A good friend of mine on Facebook shared this cartoon recently and I immediately thought, “Oh, that has to go up on Eat Drink Better!” So, here’s the cartoon, created by Marc Roberts (CLICK TO ENLARGE).
Without naming the now infamous corporation, Roberts seems to be referencing Monsanto (and maybe a few others that engage in a similar practice of trying to commodify life and monopolize the market).
So, it seems appropriate to direct you towards a great petition by CREDO that asks grocery store CEOs to refuse Monsanto’s new GM sweet corn. Here’s the intro to the CREDO post on this petition:
Right now, Monsanto, the corporation responsible for producing roughly 90% of genetically modified seeds around the globe, is working to bring their new, GMO sweet corn to a grocery store aisle or farmer’s market near you.1
Unlike Monsanto’s other GMO crops — which are primarily fed to animals — this sweet corn is intended for direct human consumption.
This is the first time Monsanto has engineered a vegetable that could be served straight to your dinner table. It’s health impacts on humans are largely unknown – but if this unlabeled, and potentially dangerous products succeeds, Monsanto is sure to bring us even more.
Again, here’s the petition page.
And if you haven’t heard Vandana Shiva speak on this matter (Monsanto and monopoly control of seeds), or read her stuff, here’s a great quote from her:
We are in a food emergency. Speculation and diversion of food to biofuel has contributed to an uncontrolled price rise, adding more to the billion already denied their right to food. Industrial agriculture is pushing species to extinction through the use of toxic chemicals that kill our bees and butterflies, our earthworms and soil organisms that create soil fertility. Plant and animal varieties are disappearing as monocultures displace biodiversity. Industrial, globalized agriculture is responsible for 40 percent of greenhouse gases, which then destabilize agriculture by causing climate chaos, creating new threats to food security.
But the biggest threat we face is the control of seed and food moving out of the hands of farmers and communities and into a few corporate hands. Monopoly control of cottonseed and the introduction of genetically engineered Bt cotton has already given rise to an epidemic of farmers’ suicides in India. A quarter-million farmers have taken their lives because of debt induced by the high costs of nonrenewable seed, which spins billions of dollars of royalty for firms like Monsanto.
Without action to keep food and seed monopolies out of the hands of corporations like Monsanto, I think this world is going to be in a whole lot of screwed.