There are several areas of human endeavour where profit should not be a factor.  At least not profit on a corporate scale.  The most obvious of these is health care where no business should be making extraordinary amounts of money off the misery and infirmities of the people.  Another area is food production.  Well actually, food should not be produced, it should be grown. 

Agribusinesses – miles of monoculture crops growing in barren soil thanks only to tons of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and water – are doing nothing to solve the problem of how seven billion people can feed themselves.  But they are getting rich.

Now we have the added insult of genetically modified organisms or GMOs. In theory, tinkering with a plant’s genetic make-up could produce one that is better able to withstand drought, or cold, or one that produces more per acre than nature intended.  Unfortunately, in practice GMOs are a disaster, and how they are being marketed is even worse.

Many doctors and scientists have noticed a correlation between the advent of genetically modified corn in particular, and increased cases of autism, gluten intolerance, autoimmune diseases, neurological problems, obesity and a general decline in the heath of populations that consume them.

The average person may think that the only corn they eat comes from local farmers.  They are unaware that corn syrup is made from genetically modified corn, or that corn syrup is added to practically every processed food on the supermarket shelves.  HFCS – high fructose corn syrup - is added to fast foods as a preservative and to improve the taste of mass-produced foods.

Without realizing it the average American consumes in the region of 60 pounds of this syrup each year.  No wonder Americans lead the world in obesity.

The company that has led the GMO revolution and masterminded worldwide dominance for their products is Monsanto.  Their marketing methods are dishonest and insidious, their disregard for human health complete, and they maintain their monopolies by suing anyone who opts to grow the old-fashioned way with seed saved from the harvest.  They have also won lawsuits against anyone (like the current writer) who dares to criticize their business model.

Farmers with the misfortune to be located next to Monsanto land have had their organic certification revoked when their crops have been contaminated with GM seed that drifted on to their land.  And then Monsanto has sued them for patent infringement for growing the genetically modified plants they would so like to get rid of.

Monsanto seems to be on a path to control every crop and every farmer.  Third world farmers have been hoodwinked into giving up their traditional practices.  They have been lured into the monoculture, industrialized food production world by promises of free seed and assurances of greater crops.  This may happen the first year while their soil is still naturally fertile, and perhaps even the second year.

By the third year this unnatural method of farmer has so depleted the soils that the farmers must apply fertilizer to the rows.  The next year they must buy pesticide to kills the bugs that threaten their GMO crops.  And where do they get the fertilizer and pesticide from?  That’s right.  From Monsanto.