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| An anti-GMO sign prepared by a Seed Freedom LA member for the March Against Monsanto in May 2013 |
Tomorrow
Washington state will vote on a bill to label genetically engineered
seeds (GE), commonly called 'GMO's' for 'genetically modified organisms' –
a term coined by the industry itself because the 'genetically
engineered' moniker was deemed to be harder to sell to the public. In honor of that, some activists want to make sure 'GE' is used as much as GMO. A
similar effort went down to defeat in California just last year after
millions of dollars were spent to keep consumers stupid. A corresponding smear campaign is being waged in Washington, in fact spending even
more money in Washington (per capita) than California, and as I write this, the
race seems neck and neck.
Those
wishing to keep Americans ignorant of the pervasiveness of
genetically engineered foods do not tout how great the seeds are –
knowing full well that every claim they ever made about their product
can be easily refuted, sometimes by their very supporters! For
example, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), with
many former Monsanto employees and predilection for supporting the
dubious GE technology (even pressuring foreign countries into
purchasing them with our government's State Department help) conducted a 15 year study that
clearly shows NO increase in yield by GE seeds – and another that proves
that MORE pesticides have been used, showing the absurdity of 'less
pesticide use' claimed by the purveyors of these seeds. There is no
good reason to use GMO seeds. Improvements in the last decade of corn production on US farms was attributed to regular breeding of hybrids and
not GMO seeds. By the USDA itself!
It
is time we come face to face with the truth: GE seeds point the way
to an apocalypse that is far more real than any other we have faced
with exception of nuclear meltdown – either by war, or more likely
by a nuclear power plant.
The
landscape of a world where GE crops are grown would be an Armageddon.
The claims that we need GE seeds to feed the world are bogus to
begin with, but imagine for a moment what what the GE industry is proposing for the way food is grown. Vast fields of genetically
related corn and beans, sprayed by a toxic cocktail to rid all these
fields of insects and weeds. All these acres of like plants with like chemicals are an invitation
– which are already very apparent in fields across the US today –
for Nature to respond with new and 'improved' weeds and insects – in this time, GE companies have been forced to coerce the USDA and
FDA to increase the allowable levels of insecticides in our foods by
eight fold! Why? Because the weeds and insects EVOLVE! And they
will continue to EVOLVE. (One wonders if the scientists in these
corporations are creationists? Certainly this experiment with GE
plants and their poisons will prove evolution is not just a
'theory!')
Already
proposals are surfacing for the use of a component of Agent Orange as an
herbicide on our food to the horror of anyone cognizant of the
potential of Agent Orange for destroying human life.
But
this is the way it HAS to go!
Always,
ever increasing amounts of poison in ever increasing potency.
Where
would this end? It can't. There is no stopping evolution. Nature
responds. And soon the soil is so toxic nothing will grow. There is
no hope in chemical agriculture. Eventually a point is reached
where there is more death than life and you can declare the soil as dead.
And populations of unintended victims - other insects, weeds, birds, mammals, reptiles - of the poisons have died off, to extinction or to endangered levels. The soil, lifeless, blows
away or floats down the river to clog our precious dams and ruining
waterways. Using the word 'Armageddon' is not far fetched. Without concerted action, this is the specter before us today.
Voting
to label GE or GMO crops is a good first step. Hopefully, with
consumers getting the chance to choose, it will spell the end of this
ill-considered experiment. In fact, though, we cannot rest until they are banned.
Completely.
Every cell in a GE plant has changed DNA. When a GE
plant is mated with a regular plant, the regular plant inherits the
GE traits, fouling it and destroying it for use as food in the eyes
of a majority of consumers (why labeling is being fought with so much
money). The economic devastation to the United States' trade balance
is already quite high and will only get higher – especially as more
'non-GE' crops are found to have GE markers in them, transferred by
simply growing close enough to be crossed by GE pollen.
This
should be a crime, but currently US law makers have seen fit to
protect the pollutor and not the pollutee. The best technology
involving GMO or GE crops will be the technology that gets the
modification OUT of the crops that are collateral damage in this
money making venture that costs other humans, their food and the
environment it grows in.
Banning
GE or GMO crops is the only solution that solves the problem and it must happen sooner than later - time is not on our side! Already, a Canadian study has been published showing widespread GE contamination in supposedly clean crops and in the wild! This is NOT good news for future generations. Not only have these GE companies behaved badly at getting government approval and support (through donations to political campaigns), they have acted with the utmost lack of responsibility in allowing their damned pollen to spread without any intention of containment or prevention of contamination of wild plant or plants on adjacent farms that did not want GMO technology. The recent debacle of the GMO wheat in Oregon is an example of the irresponsible behavior of these corporations. Their crimes are against humanity and nature and there is no hyperbole farfetched enough to paint a picture of the damage they have done. We will pay in our increased medical bills and an appalling devastation to wildlife and the environment for decades to come.
david
