Three people, Monsanto, the USDA and WHO, walk into a bar.  Wait a minute.  Those aren’t people!  Yes, they are.  At least one of them is.  The US Supreme Court declared that corporations are people, so Monsanto at least is a person.  The jury is still out on the other two.

Back to the joke.  The barman says, “so, what will it be fellows?”  USDA says, “I’ll take a rain check for when the next drought hits the American south-west.”  WHO says, “I’m in charge of the health of the world, I’ll have an organically-grown rye whisky please,”

Monsanto says, “Cancel those orders, we’ll all have sake made from our genetically modified soy, or my profits will plummet.”

As a joke, this is pretty feeble, but it is a frightening fact that a handful of corporations hold the world’s nutrition in their money-grubbing hands.Corn and soy are two crops which have been genetically modified and which are present in just about every processed food available in the United States.  The fact that foods are not labelled leaves the consumer unaware that the corn syrup in their soups, juices, cereals – just about everything – has been genetically modified. Thismatters because study after study shows that there are serious health effects related to the consumption of GM foods.  Allergies, gluten intolerance, autism, infertility, birth defects, odd mutations and certain cancersare just some of the maladies associated with GM foods.

Even worse, is the damage that is being done to the planet in order to grow these GM crops. According to a Greenpeace documentary, soy producers in Brazil are wreaking devastation on the Amazon rainforest.  They are stealing native farmers’ land, burning their homes, and assassinating protesters with the sole aim of turn the land into huge soy plantations – and massive profits.  But it is not the Brazilians who are exploiting their land. It is three US-based multinational companies- ADM, Cargill, and Bunge -- which finance 60 percent of the soy production in Brazil.  And that production has led to the destruction of almost three million acres of Brazilian rainforest in just one year.An area equal to the size of France has been destroyed so far.

Genetically engineered soy crops have become associated with resistant weeds and pests, and uncontrollable cross contamination, quite apart from the health hazards.   Soybeans have been touted as the answer to world hunger,by the food industry, that is. This is a long way from the truth. The consumption of genetically modified soy has led to many health problems, and its production is leaving a trail of ecological devastation wherever it is grown.  It has to stop.