Last night/this morning I was up until after 3 am with a couple of kids.  They weren’t complaining, but they had high fevers that I felt warranted a close eye on them.  In addition to giving them each a megadose of vitamin C, I applied cold washcloths to their foreheads, and simultaneously applied egg whites to their feet, afterwards followed by slices of potato to further draw the heat out through their feet.  Thankfully, they woke up feeling better this morning.

But this morning I was definitely tired, and with some kids being kind of out of it as well, I invited them into my room to watch a riveting documentary with me – The World According to Monsanto.  Well, riveting isn’t the word they would use, but it shows how media deprived they are that my two and four year olds sat with me and dd11 for almost two hours to watch the entire program!  And it shows you what kind of thing I watch for entertainment.  😛

Prior to watching this, I was aware of the global domination successfully being achieved by Monsanto in controlling our food crops, as well as the contamination of non GMO crops across the world.  But to watch this documentary opened my eyes even further.

For those of you who don’t know anything about Monsanto, they are a multi-national corporation that brought the world Roundup (herbicide), Roundup resistant crops, dioxin (key element in Agent Orange that injured so many US veterans), rGBH, the growth hormone that was given to cows, among manyother products.  They have genetically engineered many, many crops, which all fall under their patents, making it illegal for farmers to save their seeds from one year to another (if you watched King Korn, you know all about that), controlling the prices of seeds for planting by monopolizing the field (no pun intended).

I’ve often seen Monsanto referred to as ‘evil’ online, but I’ve resisted this kind of language. I’m pro capitalism and think it’s a great service to the world when hard working people get up every day to offer their products/services to the world – it makes the world a better place.  So I’m not anti-business of anti-profits at all – someone who does a good job deserves to be compensated well for it.  But it’s  deeply disturbing that so many people who run the company seem motivated far more by profit, and don’t seem to be concerned about the world they are literally endangering.

I wish I could say I was shocked that this company knew that their products were harmful to the health of consumers, but I’m a little jaded, I guess, because I wasn’t.

And I wasn’t surprised about all the people who were threatened or suddenly found themselves without jobs when they dared to speak out against, or even question, the safety of Monsanto products.  The stretch of their reach is hard to fathom; they are an incredibly powerful company with connections to top people all over the world.

What I wasn’t at all aware of was how this company is changing the lives of  small farmers in India, Paraguay, and Mexico (no doubt other places as well) dramatically for the worse.  The GMO soybean and cotton crops that they are forced to grow (no other seed options are available to them anymore) require not just the purchase of Monsanto overpriced seeds, but also their herbicides and fertilizers.  None of these costs were necessary to farmers when they saved seed from year to year, and planted on healthy soil that supported plant growth.

Do you think these poor farmers have proper protection from the incredibly powerful herbicides that they are using?  Obviously not.  Even those who choose to remain independent and refuse to grow GMO crops are being affected, as the runoff and pollen from GMO fields contaminates and poisons their fields, their animals, and their families.

Watching these villagers having meetings to understand the issues with Monsanto, and trying to figure out what they can do make me think that every time we make a choice to buy or not GMOs (genetically modified foods), we’re making a choice that helps the people who can’t help themselves.  But whether people care about people in another part of the world or not, we ourselves need to understand that foods that are highly unnatural have been introduced into our food supply, and they’ve never been tested on humans before – we’re the guinea pigs.

Right after I watched this, I noticed another short video pop up, Millions Against Monsanto, leading up to World Food Day, which was yesterday.  One of the goals of this advocacy was to get labeling in the US of GMO foods, so consumers can make an educated choice.  I don’t know what is happening with this, but I think it’s a wonderful thing to make people aware of how dangerous GMOs are, and to encourage them to lobby for change.

The documentary was a full length film, and unusual for youtube, it was featured in its entirety.  Here’s the link if you’re interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH4OwBYDQe8&feature=related

Have you ever thought about the dangers of GMOs?  How did you learn about it?  Does that affect your food shopping in any way?

Avivah