragu Sauce.

 

I can tell you this right now…..at least from a personal standpoint, I’m going to be watching a hell of a-lot closer the merging that goes on in our country every month or so. Isn’t there some sort of antitrust law that’s on the books to guard against what I just wrote above?

 

THE OUTCOME OF ALL OF THIS

What exactly is the outcome of what companies like Monsanto are doing in today’s business friendly atmosphere…..how the hell do I know, I’m just a little pip-squeak, I see an issue that intrigues me, or raises the hairs on the back of my neck, and scribble it down on paper, and share it with you.

 

I do know this, if a company doesn’t want to explain every issue that is presented to them by their public consumers, I find that extremely troubling…..like what do they have to hide? Another thing that I know is that  someday…..in the future, Monsanto practices, and those practices of their subsidiary companies will be held up to the bright light of day, and they will either stop the practices, or simply go out of business, they’ll of made their money.

 

Another thing that I know is until corporate American, and I guess the world’s Captain’s of industry quite making the laws that cover the procedures that are practiced, things will continue in the same direction, for consumers, a downward spiral. Don’t let that trouble you though, corporate American and the world will continue their quarterly record windfall profits.

 

Lastly I know where there’s smoke there is always fire, and in the case of Monsanto, there is a blaze, outfits like these jokers have had it their own way for way to long. I’m not going to boycott products from these people, hell I’m 70, go to my doctor next week, and he’s going to kick my butt for eating bad stuff, so I might just as well enjoy myself eating all the vile stuff that is put into my food groups!

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!