Many people don’t realize that genetically modified (GMO) foods are already in our diets: in corn, soybeans, canola, and now in alfalfa.
According to Will Rostoff, senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety, in the summer of 2005 the USDA approved the commercialization of Monsanto’s “Round-Up Ready” GMO alfalfa. Now, throughout the United States, GMO alfalfa seed can be sold and planted without the need for a permit or disclosure to neighboring farmers.
The Center for Food Safety, in collaboration with other civic groups and concerned farmers, is filing a lawsuit against the US government, claiming that the USDA failed to submit an Environmental Impact Statement on a major federal action in accord with the National Environmental Policy Act.
In a previous post I have already discussed some of the potential health and environmental risks of GMO food crops. Yet the case of alfalfa reveals an entirely new dimension within the tangled schemes of genetic engineers and the companies they serve.
Most farmers’ initial reaction to the introduction of “Round-Up Ready” alfalfa was one of surprise and disbelief, says Pat Trask, South Dakota alfalfa seed farmer and a plantiff in the Center for Food Safety lawsuit. For years farmers have had great success using Round-Up, generically known as glysophate, to control annual weeds within their alfalfa fields.
So, why would Monsanto introduce a product that was completely unnecessary from an agricultural management perspective?
Alfalfa is pollinated by insects, like honeybees and bumblebees. These bees can travel up to four miles in search of water and forage. Under natural conditions, cross pollination and gene flow are a reality. There can be little doubt that Monsanto is aware of these simple facts.
Monsanto considers the seed and the DNA of their GMO crops to be their property. Monsanto, it seems, has a powerful ally in the bees of this world. As bees and other pollinators spread the GMO DNA, Monsanto’s product is introduced into the fields of farmers, both organic and conventional, who had no intent of purchasing or producing GMO alfalfa.
According to Pat Trask, Monsanto has filed many lawsuits against farmers who have inadvertently harvested GMO seed that was cross pollinated from a neighbor’s field. When this happens, the farmer no longer has the right to sell the seed; actually, according to Monsanto, the farmer doesn’t even own the seed.
Previously, it was understood and accepted that the farmer who owns the field also owns the seed. So GMO crops are much more than a Pandora’s Box of health and environmental dangers; they are also a threat to one of the most basic tenets of American democracy: the right to private property.
Monsanto has added an insidious twist to the corporatacry’s eternal quest for greater market penetration and the “wretched spirit of monopoly”. Subverting ecosystem services, like pollination and food production, as a means of forcing farmers to adopt an unnecessary technology, is nothing short of immoral and undemocratic.
As Will Rostoff notes, the lack of federal oversight in this vicious attack against our health, our environment, and our private property rights is deplorable. FDA rubber stamps on pseudo-scientific reports submitted by the petitioning company are simply unacceptable. So write to your Congressman or your Senator, and tell him or her that our American ecosystems are not for sale.
6 responses to “Privatizing the Natural World”
I’m a farmer in the Midwest US and Pat Trask is lying. Any farmer will immediately recognize this entire article as a load of bunk. City folks won’t realize it, though.
Farmers have rights, too, and that includes farming as we see fit. We don’t need people who don’t understand farming trying to tell us how to farm.
Schiller.
I’m betting the last time Schiller Thurkettle touched soil was replacing his golf divot. REAL farmers – like Percy Schmeiser – know that Pat Trask is spot on.
When you delve deeper into this the only people making money at this are Monsanto and the lawyers. In South America they do not pay technology fees for RR beans like they do in the U.S. Why? They don’t have the lawyers like we do here. What right does S & C have to go to Ethiopia and try and do the same thing to the native crops of that country and others like them. They don’t. With open pollinated seed why doesn’t Monsanto control the bees so they don’t cross pollinate my seed. This was not a problem until they brought this on. WHY should the seed farmer suffer from this??
I see Schiller Thurkettle’s comments on blogs dealing with any variety of environmental issues, leading me to strongly suspect that Schiller is a Shillaber.
On the issue of farmers’ rights, it is exceedingly obvious to anyone who knows what a right is that no one has the right to “do as [they] see fit” if that action harms or has the potential to harm others.
On GMOs, there have been NO long term health studies on the health effects of GMOs despite a correlated increase in illnesses with their introduction to the environment. Also, the DNA of GMOs has been shown in a peer-reviewed study to pass through the gut intact. This DNA can then transfer to intestinal fauna. This is dangerous considering that the industry regularly uses anti-biotic marker genes in the creation of GMOs. So genetically engineered food has the potential to create superbugs in your intestine.
No Shill, exposing us to harm is not among your rights.
Oh, one last thing, Shill, Pat Task is not lying, despite your libel. Now here is one thing you will not do: prove me wrong.
Wouldn’t it be righteous to sue Monsanto for contaminating my bees with theier GMO’s? I never wanted my bees to touch their adulterated junk. Now my bess have no choice. Monsanto has crossed the line due to their bottom line and now they blames everyone else for their short sightedness. Blame the bees for stealing your Monsanto genetic secrets dumbsh*ts instead of the farmers who unknowlingly perpetuate your crappy genes out of no fault of theirs. Step on my land and see how far you crawl out of there. If colony collapse disorder is due to their negligence then we will all be the victims including Monsanto employees children. When is enough enough? Kill us all why don’t you in the name of progress? Stupidity always seems to follow some genius move like GMO’s.
all this we are hearing about colony collapse–the word Monsanto popped immediately into my mind. is it possible that their meddling either purposefully or accidentally has something to do with this? they are a nefarious bunch!