Yesterday, just hours after receiving an email from Greenpeace, urging me to take action on GE foods, I watched a startling documentary relating to the problematic issue of bio-technology.The email talked about research, which showed kidney and liver issues arising in rats fed GE food. The researchers deduced that GE food was not safe for rats consumption, and yet Australia has allowed foods containing GE ingredients (with no labelling laws), into our market, and is considering allowing the production of GE crops.
The production of GE crops in America, and other parts of the world is already prolific.
George Bush, a big Monsanto fan and ally, believes that quite directly, those that oppose bio-technology are baby killers, and preventing food from entering the mouths of babes.
Clearly, this is not a production issue though. The world already has enough food to feed the world, and too, if anything GE crops produce a smaller yield than regular crops.
Monsanto, the multinational bio-technology giant behind the massive push(and it has come to shove) towards GE food, began making pesticides. They realised, if they simultaneously engineered crops that would be more resistant to the pesticides, they could at least double their money. So they did.
Their self claimed goal, is to control the global food supply.
This is not a movie, as far as I know, Austin Powers is not planning on saving the day.
I knew a lot of this, but the documentary strung it altogether, illuminating how insidious the deception and greed is.
I felt sick to my stomach. And cried out many times to a bemused cucciolo mio- Those bastards! How do they sleep at night!? How can they get away with this!?
They have already patented the gene maps of their particular crops.
They sell the seed to farmers, and the farmers actually have to pay Monsanto each year, to sow the seeds produced from the previous years crop! -Monsanto sets the price each year.
Further more, the farmers that hold out against Monsanto, and do not buy their seed, are being threatened by cross contamination from GE farms. Monsanto is subsequently suing these guys, for patent breaches, because their crops contain the patented genes!!?
They are planning to patent a pig soon.
The other worrying thing, when taking a pig gene, and placing it in a corn pool, or a jellyfish gene into a cows gene pool- you never quite know how it will turn out.
In cotton as an example- whole new, never seen before proteins have been found.. I don't quite understand the science of it- but it sounds bloody alarming to me!
Monsanto has also been waging a vicious campaign against it's opposition.
People are quickly sacked, silenced or sued.
So the real concerns with GE food are just not getting out- so people can't even make up their own minds!
There is strong anecdotal evidence of animals fed GE feed, suffering fertility issues.
The conception rate has been showed, to often go down to just 30% , with some farmers claiming their entire stock became barren and sterile.
So what to do..
With Monsanto and such businesses being so aggressive and calculating, it can seem like a losing battle..
Their reach and clout, so big, that it seems impossible to escape it's influence altogether..
Buy organic/non-GE (there are hardly any non-GE soy beans crops, globally today)
Support small,independent & local (organic/non-GE) farms
Support organisations fighting against GE food
Write to your Politicians urging for change
While you're at it- vote to impeach Bush & Cheney (hey it couldn't hurt)
Write to companies using GE ingredients, urging change (I know Hormel does!)
Write to Monsanto & tell em where to stick it!
Spread the word!-
Tell anyone that will listen, that you don't eat GE foods, and why
Hey, you could even host your own True food party like I did (this years one is coming soon!)
4 comments:
I'm all for organic foods too, I just wish they'd learn to handle it better, at our local grocery store: they do not put what needs to be refrigerated in the fridge areas, therefore it turns icky and unappetizing, thus discouraging most people to buy it, when you add that to the fact it is rather expensive to begin with.
that picture of the pigs is making me melt. :[
Hah Celine :) -yes the pigs are too cute..
It's hard with organic, because it doesn't last as long as non-organic produce.. it gets sad looking pretty quickly!
Maybe you have an organic farmers market near you?
you know, this is a good idea and I need to look into it. I know there used to be a farmer's market going on on Wednesdays not far from where I live, but I don't know if it's still on, and if they go the organic way. thanks for the idea!
Good post. I also wanted to write more about (vegan) food related topics on vegalicious but just don't have the time. We buy a lot of organic food and in the summer the majority of food comes from our own organic allotment garden.
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