My post on the how to keep Monsanto out of your home garden seems to have really hit a nerve with supporters of GM foods.
This morning, I received an email from the CEO/President of a large soybean seed company in the Midwest who writes:
I just read your article “The Four Steps Required To Keep Monsanto Out of Your Garden”. I favor choice when it comes to the food you eat and agree with you on that part . I do not agree that it is right to attack Monsanto and all the good work that they are doing to increase yields for farmers to keep the price of food low enough so the poorest of the poor can afford to eat. If we all had to eat organic many people in this world would starve due to the higher cost of food and lower production.
I respect your views but attacking Monsanto is not in the interest of poor people and world food production. GMO’s are not bad and have passed all the standards set by regulatory systems around the world and are proven safe. Thanks for listening.
My word for word email response?
Stop drinking the Kool-Aid my friend.
GMOs are far from “proven safe” as this CEO claims and the sob story that Monsanto is somehow helping the poor and starving people of the world is nothing but a PR stunt that while effective, has no basis in truth or reality.
As Mark Twain once said, “It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.”
There are many highly capable and obviously intelligent people that have completely bought the scam that GMOs are safe and going to feed the world baloney.
Perhaps this most recent news out of Europe will give them a much need kick in the pants to wake them up to the reality of the situation.
Independent Experts Find GM Foods Contain Dangerous Gene
The European Union’s official, independent food watchdog group, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), is reporting that the approval process for GM crops failed to identify a poisonous gene discovered in 54 of 86 GM plants.
Most alarmingly, this viral gene known as “GENE VI” was discovered in the most widespread GM crops, notably corn and soy, which are heavily used in animal feed for livestock producing meat, milk, and eggs.
How did the viral gene get into the GM crops in the first place?
The problem starts right in the laboratory where GM foods are synthesized by an army of scientists playing God with millions of unsuspecting guinea pigs blithely buying unlabeled GM laced products at the supermarket.
These scientists insert foreign genes from other organisms (plant or animal) into a target plant using a technique which allows these foreign genes to “piggyback” on common soil or plant based viruses.
Assumption is the Mother of Error it seems as these scientists had expected that the virus genes transporting the foreign genes into the target plant would not be present once the GM plant was actually grown in the field.
The EFSA research (Independent Science News) has now conclusively shown that this major assumption upon which the supposed “safety” of GMOs is based is not the case.
Not. Even. Close.
How the presence of this viral gene could have been missed by the biotech companies, government regulators, and even university scientists is beyond comprehension.
The EFSA research indicated the following:
This situation represents a complete and catastrophic system failure.
There are clear indications that this viral gene might not be safe for human consumption. It also may disturb the normal functioning of crops, including their natural pest resistance.
A reasonable concern is that the protein produced by Gene VI might be a human toxin. This is a question that can only be answered by future experiments.
Dr. Julian Little, chairman of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC) which represents the biotech companies, had this to say in response:
... nearly three trillion meals containing GM ingredients have been eaten without a single substantiated case of ill-health. The combination of these two facts can give consumers a huge amount of confidence in the safety of GM crops.
I guess Dr. Little isn’t really paying attention to the skyrocketing cases of food allergies and digestive complaints in the past decade or so, particularly allergies to corn and soy, the top two GM crops.
It’s always easier to just continue with business as usual and hide behind PR campaigns focusing on starving children and fudged reports about the “safety” of frankenfoods when the corporate bottom line (and the McMansion mortgage payment) is at stake, isn’t it Mr. CEO?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources
Uncovered, the “toxic” gene hiding in GM crops: Revelation throws new doubt over the safety of foods
We used to live in UK where GMO food is not legal, but certain people are pushing to try to make it legal. Part of that push is through education of children. My son told us that one day in school they had an entire class dedicated to teaching the children about the benefits of GMO foods and how GMOs will eradicate world hunger and help save the environment. That same week there was a television show on Channel 4 about how people’s fear of GMOs is irrational. As far as I know GMO food still isn’t sold there, but they are pushing for it. The unfortunate thing is people like the person who wrote you this letter believe the hype.
If the CEO of a seed supply company is reading your blog, well done. You are obviously reaching large groups of sheeple…I mean people.
I’ve had an idea floating around in my head for a few years. Someday I’d like to start a non-profit to benefit the “poor people” in my community. I’d love to find people willing to turn their back yards into container gardens and then teach these people how to garden and prepare the food they grow. I’m not sure how to make it happen yet, but one of these days I’m going to bring good food to the poor, one backyard garden at a time.
Check out Will Allen, in Wisconsin, I believe…just finished reading his book…it is what he started up there…wow, and it is slowly expanding.
Thanks! I’ll check it out!
There are also some articles on the Internet about him, as well as a news piece on YouTube.
I’ve just heard of a local charity that’s been set up to do this exact thing. go check it out, you might be able to use the framework to start up you own project 🙂
Sarah,
Please let us know if you get another response. !!!
I 100% agree that Monsato is no good and has destroyed the ability for small farmers to be competitive and independent….but the study referenced from France had a number of uncontrolled variables…and the study rats they used are ones bred to have short lives and are highly susceptible to genetic mutations (natural and environmentally caused) along with a number of other problems with the study. Show me 5 or 6 other independent, empirical studies that are much better designed and report GMO’s cause cancer then I will believe it. Navigating the sea of misinformation out there is tough, which is why I won’t let my biases overlook what the science really says.
But that’s just the academic in me that’s bothered.
All that aside- TOTALLY agree that our food production processes are completely out of whack- environmentally, health-wise, and economically. I buy organic produce when I can afford it, and I ALWAYS buy hormone and antibiotic-free meat
Sarah isn’t refering to the rat tumor study in her blog post. She’s referencing a more recent study that found a viral gene in the actual plant. The linked article has all the details. Click through to read them.
Oh, thanks, Mr.CEO. I just remembered I forgot to send Monsanto a Thank You card for creating DDT and Agent Orange. So wonderful.
It is TOTAL BS. More and more countries are turning down GMO seeds, free at first but then the farmer has to buy them each year and the assorted required chemical sprays. Brazil recently cut ties with USAID specifically because they do not want to become monsanto seed slaves. Kudos to them and the other countries who see the initial free seeds as a long time impoverishing nightmare.
What about the inconvenient fact that the GMOs are engineered to take MORE pesticide (Roundup) not less? Roundup on it’s own has been linked to cattle deaths. Ranchers are getting out of business – disproportional amount of stillborn calves.
Professor Don Huber of Purdue University wrote to the Obama administration last term warning not to go ahead with the approval of GMO alfalfa. An entity was discovered (not yet named) in animal tissues fed GMOs (i& Roundup residue).. The Chinese government was so concerned that they contacted professor Huber about the odd, unidentified specks in animal tissue.
LOVE your response!
There’s a verse from the book of Proverbs that says, “there is a way that seems right to a man, but it’s end is the way of death.” (14:12) Never have I felt so strongly about the truth of this in regards to the transformation that’s taken place in the food industry. Maybe in the beginning there was a desire to serve a better purpose?? But now I’d say that GMO is serving the DECREASE the surplus population – not help it at all! The love of money is the root of all evil……..
Not to mention the fact our society wastes nearly 50% of the food we produce. GMO’s will never meet the hunger needs of the poor. He’s sickeningly uninformed. I suggest he watch Dive! and read your blog more often. He will learn something.
Love your work. The response is excellent .