I just stumbled upon the blog, "A Month Without Monsanto," by April Davila, and I highly recommend checking it out. April took on the challenge of going a month without using any products that could be traced back to agricultural giant, Monsanto. The blog is fascinating and a remarkable example of how consolidated modern agriculture has become.
She does a great job of illustrating the struggles of trying to avoid Monsanto products and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but maybe we need to ask why we should avoid them at all? Are we in the local food movement just a bunch of traditionalist Luddites? Are we missing the potential in what could be the next greatest human innovation? I don't think so. Here are just a few reasons why GMOs seem dangerous to me:
She does a great job of illustrating the struggles of trying to avoid Monsanto products and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but maybe we need to ask why we should avoid them at all? Are we in the local food movement just a bunch of traditionalist Luddites? Are we missing the potential in what could be the next greatest human innovation? I don't think so. Here are just a few reasons why GMOs seem dangerous to me:
- There is virtually no research on their long term health effects in humans (though they've been shown to cause organ failure in other mammals).
- The increase in the use of GMOs has caused an increase in seed prices for farmers.
- Because Monsanto owns the genes it alters, farmers can no longer save seed from season to season. This pushes family farms out of business and leaves us with corporately owned factory farms.
- Genetic modification (and the ownership of genes concentrated in the hands of one company) creates a monoculture that is extremely susceptible to disease and pests.
These are only a handful of the numerous reasons to avoid GMOs, and Monsanto products in particular. April's blog demonstrates, though, as Monsanto's power grows, it will become harder and harder to do so.
Image courtesy of Jamblichus's Weblog
