Commentsby
Bob Brandon....
Frankenfood
80 people were arrested in
Minneapolis Monday, as they demonstrated against the latest pop cause:
Bioengineering. There were scuffles, and of course some got hurt.
There were cyanide cannisters left at a McDonalds and other locations.
It was a nasty, serious situation. These are people who either feel
so strongly about the genetic issue, or they're just looking for trouble.
Either way, the topic of changing nature by man has been thrust to the
forefront.
I can understand the motivation
behind all this genetic tinkering: it's money, influence, and control.
You see, unlike typical plants, once you insert a special gene, you can
patent these living things. Look at what Monsanto has been doing.
Their new corn and soybeans are resistant to their own Roundup herbicide.
That means if you plant their brand, you can slather all the poison that
you can buy from them, that you want, and it won't hurt the plant.
Oh, it does poison the planet, the rivers, and watertable, but that's not
something we have to worry about now.
Thanks to some mad scientist
toiling away in a secure lab, Monsanto has been dreaming of the day when
they would control the world supply of food. They have positively
gone about this the wrong way. Take for instance the time-honored
practice of saving seeds from one harvest to the next. For most farmers,
that's a major cost savings, a way to improve the quality of their harvest,
and often the only way they can afford to plant another crop.
But now, growers who use
the Monsanto crops must sign a contract stating they will not save seeds.
Big M even has crews that visit fields on a regular basis to assure their
rules are being enforced. If not, you'll find yourself at the mercy
of their rabid lawyers. That's not exactly the best way to foster
goodwill...whatever that used to be. Oh yeah, that was where business
used to try to attract customers and retain them by treating them with
courtesy, concern and good service. That's not the way it's done
now, apparently.
And then there are the concerns
many people have over the genetically altered plants. Just what will
this do to us? Man has evolved over the eons by eating native plants
and cultivating others. Suddenly, there is a shift in our eating
habits, and we are forced to eat genetically rearranged material.
Just what will that do to a child when he becomes an adult? Just
what will it do to our species?
What if it takes two or three
decades to manifest into something horrible? It's just like Pandora's
Box. Once the sorrows are released, you can't put them back again.
I don't think you can trust top-level executives in a profit-driven mega-corporation
to care that much about the fate of the human race. As long as the
bottom line continues to improve, we will see ever more genetic tampering.
As long as humanity is put
in a secondary role, people are going to resist. There are strict
rules in many countries barring any sort of genetically altered foods.
As a result, America's growers, the main food supplier for a large portion
of humankind, have been locked out of the market. Thanks to the manipulation
of companies like Monsanto, the balance of power is shifting, from the
tractor to the boardroom.
It's just a matter of time
until there are no more privately owned farms in America. We've been
headed down that long dark road for decades...this is bound to speed up
the process. And in the meantime, all the money and power becomes
increasingly more concentrated. Is this a good thing?
Should we be concerned that
faceless corporations are meddling with our children's food supply?
Should we care that American products are becoming untouchable in many
parts of the world. Are you bothered when you see people in the streets
violently advocating the end of genetic experimentation?
I could be wrong, it's possible
that genetic engineering holds the potential to greatly increase our food
supply, thereby feeding the millions of hungry people worldwide.
It's possible that by tweaking a few genes, we can have tomatoes that grow
year round, even in the snow, or lettuce that resists rot on the way to
market, or countless other wonderous innovations. But the sad fact
remains, we just don't know. We are not well enough informed to know
if this is good or bad, and many of us would rather err on the side of
caution. |
