The idea of getting our food from Monsanto, (who gave us the dreaded Agent Orange, saccharin, aspartame and a slew of other chemicals and pesticides), never sat well with me.
Monsanto, the leader in patented genetically modified crops, was one of the manufacturers of Agent Orange in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Although Monsanto wasn’t the only company to produce Agent Orange during that time period, their military grade version of the defoliant contained up to 45% more Dioxin than other manufacturers, including Dow.
This, in effect, made them liable for about 45% of the Vietnam related lawsuits related to the health effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam Veterans.
In a world where corporations are not supposed to have monopolies, Monsanto has poised itself to dominate the food industry. This position is potentially more of an national security threat than any nuclear crisis or threat of war.
If someone can control food, they can control the entire population. We should contemplate the ethics of patenting seeds in the first place. Can we responsibly genetically modify seed, unleash it onto this planet and believe there will be no negative effect to releasing a suicide gene onto Mother Nature? At this point, only time will tell.
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