MONSANTO’S GOALS

I blogged genetically modified food labeling previously. Now, Monsanto is spending a million dollars a day to defeat the proposition on the ballot to label genetically modified foods.  So far, they’ve spent $48 million with some very misleading ads about why we shouldn’t allow genetically modified foods to be labeled. Not prevented. But, not labeled. What do they fear?  It seems to me, any time a company that peddles poisons that have already done damage to birds, fish and animals fights with their big bucks, it is not because they are concerned for us. They are afraid you won’t buy their products. Agribusiness in California is very successful. It isn’t the farmers who stand to lose. It is Monsanto. They expect to make millions on GMO foods and they don’t want you to know. Another block to transparency.

I will repeat parts of my former blog, in case you didn’t see it.

We’ve had genetically modified products for ages. Just hand pollinating or cross pollinating is genetically modifying a plant. Or, grafting a scion from a different fruit tree onto another, is an example.  Adding herbicides to seeds, is a bit different.  Any company who modifies a product that grows in our common soil,  should know the end result if the seedlings spread to the wild or cause unwanted changes. The company should have to prove that their GMO seeds will in fact, cause no harm or affect nature in a negative way. But, our weakened FDA did not make that happen.

Now comes information from a study that is disturbing and begs caution.  However, I don’t know the size of the study and who conducted it. I read about it on MoveOn.org. an organization I trust.

Rats fed a lifetime diet of Monsanto’s genetically engineered corn or exposed to the company’s popular Roundup herbicide, in amounts considered “safe” in drinking water and genetically modified crops in the U.S., developed tumors and suffered severe kidney and liver damage, according to a study released this week.

We may not develop the same problems as rats, but even rats are part of the environmental balance we need. What else will it affect?  Birds? Or raptors that eat rats and gophers?

And this from the editors of On Earth Magazine, a publication that deals with environmental issues:

Carbon-fueled climate change is responsible for many terrifying things, but some normal-seeming rice plants in one recent study is a warning. Scientists from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture grew a feral, weedy form of rice along side of  a cultivated form in controlled environments that reflected carbon dioxide levels of a century ago. As C0-2 levels went up, the weedy rice was better able to synchronize its flowering period to that of the cultivate rice, leading to cross pollination and resulting in a zombie-like hybrid with alarming characteristics. From the feral parent, came a diminished nutritional content and a weaker hull. But, the cultivated parent gave it a genetic resistance to weed killers. The weedy rice that always pops up in fields has been traditionally controlled by herbicides.

Now, add in climate change with genetically modified seeds with resistant chemicals in them?  It could be a horror movie.
We don’t have corporate soil and private soil. Don’t allow Monsanto to buy its way around labeling to prevent you from having a choice of whether you want to eat GMO foods or not. Or feed baby food to your baby from seeds injected with herbicides.

Monsanto’s goal?  Higher profits.