The Incestuous High of AgriChemical Problem and Solution

Amber Waves of Grain Brought to You by Monsanto-Dow

Large, angry, vociferous segments of America want to clean house, throw the bums out, and get back to a healthy, vital, united states. Why is it, then, that they are so content to allow the foxes to guard the hen house?

Monsanto’s hegemony over agriculture is perhaps the most glaring example of this disconnect between wanting things to be right but rewarding those who do wrong to the land, our food system, and our general health for decade upon decade.

Here it is in a nutshell.

Monsanto creates genetically-engineered RoundUp-ready corn ©. Monsanto sprays the vast monocultures of RoundUp-ready corn with–you guessed it–RoundUp © whose full COST to the environment is still not yet known. And now, with the (surprise!) emergence of RoundUp-resistant super weeds, Monsanto and Dow are teaming up to spray these same vast monoculture crops with the basic chemicals found in Agent Orange © made by–(this is getting too easy) Monsanto and Dow.

What’s not to like about this self-sustaining system: we sell you the solution; it becomes a problem; we sell you the solution to the problem we created. And this can go on, and on, and on. Who’s going to stop them, anyway?

This is the perpetual golden goose if you own stock in either of these companies or their spin-offs.

Read all about it, if you have the stomach: Dow and Monsanto Join Forces to Poison America’s Heartland.

The system that keeps this kind of corporate tyranny beyond the reach of justice, keeps them winning over human and global health–now that’s something I could whole-heartedly work and vote against, as if future generations depended on it.

If there are “evil doers” about, they have been successful getting their biological agents into our soil and water, our bellies and our blood. And we keep paying them year after year for this service, and they are making billions. And that last phrase trumps doing the right thing every time since we have given control of the nation to shareholders.

How about let’s Occupy Agriculture?

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Share this with your friends!
fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

Articles: 3002

4 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. I absolutely loathe Monsanto and Dow and have for many years – I keep wondering when we are going to do something to stop them right in their tracks. Beautifully said Fred!

  2. It is vitally important in this age that everyone makes an effort to “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” to support the small farmer and his/her endeavors to make a living while farming sustainably. I’m reposting your link on my blog.

  3. I have been so ridiculously slow to switch to organic, much less local, food. I have no excuse other than I am a penny pincher in some things, like groceries. I finally actually bought organic stuff last shopping trip for the first time, from the influence of a visitor who insisted on eating nothing but. After reading this, I feel I am ready to commit to buying more thoughtfully from now on.

Related Posts