Today I would like to talk about GMCs, that is Genetically Modified Crops. More commonly referred to as GMOs (gee-mohs), these are crops in which the DNA of the plant has been changed in some way by scientific process. GMOs are relatively new to the market, first emerging under science funded by Monsanto Corporation in 1983.
In order to talk about GMO crops, and food in general, I would like to go on a small examination of how the average citizen in developed nations goes about acquiring food:
Step one: open fridge
Step two: observe emptiness of fridge
Step three: drive to store
Step four: buy required produce/food products
Step five: drive home and put acquired food products in fridge/storage
Step six: cook when ready.
It is perfectly acceptable, and perfectly normal, for over 70 per cent of the population of North America to get their food exclusively from wholesale food stores (grocery stores). That is the way the general food market operates these days-- with a few farmers supplying distributors with vast quantities of foods for people (not unlike myself) who live in cities and buy the food they need from a grocery store or food market.
Now, that's roughly 3/4s of a continent's population getting their food exclusively from grocery stores or wholesale food distributors. The other 30% might dabble in some backyard gardening for produce, visit a farmer's market or road-side stand (I highly recommend all three of these options, by the way) and they might get some portion of their food each year from these alternative sources. Most people, it is fair to say, will buy their food, most of the time, from a grocery store. And that's just fine!
Now that we have that out of the way, lets take a look at how the food gets from the ground to the grocery shelves. The average consumer today is far divorced from the actual process of manufacturing food thanks to these big wholesalers and massive markets. We like the burger, but we have never met (usually don't ever want to meet) the cow. We enjoy the carrot, but not if its got dirt on it!
Farmers are those people who produce what the rest of us (and themselves) consume. They grow a certain crop, usually under contract from a larger company, and they sell the company that crop at the end of the growing season in order to earn an income. This takes a lot of time, effort, and patience, and sometimes--depending on market fluctuation, crop prices, and weather, a farmer can have a bumper year (very, very good return on their labour) or a year that actually throws them into debt.
I don't envy farmers: they are the hardest working people I have ever met (and I have met some damned hard workers) who scrape for every penny they get by the end of the year and over half of their success is determined by Nature. Drought is catastrophic, but so is too much rain. A plague of insects, fungus, rot, or something else detrimental to the crop can ruin a family's income for years. Market prices can cause too much competition so the farmers literally don't get enough money from a crop in order to cover the cost of producing/harvesting it (this happened in British Columbia, Canada, last year, with cherries where 1000 plus tonnes of cherries rotted on the tree because the market was over-flooded with Washington and Oregon imports).
This is the agricultural business, and it is a hard business to be in.
The business gets even harder when you bring in a corporation that corners the market with specialized crops that are heavily regulated by the corporation that owns the patents. See, not even a century ago, crops weren't patented. Then larger agricultural corporations (we'll call them agricorps) came along and began to genetically modify certain plants for various things.
Monsanto is the leader in this genetic modification and owns a vast market share of the agricultural industry. With patents on seeds and crops, Monsanto is able to control where their product is grown, how it is grown, who grows it, and how it is distributed. Their business practices have become so corrupt, that multiple countries have kicked Monsanto out-- literally banned them forever.
Monsanto is regularly rebuked on the internet as being the most evil corporation (literally, the most evil, there are no other corporations more evil than this one [according to the internet]) in the world. The genetic modification of their crops has pushed out small farmers all around the world, including developing nations where farmers are committing suicide because of their inability to compete in the global market Monsanto has dominated.
Connected with everything from falsifying FDA approvals, to bribing congress-people for legislation that favors their patents and market schemes, to outright slavery in Argentina, it seems that Monsanto's sinister reputation is actually well-earned.
Monsanto Corp is one of the largest agricorps (if not the largest, and I couldn't find anyone bigger at the time of writing this blog) in the world. The practice of patenting and licensing its seeds has earned the corporation billions of dollars over several decades. It corners the markets on a number of crops, and does not allow farmers to keep seed crops for the next planting season (meaning farmers have to re-license with Monsanto every year in order to grow these patented GMO products). Monsanto will then buy the produce from the farmers and sell it to wholesalers with a mark up.
A lot of the controversy around GMO crops comes from the process of growing the crop itself. Almost all of Monsanto crops involve the heavy application of pesticides that poison the ground, nearby water sources, and (over time) are extremely detrimental to the soil. Monsanto uses chemicals similar to those found in Agent Orange (a WW2 nerve agent used to kill or directly maim combatant soldiers). A lot of what the food crops are sprayed with is poisonous to both humans and animals-- but necessary for the GMO crops to survive the growing process.
Because the introduction of GMO crops into the marketplace is a recent development (keeping in mind GMOs themselves are only 30 years old) there has been no conclusive scientific evidence that these crops and the chemicals used with them are safe. Recently, a study was released by the University of Caen (France) in which 70% of rats fed GMO corn that contained trace amounts of Monsanto-made "Round-up" brand weed-killer (available at a hardware store near you) grew massive tumors and most died prematurely. The study was published in peer-reviewed journals and is considered to be the conclusive study on the long-term effects of GMO consumption.
Interestingly, despite this study the USDA and FDA have not repealed any permits granted to Monsanto Corp for use of their crops or chemicals. While countries like Hungary have outright banned Monsanto crops--taking to the fields and burning them, then compensating the farmers generously for their lost income, the US Congress recently passed a bill that limited the power of the government to ban the sale of Monsanto crops if more concerns regarding the safety of the product arose.
A link to an explanation of this bill, provided by the astute Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, can be found here:
http://www.realfarmacy.com/jon-stewart-on-the-monsanto-protection-act/
So now the question becomes: now that safety concerns have arisen due to GMO products, what is likely to happen? Will the market continue down the path of mono-culture and genetically modified food? As a consumer, are you worried about what you are eating, even if it's produce and is claimed to be healthy for you?
Until next time, Adieu.
Factual correction: Agent orange was used in Vietnam, and is most definitely not a nerve agent. It's a defoliant. Dioxins in agent orange (a result of the manufacturing process) were the toxic components that harmed human beings; agent orange by itself is actually relatively harmless to humans. Lots pesticides and herbicides are like that.
ReplyDeletePeople have been genetically modifying organisms for literally thousands of years (selective breeding is an excellent example of this). The only difference today is that now, we can do it all at once, without regard for long-term consequences. In the past, changes were always gradual. Today, one generation is all that is needed, and presto! you have roundup-ready canola, or wheat, or glow-in-the-dark plants.
None of this is necessarily a bad thing, provided the science is sound. The trick is, it isn't. The science gets buried under all of the hype, and marketing, and emotion that surrounds the issue. Add to that the fact that life itself is being patented these days, with a very powerful profit motive, and you've got the issues we have today.
As for Monsanto being evil? Nope. Monsanto is protecting it's own interests, and acting completely rationally in that regard – a corporation can no more be evil than a brick can. Both can kill you. The laws (or lack of them) that allow them to do so are the evil part.