Freedom. It’s a beautiful word, isn’t it?
How about Monsanto? Is that a beautiful word?
And what happens when you bump Monsanto up against Freedom? Well, if you are in North Carolina, Monsanto flattens Freedom just about like the Road Runner got flattened by a steam roller in the old cartoons. Only the Road Runner popped back up again, because it was only make believe. This is all too real.
“Monsanto Laws” have been passed in 15 states which make it illegal for counties to ban the use of genetically modified foods . That’s right. Freedom just got squashed flat as a pancake. Farmers who want to protect their crops from degradation and contamination may not do so in 15 states.
Why do they want to? Well, for one reason, because if you are a farmer growing non GMO crops and Monsanto detects GOM pollinated plants on your farm, they will sue you and, if 500 cases are any indication, they will win. Your crime? Infringing on Monsanto’s “intellectual property” which blew onto your farm without your knowledge or consent.
Of course, if you are an organic farmer, you have additional problems. You can’t protect yourself by concerted community action and according to Laurel Hopwood of the Sierra Club,
“What’s unfortunate for farmers, especially organic farmers, is that pollen can move from place to place, so the spread of GMO gene traits is inevitable.” Hopwood adds, “What’s different about this form of pollution from any other form of pollution is that it’s alive. These new life forms multiply, spread, and cannot be recalled. … Not only are organic farmers not allowed to call their crop ‘organic’ when it becomes contaminated, but
also farmers can’t sell their crops overseas where GMOs are not accepted.”
Oh, by the way, there is a proposal in California, SB 1056, introduced by Dean Florez that would effectively remove a community’s control over its food supply. In part SB 1056 states “no ordinance or regulation of any
political subdivision may prohibit or in any way attempt to regulate any matter relating to the registration, labeling, sale, storage, transportation, distribution, notification of use, or use of field crops.”
That doesn’t sound very exciting until you realize that it says that all meaningful discourse and debate about GMO foods by local communities will be forbidden in California if this bill passes. This is what I call a legal dum-dum bullet: like a real dum-dum bullet which is scored on the tip to explode inside its target, this one sounds pretty ho-hum but, if passes, it will dovetail with the preemptive legislation States are falling all over themselves to pass which prohibits communities from protecting themselves or their crops and explode right in the belly of food freedom. Oh, yes, no government agency has ever conducted long-term meaningful GMO feeding studies to make sure that the information Big Biotechna puts out to assure us that GMOs are safe bears any resemblance to reality.
But California wants to join the other 15 States which will compel communities to plant what they are told and allow their fields to be contaminated as pollen drifts across their land without comment or complaint. Freedom? Lady Liberty? Have you seen her? Isn’t she that smudge on the road where the big truck with “Monsanto” painted across it just passed?
But GMOs are safe, aren’t they? Are they? In the EU, the dangers of Mon 863, a genetically modified corn, came to light only after a German court ordered Monsanto to reveal the data from a 90 day rat feeding study earlier this summer. Jeffrey Smith, author of “Seeds of Deception” wrote on August 27, 2005, “Rats fed Mon 863 developed several reactions, including those typically found with allergies (increased basophils), in response to infections, toxins and various diseases including cancer (increased lymphocytes and white blood cells), and in the presence of anemia (decreased reticulocyte count) and blood pressure problems (decreased kidney weights). There were also increased blood sugar levels, kidney inflammation, liver and kidney lesions, and other changes. According to top research biologist Arpad Pusztai, who was commissioned by the German government to evaluate the study in 2004, based on the evidence no one can say that Mon 863 will cause cancer or allergies or anything specific. The results are preliminary and must be followed-up to rule these out. He warns, however, “It is almost impossible to imagine that major lesions in important organs. . . . or changes in blood parameters. . . . that occurred in GM maize-fed rats, is incidental and due to simple biological variability.”
Dr. Pusztai was forced to sue the French government in order to be able to discuss his highly disturbing findings.
We’ll be taking more about this case tomorrow. In the meantime, give some thought to what it would take to shift to a diet that did not have GMOs in it if you were so inclined. Please share your thoughts by commenting on this blog.
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
