A SEEDY PR0POSITION!

A SEEDY PR0POSITION!

(Ian Berry, John Davison, Scientific America, James Clive, World Health Organization)

(Regine Anderson, Barry A. Law, Charles Ophandt, John S. White, Asian Times)

(Russell McLendon, Ellen Brown, M.E. Johnson, Frazer Chronicle)

I’m a real fan when it comes to what I eat; I used to think that potato chips, Mountain Dew and Twinkies were the breakfast of champions. I thought those microwavable belly bomb grease ball burgers were manna from heaven. I knew that french fries were a food group to be washed down with a Budweiser or two.

Salad, fruits and I were never very close, it wasn’t that I dislike them, I just could think of other foods to eat that were more fun. Bacon, breakfast sausage smothered in hash browns topped with three (over easy) eggs and Texas toast to slop up what was left on my plate were all good for me…..little did I know.

Until I was 60 I never worried about what went into my mouth, I’d always been relatively active, had however always had a bit of a weight problem, but figured that my more or less active lifestyle would help to keep me in the pink.  

I was brought up on oatmeal, fried eggs, or pancakes for breakfast, a peanut butter sandwich or two for lunch, and then would devour the big mean of the day, supper with meat and potatoes, apple pie with ice cream on top, and homemade bread with tons of butter…..(real butter) no oleo on the Frazer table.

My folks always gardened when we were kids living at home; all sorts of vegetables, some berries and our mother always canned fruit and some of the vegetables. To say the least, the Frazer family eat pretty damn good.

My mother came from a farming background, her brother, my uncle had well over a hundred milk cows and farmed a section of ground. My wife’s families owned a farm, always had a bountiful garden, and ate…..if it was possible, better than the Frazer’s.

So when I read or hear about genetically modified food, I immediately drop the word modified, and insert the word altered! Sure I understand that we live in a great big world with billions of hungry people that need to be fed, but as little as I paid attention to the subject, very few companies or organization were mentioned more than Monsanto, the World Health Organization, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

MONSANTO CORPORATION

Monsanto Company is big, really big, they weld much weight in political circles…..world-wide, they are a publicly traded American multinational chemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.

Monsanto Company is a leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed and of the herbicide glyphosate which it markets under the Roundup brand.

Monsanto was founded in 1901 by John Queeny, and by the 1940’s was a major producer of plastics, including polystyrene and synthetic fibers. Notable achievements by the company and its scientists as a chemical company included breakthrough research on catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation and being the first company to mass-produce light emitting diodes (LED’s). In addition, Monsanto also manufactured controversial products such as the insecticide DDT, PCB’s, Agent Orange and recombinant bovine (growth hormone).

In 1983 Monsanto was among the first to genetically modify a plant cell, along with three academic teams, and was the first company world-wide to conduct field trials of genetically modified crops, which it did in 1987. Between 1997 and 2002 the company divested itself from most of its chemical business through a process of mergers and spin-offs that focused the company on biotechnology.

IT’S HOW THEY ROLL

Monsanto is notable around the world for its involvement in high profile lawsuits, as both plaintiff and defendant. It has been involved in a number of class action suits, where fines and damages have run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, usually over health issues related to its products. Monsanto made frequent used the court system to defend its patents, particularly in the area of agricultural biotechnology, as have other companies in this field.

In the early 1990’s Monsanto faced dozens of lawsuits over the harm caused by PCB’s, and one Charleston, West Virginia attorney filed 70 cancer lawsuits for a chemical plant in suburban Nitro, West Virginia.

300,000 organic farmers have filed suit against Monsanto for allegedly contaminating seed that was manufactured by Monsanto. Many lawsuits have been brought by hundreds and thousands of disgruntled farmers for what they claim seed has done to their fields, their livestock, and the resistance that pesticide weed killers can cause in the fields.

Without exception the Monsanto Company uses a legion of attorneys, the legal system, and H.R. 933 an appropriations bill that President Obama signed into law in April. Here’s what Section 735 of H.R. 933 says:

“In the event that a determination of non-regulated status made pursuant to section 411 of the Plant Protection Act is or has been invalidated or vacated, the Secretary of Agriculture shall, notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon request by a farmer, grower, farm operator, or producer, immediately grant temporary permits or temporary deregulation in part, subject to necessary and appropriate condition consistent with section 4511 (a) or 412 (c) of the Plant Protection Act, which interim conditions shall authorize the movement, introduction contained cultivation, commercialization and other specifically enumerated activities and requirements, including measures designed to mitigate or minimize potential adverse environmental effects, if any, relevant to the Secretary’s evaluation of the petition for non-regulated status, while ensuring  that growers or other users are able to move, plant, cultivate, introduce into commerce and carry out other authorized activities in a timely manner: Provided. That all such conditions shall be applicable only for the interim period necessary for the Secretary to complete any required analyses or consultation related to the petition for non-regulated status: Provides further, that nothing in this section shall be construed as limiting the Secretary’s authority under section411, 412 and 414 of the Plant Protection Act.”

Not only does Monsanto operate with impunity, there is a section of law that was written (above) that enables the company to navigate throughout the world unfettered, and left to their devises to alter seed that has been modified, and that they deem safe for human consumption.

I GUESS REPLACING WORDS IS OKAY

Guess I’m not too far out a tree limb when I replace the word modified with altered when I address the Monsanto Company and what they seem to be doing around the world on an every escalating speed. This is one industry where seed and pesticide are intricately tied together at the hip. Without weed control, without crop dusting, and without seed that will produce good annual harvests, people will go undernourished or will starve and die.

It is a balancing act that developing countries must identify and be aware of, as climate changes occur, agritech companies plan to introduce advanced crops that are designed to survive heat waves, drought, resilient qualities that will become increasingly important in a world marked by weather patterns.

Any issue that is discussed with regards to food supplies, seed cultivation and the pesticides to strengthen plants, and ride fields of weed infestation starts and ends with the Monsanto Corporation, It would seem to be another of those business concerns in the world today that are too big to fail! With more than 20,000 employees throughout the world, and a marketing strategy designed to take full advantage of evolving country’s short sightedness, at the present time, the industry is a self policing mostly out of control world-wide service.

It would seem…..at the present time that we have little say with our food stuffs, it’s impossible to fight patents, contamination of original seeds, and food safety laws that make it illegal to save your own seed without approval of the seed companies.

It would seem to me, as the danger to food born diseases continue to mount, government, or some other international organization needs to “step up to the plate” and monitor these agri companies that we have to put our faith in to bring us safe foods to eat.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!