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I say this is a load of dung. I say we need to stop the production of GMO seeds and the cultivation of GMO crops now. If Monsanto can't control their little monsters, then they shouldn't be allowed to create them. Seriously folks. As more and more GMO material cross-contaminates the fields of our nation's farms, the more likely it is that we will see an end to the local agriculture movement, the hope of creating a secure food system that is accessible to all people...rich and poor alike will never be achieved, traditional crops and the cultures that rely on those crops will disappear, and the non-Monsanto co-op, family farm will be come extinct. Monsanto will own all of the crops grown in the Northern Hemisphere, if not the entire world. And we'll all be eating soylent green before it's all over. We CANNOT let this happen. For the sake of our children and all future generations, we have a responsibility to protect non-patented crop varieties and to secure our food supply. The US justice system and the Obama administration are NOT going to help us on this issue. We are on our own to force this issue into the spotlight and to right the wrongdoings of Monsanto and other agribusiness entities who are continuing to use our food supply and our human population as their personal playthings. Boycott any and all products and businesses who use or produce GMO crops, write to your legislators (for what little good it may do), and support groups trying to fight for anti-GMO policy.
The following article spotlights Frank Morton. For those of you who don't know Frank or his work, let me start by saying we are very fortunate to have him living and working in our neck of the woods. He's an Oregon-based farmer and an independent plant breeder/seedsman who has developed numerous outstanding edibles that do very well in the Pacific NW climate. But if Monsanto finds any of their genes in his future seed production he could very well be out of business. And all they have to do is order a few packets of his seeds every year until they find that a significant percentage contains their patented genetic material. Then the litigation will commence and like many other American and Canadian farmers, Frank will either be fighting a losing battle if he goes to court or he'll have to settle, sign a gag order about the litigation and settlement, and pay Monsanto for their trouble and his "transgression".
Alright, I'm off of my soapbox now. Here's something written by a professional journalist for you to read.
Battle Over Beets
Organic seed producer Frank Morton has been warning people for years that genetically modified organisms pose a serious threat to the Willamette Valley’s vegetable seed industry.
Now he thinks his worst GMO nightmare may be coming true.
Roundup Ready sugar beets — a patented variety engineered by Monsanto to tolerate the company’s widely used Roundup herbicide — have turned up in a soil mixture being sold to gardeners at a Corvallis landscaping supply business just a few miles from Morton’s fields.
He fears some of those roots may now be sprouting in area gardens. If so, they could soon start to bolt, sending out clouds of pollen that could fertilize his crop of golden chard — a closely related plant — and render it worthless for the organic seed market. It would also negate years of breeding that went into producing an especially cold-hardy line.
Worse still, Morton says, the GMO sugar beets could cross-pollinate the fields of other chard growers in the area who supply seed to major bagged-salad distributors in California, potentially introducing genetically modified chard into the food system without the approval of federal regulators.
Read the entire article HERE.
I read "Battle Over Beets" with disgust and dismay.
ReplyDeleteAs I read, a thought occurred to me:
What if the "accidental release" of Monsanto's GMO Sugar Beet seed was not at all accidental?
Contamination of open-pollinated seed with patented GMO seed would almost certainly be to the advantage of corporations like Monsanto and Sygenta.
These obscene, out-of-control mad-scientist corporate giants and their legal armies enjoy putting honest agricultural producers out of business. Simply snuff out the competition, and collect a greater market share.
We must keep our heirloom seed supply safe. The only way to do that is to plant, grow, harvest, eat, and save seed from every heirloom that we can.