Environment
,
Food
,
Nutrition
,
Organic Food
,
Agent Orange
,
Corporate Social Responsibility
,
GMO Labeling
,
Vietnam War
,
Genetic Engineering
,
Genetically Engineered Foods
,
Monsanto
,
Monsanto Protection Act
,
Natural Resources
,
Green News
Keeping our children from harm in today's chemically-saturated world
is one of the great challenges of modern parenting. The more I read the
news, the more I want to look for toddler-sized quarantine suits on
Etsy, but the most proactive way I can protect my daughter is to keep
myself educated on these issues -- even if that means I get forehead
wrinkles from excessive worry. In addition to the health of my child, I
fear for the ecological health of the planet. Last time I checked, Earth
is the only place we have to live, and what kind of future am I
providing for my daughter if I am not cognizant of how my life, and the
decisions of my government, effect our environment? That is why every
parent should be aware of the
Monsanto Protection Act and what it means for their family.
When President Obama signed the Monsanto Protection Act, many citizens were
outraged by this blatant violation of the Constitution. By approving this act, Obama has allowed Monsanto to exist
above the law,
since genetically modified seeds are now protected from any litigation
involving health risks. That is strange, right? If you were confident in
your product, why would you be concerned about lawsuits involving
health risks? You may wonder how this applies to you, considering you
don't buy Monsanto-Oh's for breakfast, but essentially, you are.
Monsanto's genetically engineered corn, soy, wheat and beet crops have
infiltrated our
entire food system, and you could be eating their products every day and not even realizing it.
Many people, including children, have developed deadly allergies to
peanuts and other food products. Imagine the trauma for a child who has
to deal with their mortality every time they eat -- how terrifying for
the affected kids and their parents. According to
PBS.org,
"Some critics of GM foods feel that the possibility exists that those
genetically modified food crops may unintentionally introduce a new
allergen -- for example, a fish gene can be put into a plant.... "
Although I am fan of sushi, I don't really think it is necessary to
cross-breed it with my strawberries -- especially considering the
potential adverse reaction. PBS then goes on to explain, "Another
potential hazard is the possibility that bacteria in our guts could pick
up antibiotic-resistant genes found in many GM foodstuffs... in
principle, it could exacerbate the already worrisome spread of
disease-causing bacteria that have proven able to withstand our
antibiotics."
Beyond frightening and unforeseen potential consequences to human
health, there are serious ecological effects we can't afford to ignore.
As well as patenting all its seeds, Monsanto genetically engineered a "
suicide gene"
for each seed -- and they don't even offer them therapy or Xanax.
Traditionally, farmers around the world have saved seeds in order to
cultivate a variety of strands to help maintain bio-diversity. Monsanto
now forces farmers to use one seed that essentially kills itself so it
cannot be used the next season, and therefore the farmers have to
purchase new seed annually. This one seed is mass-produced in one
location, resulting in
mono-crop farming.
So when you drive cross-country, one-third of the time you will be
staring at corn and soy fields making you wish the Children of the Corn
will emerge and eat your eyeballs directly out of your sockets. Massive
fields with one crop, created from one seed, become very susceptible to
pests -- hence the creation of pesticides. And because there is no
crop-rotation to replenish fields, the pesticides often seep further
into the ground. You want to know something fun about pesticides? A lot
of them are made from
Agent Orange. Yeah! That stuff we used as a
chemical weapon
in the Vietnam War. Monsanto actually developed Agent Orange for the
U.S. government, but since it had some left over, Monsanto discovered
the perfect market for it -- our food!
I know organic is annoyingly
expensive,
but that is because organic farmers don't receive the subsidies that GM
farmers do. It is not like organic farmers are blinged out in diamonds
because of all their profit from kale. They are barely scraping by
trying to compete in a marketplace dominated by agribusiness. And think
of it this way -- until the 1940s the whole world ate organic all the
time. Because that was all there was. Of course this is a very
complicated issue because millions of people are dependent on GM crops
to survive, but as an individual with purchasing power, how you spend
your money will dictate where the market will start to lean. Supporting
local farmers and getting involved with
Community Supported Agriculture
will keep your costs down, and the more people who buy food grown
without GMOs, the more companies will move in that direction.
It can be difficult to make an assessment for yourself of the
personal and environmental risks of genetically engineered crops,
because both the pro and con sides of the argument are very impassioned.
You can find massive amounts of research pointing you in either
direction, and that in and of itself should be a major warning sign.
That the long-term consequences of these products are not yet understood
means that we, the consumers, are essentially the test subjects of a
global experiment involving our entire food system. What kind of
responsible scientist uses humans as their guinea pigs? Not to throw the
mice and rats under the bus, but I would much prefer we test on them
for a few decades before we use our children.
Follow Toni Nagy on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/tonibolognamind
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