Sorry guys, its still in my mind and I wanted to share with you some of the things that I have been watching which give me cause to have great concern for the future of food.
Again, draw your own conclusions…
http://www.viddler.com/explore/farmsteadwines/videos/25/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4147551008386395793&ei=xoAUSq6PBYraqQKoj7C7Bg&q=genetically+modified+food&emb=1
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4499930634181592531&ei=AoEUSvOpLqHqqgLL2rGuBg&q=genetically+modified+food&emb=1
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8098965482866581381&ei=VoEUSoq9K6HqqgLL2rGuBg&q=genetically+modified+food&emb=1
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8613276733389870510&ei=_oEUSsP_EpHwrgLVvPy4Bg&q=food+scarcity&emb=1
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4386232376777484955&ei=hIIUSuimGI24qQKqr6GrBg&q=water+scarcity&emb=1
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6262083407501596844&ei=o4IUSs-KBYK2rgLGraywBg&q=monsanto&emb=1
http://fora.tv/2006/02/13/J__Stephen_Lansing_A_Thousand_Years_in_Bali
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=733owHYcMf0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3XNwNyRsfI
These are but a few of the many, many, many documentaries I have seen on top of my wide reading on the subject. I wanted you all to have sources to look at for yourselves.
To steal a line from ‘The X- Files;’ “The Truth is Out There.”
Are you dreaming big and inspired?
A la prochaine
SDM
Showing posts with label Monsanto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monsanto. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Population, Food, Development, Scarcity and Policy (file under WAKE UP)
I have touched on this subject only once or twice before as I have an inner battle which rages between keeping this blog only as a means of relating my experience as it related to cooking. I have been thinking about this post for quite sometime and am thrilled that I finally have the time to write it.
Thomas Robert Malthus was a brilliant scholar (British) who produced incredible works on population and political economy. He spent a massive amount of time dedicated to understanding the problem he recognized probably two centuries before it was to become a massively important issue. His seminal work is called “The Principle of Population.”
In Principle he presents two very important theories which can be summarized as;
1) Population grows at an exponential rate while food production grows only arithmetically. (This has been untrue in the modern world because of advances in science and technology but ultimately will prove true in the coming decades.) Any shift in that balance between the two will illustrate that the power of the first is MUCH greater than the second.
2) In all societies there is a drive for population increase. This causes (my words not his) a class struggle which subjugates the lower classes and will never allow for a correction in standard of living for those lower classes.
He quite correctly in my opinion suggests that; “The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and tens of thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world.”
I have long suggested that Malthusian theory was now obsolete as we had surpassed the ability of the earth through technology and science to produce food exponentially in relation to population growth. As I have worked in the food industry I have read countless volumes (which by their very existence) suggest that this is untenable. That eventually technology will no longer be able to keep pace with the population explosion and that such being true will lead to the inevitability of class struggle, food shortage, famine and ultimately the death of tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of people. Moreover that our current policies do nothing to address the core problems.
Since the end of World War Two we have lived in a time of great peace and prosperity. Naturally there has been armed conflict but it has been limited to specific region and hot zones and has not become a global conflict. War, Malthus argued, was a positive influence on keeping population in check. Along with famine and people getting married later which lowers populations advance as the window for child rearing lessens. (again this is proving untrue as fertility drugs and treatments have shown us that grandmothers can have children… DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON). Populations’ necessity to stay in check as an important precursor to sustainability is being largely dismissed until very recently.
Now the question must be answered. How have we been able to stave off Malthusian theory from being correct until now? Well as alluded to above, since World War Two we have seen a great leap forward. In terms of population at the end of the war the earth stood at approximately 2 billion. Depending on the source the total war dead was anywhere from 55 million to 70 million which represented a decrease in world population of approximately 2.7 to 3%. However since the end of World War Two the population has exploded to approximately 7,000,000,000 today. A 300% increase.
We have been able to stave off Malthusian Theory through the ever increasing use of genetically modified food since 1990. I have written a much shorter post on this in the past. Genetically Modified Food or GM Food is food stuffs which have had their DNA changed by scientists through genetic engineering. This is troubling for two reasons; one is profit. There is a huge amount of profit to be made from the control of genetic engineering of food and the corporations that control the supply chain related to GM seeds will do anything to protect their value. Secondly it is alarming because as I touched on in the previous post I wrote on the subject, natural selection has fallen prey to GM Foods and has seen an extremely diverse food supply become increasingly homogenized. This homogenization has been largely left unstudied in terms of its impact on the food supply and the possibility of various forms of pests evolving to best our scientific achievement. These are very serious issues.
One such case I used was the case of the tomato Florida 47. There is a similar tomato which comes from California which is escaping my mind right now. However, these two tomatoes account for a ridiculous amount of the market in North America, somewhere in the neighborhood of 80%. 80% from two varietals that have been selectively modified and engineered not to deliver the most nutrients as the original fruit did but instead so that they are uniform, able to travel long distances, be red, plump and juicy. How do they achieve this? Through the modification of certain DNA parts of the plant which results in a lower amount of water, vitamins and nutrients and a devastating increase in the amount of SODIUM among other things. When you go to a supermarket to buy your tomatoes next time, look at them, feel them, smell them. I am sure that you will notice that smell is largely gone, they do not feel as tomatoes should and are instead as hard as tennis balls and they are all big and red. Then ask yourself; is this what a tomato is supposed to look like?
The same is happening all over the industrialized world. This is being done without much alarm, so that Food Production can keep up with Population explosion. EXACTLY WHAT MALTHUS WARNED ABOUT 200 YEARS AGO!
It is not restricted to Tomatoes either. Some of the most common food stuffs we eat are now genetically modified, including; Soybeans, Rice, Sugar Cane, Papaya, Cotton, Corn, Potatoes and Rapeseed. IN NO WAY IS THIS LIST EXHAUSTIVE MERELY ILLUSTRATIVE. Moreover is the current trend of farmers to switch to corn production as a means of producing ethanol. Foolish!
So what you say? Why does this matter? Well the problem with GM foods is that they are largely grown in areas that the environment is not meant to support them. As such it is necessary to transport massive amounts of water (another alarming and important issue which I will touch on after) and massive inputs must go in to the soil in order to sustain farms. I will elaborate presently.
GM Foods are expanding their reach at an alarming rate. Its influence on our daily meals has expanded by as much as 50 times (50 x) in a ten year period. And don’t think for a minute that this is happening in someone else’s backyard. It is our problem too. Canada for instance as of the latest statistics produces about 94% of its crops by time proven conventional methods. But that means that 6% is grown using GM seeds and methods.
In order to use GM seeds you must of course purchase the seeds from any one of a few massive multinationals that operate outside of the bounds of law. Though recognized as legal entities they largely operate with impunity. Such companies include; Monsanto and Bayer Cropscience just to name a couple. There are many, many companies which have at their core GM or GE (genetically engineered foods).
These companies, as mentioned above, largely operate outside of the law. While there have been numerous rulings and conventions with regard to GM or GE foods most of them favour the large multinationals and thus represent and clear and present danger to the food supply.
The practices of these companies is predatory and can be witnessed by Monsanto’s purchase of Delta & Pine Land company largely to gain access to what the company called its “Terminator Seed.” The purpose of which was to produce a plant which is seedless so that the cycle of production is entirely dependant on those select companies which own the seed. As if this were not predatory enough, in order to grow GM crops in places that were never meant to grow those crops, it is necessary to put massive amounts of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides which poison the soil and erode the soils ability to grow anything let alone GM crops.
For years, millennia in fact, it has been known as standard farming practice, that you had to rotate the crops, in order to maintain the quality of the soil. Those days no longer exist as massive industrial farms have taken over from the independent family farms. Which incidentally are suffering because of the inputs that they must buy in order to grow the crops which do not as promised, have greater yield or are less prone to disease. This millennia long practice going to the wayside has seen massive industrial farms set up in places such as Africa or South America in order to keep up with the ever increasing food demands.
Another (often not discussed) impact of our ever increasing use of GM or GE foods is that the inputs which are being used to grow these crops are now having a negative impact on water, causing both shortages and a poising of our water table as the fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides due to the increased amount of water to grow the crops eventually leaches into our water system. What is the impact of that decision for our species in 50 years?
Evolution has enabled us over long periods of time to deal with certain changes to climate, etc. One thing I am not certain that evolution can or will be able to do is to deal with increased toxins in our food while nutrients are being selectively and purposefully for profit removed from our food supply.
Make no mistake about it. I am not Chicken Little. BUT THE SKY IS FALLING! Malthusian theory through human ingenuity has been sidelined up until now. However, I believe, strongly, that the next fifty years are going to see massive food shortages which result from inadequate and ill informed food policy today. That these shortages are going to lead to a break down of those things that we consider civilization forming. And that the erosion of those forces of civilization are going to lead to untold strife. And yet countries pour billions into machines of death… does that make sense?
Our food supply chain in the oceans and rivers of the world is also unsustainable. As a result we are seeing large fish farms created with little to no study on the environmental and species impact. Extremely dangerous. As a species we are so greedy that we are eating ourselves to death, in fact to extinction and yet when is the last time you heard a World Leader, Obama, Harper, Sarkozy or anyone for that matter utter a single sentence on the coming shortage and crisis. There is a lack of true leadership at the levels that there has to be in order for our children to eat. This is not an issue which can be avoided. It is going to become reality. Sure we may be able to stave it off for a while but AT WHAT COST!
In the industrialized countries we have manufactured scarcity in order to inflate prices and thus stabilize profit centres. In Canada alone we destroy enough grain to feed the worlds hungry every year merely to protect profitability. Sure the powers that be will tell you that it is not fit for human consumption but do you really think that is the case? The same is true of other industrialized powers, the United States as well as the European Union. We also rely heavily on the World Bank and the IMF to create policies and funds which will help the problem. Unfortunately history proves that they are not concerned with the problem. Look at the conditions of loans in developing and under developed countries. The conditions create a consistent debtor country which has no means to get out of debt. When are we going to stop focusing on profit and start focusing on our species survival? A short reading of the history of Africa and Latin America bears witness to the previous statement.
Population has risen largely unchecked since the end of World War Two. The emergence of China and India as powerhouses in the next twenty years (best case scenario, worse is in the next five to seven) is going to strain the ability of the earth to produce even the most basic food stuffs for survival. Ultimately, I believe the answer we are going to be provided is a pill of some kind. My question is this; Where is the leadership on this issue? Where are the people raising the alarms about our imminent demise (in earth’s timeline sense)? Where are the people in power protecting us?
So where does this leave us. What can we do? First is buy local from local farmers. There is no shortage of Farmers Markets all over the industrialized world. In Ontario we have access to a seemingly endless supply of fresh foods, vegetables and fruits, game, etc. Buy local. Support your farmers.
Of course there is a big move to organic foods right now. But again I caution that organic foods have taken on the same life as GM or GE foods but in the opposite. Organic is largely unregulated and has a smattering of regulations from various bodies but nothing that is consistent or global let alone national in nature. This is not an attack on organic as I believe that it is a great movement. It is merely an acknowledgement that anything left largely unregulated ends up becoming less than the original idea and can be destructive.
We need to move away from industrial farms which are poisoning us. We need to demand, TRULY DEMAND action from our leaders today. For if the world continues on the same trend as the past sixty years we are headed to a world of 15 Billion people soon with little to no plan to feed that population or provide it with clean drinking water. Our current system is pushing us ever closer to the brink of destruction and NOONE IS PAYING ATTENTION.
Malthus was and is right. He was just off by a few years. There are countless articles, scholarly and opinionated on the matters discussed in this post. Find them. Figure out what you can do to make yourself healthier and in turn providing support, much needed, for the survival of our children. We can make a difference one person at a time. But we need to act now.
Adam Smith (you should also read Wealth of Nations) once wrote; “Such is the delicacy of man alone, that no object is produced to his liking. He finds that in everything there is need for improvement.... The whole industry of human life is employed not in procuring the supply of our three humble necessities, food, clothes and lodging, but in procuring the conveniences of it according to the nicety and delicacy of our tastes.”
Norman Borlaug once said; “Civilization as it is known today could not have evolved, nor can it survive, without an adequate food supply.”
Jeffrey Sachs in Scientific American wrote; “The recent surge in world food prices is already creating havoc in poor countries, and worse is to come. Food riots are spreading across Africa, though many are unreported in the international press. Moreover, the surge in wheat, maize and rice prices seen on commodities markets have not yet fully percolated into the shops and stalls of the poor countries or the budgets of relief organizations. Nor has the budget crunch facing relief organizations such as the World Food Program, which must buy food in world markets, been fully felt. The results could be calamitous unless offsetting policy actions are taken rapidly.
The facts are stark. A metric ton of wheat cost around $375 on the commodity exchanges in early 2006. In March 2008, it stood at over $900. Maize has gone from around $250 to $560 in the same period. Rice prices have also soared. The physical inventories of grain relative to demand are also down sharply in recent years.”
Oxfam has also started publicly crying out about the shortages that are coming;
"World leaders have a window of opportunity to prevent a worse situation resulting from the triple crunch of the economic crisis, climate change, and energy and water scarcity," Oxfam agricultural policy expert Carlos Galian said in a statement.
"Failure to act will see millions more people falling into hunger," he added.”
I am hopeful that something will be done in the coming months and years which can stave off our own destruction. We all have a part to play. Are you going to play yours?
Einstein was right when he said; “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
Are you dreaming big and inspired?
A la prochaine
SDM
Thomas Robert Malthus was a brilliant scholar (British) who produced incredible works on population and political economy. He spent a massive amount of time dedicated to understanding the problem he recognized probably two centuries before it was to become a massively important issue. His seminal work is called “The Principle of Population.”
In Principle he presents two very important theories which can be summarized as;
1) Population grows at an exponential rate while food production grows only arithmetically. (This has been untrue in the modern world because of advances in science and technology but ultimately will prove true in the coming decades.) Any shift in that balance between the two will illustrate that the power of the first is MUCH greater than the second.
2) In all societies there is a drive for population increase. This causes (my words not his) a class struggle which subjugates the lower classes and will never allow for a correction in standard of living for those lower classes.
He quite correctly in my opinion suggests that; “The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and tens of thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world.”
I have long suggested that Malthusian theory was now obsolete as we had surpassed the ability of the earth through technology and science to produce food exponentially in relation to population growth. As I have worked in the food industry I have read countless volumes (which by their very existence) suggest that this is untenable. That eventually technology will no longer be able to keep pace with the population explosion and that such being true will lead to the inevitability of class struggle, food shortage, famine and ultimately the death of tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of people. Moreover that our current policies do nothing to address the core problems.
Since the end of World War Two we have lived in a time of great peace and prosperity. Naturally there has been armed conflict but it has been limited to specific region and hot zones and has not become a global conflict. War, Malthus argued, was a positive influence on keeping population in check. Along with famine and people getting married later which lowers populations advance as the window for child rearing lessens. (again this is proving untrue as fertility drugs and treatments have shown us that grandmothers can have children… DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON). Populations’ necessity to stay in check as an important precursor to sustainability is being largely dismissed until very recently.
Now the question must be answered. How have we been able to stave off Malthusian theory from being correct until now? Well as alluded to above, since World War Two we have seen a great leap forward. In terms of population at the end of the war the earth stood at approximately 2 billion. Depending on the source the total war dead was anywhere from 55 million to 70 million which represented a decrease in world population of approximately 2.7 to 3%. However since the end of World War Two the population has exploded to approximately 7,000,000,000 today. A 300% increase.
We have been able to stave off Malthusian Theory through the ever increasing use of genetically modified food since 1990. I have written a much shorter post on this in the past. Genetically Modified Food or GM Food is food stuffs which have had their DNA changed by scientists through genetic engineering. This is troubling for two reasons; one is profit. There is a huge amount of profit to be made from the control of genetic engineering of food and the corporations that control the supply chain related to GM seeds will do anything to protect their value. Secondly it is alarming because as I touched on in the previous post I wrote on the subject, natural selection has fallen prey to GM Foods and has seen an extremely diverse food supply become increasingly homogenized. This homogenization has been largely left unstudied in terms of its impact on the food supply and the possibility of various forms of pests evolving to best our scientific achievement. These are very serious issues.
One such case I used was the case of the tomato Florida 47. There is a similar tomato which comes from California which is escaping my mind right now. However, these two tomatoes account for a ridiculous amount of the market in North America, somewhere in the neighborhood of 80%. 80% from two varietals that have been selectively modified and engineered not to deliver the most nutrients as the original fruit did but instead so that they are uniform, able to travel long distances, be red, plump and juicy. How do they achieve this? Through the modification of certain DNA parts of the plant which results in a lower amount of water, vitamins and nutrients and a devastating increase in the amount of SODIUM among other things. When you go to a supermarket to buy your tomatoes next time, look at them, feel them, smell them. I am sure that you will notice that smell is largely gone, they do not feel as tomatoes should and are instead as hard as tennis balls and they are all big and red. Then ask yourself; is this what a tomato is supposed to look like?
The same is happening all over the industrialized world. This is being done without much alarm, so that Food Production can keep up with Population explosion. EXACTLY WHAT MALTHUS WARNED ABOUT 200 YEARS AGO!
It is not restricted to Tomatoes either. Some of the most common food stuffs we eat are now genetically modified, including; Soybeans, Rice, Sugar Cane, Papaya, Cotton, Corn, Potatoes and Rapeseed. IN NO WAY IS THIS LIST EXHAUSTIVE MERELY ILLUSTRATIVE. Moreover is the current trend of farmers to switch to corn production as a means of producing ethanol. Foolish!
So what you say? Why does this matter? Well the problem with GM foods is that they are largely grown in areas that the environment is not meant to support them. As such it is necessary to transport massive amounts of water (another alarming and important issue which I will touch on after) and massive inputs must go in to the soil in order to sustain farms. I will elaborate presently.
GM Foods are expanding their reach at an alarming rate. Its influence on our daily meals has expanded by as much as 50 times (50 x) in a ten year period. And don’t think for a minute that this is happening in someone else’s backyard. It is our problem too. Canada for instance as of the latest statistics produces about 94% of its crops by time proven conventional methods. But that means that 6% is grown using GM seeds and methods.
In order to use GM seeds you must of course purchase the seeds from any one of a few massive multinationals that operate outside of the bounds of law. Though recognized as legal entities they largely operate with impunity. Such companies include; Monsanto and Bayer Cropscience just to name a couple. There are many, many companies which have at their core GM or GE (genetically engineered foods).
These companies, as mentioned above, largely operate outside of the law. While there have been numerous rulings and conventions with regard to GM or GE foods most of them favour the large multinationals and thus represent and clear and present danger to the food supply.
The practices of these companies is predatory and can be witnessed by Monsanto’s purchase of Delta & Pine Land company largely to gain access to what the company called its “Terminator Seed.” The purpose of which was to produce a plant which is seedless so that the cycle of production is entirely dependant on those select companies which own the seed. As if this were not predatory enough, in order to grow GM crops in places that were never meant to grow those crops, it is necessary to put massive amounts of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides which poison the soil and erode the soils ability to grow anything let alone GM crops.
For years, millennia in fact, it has been known as standard farming practice, that you had to rotate the crops, in order to maintain the quality of the soil. Those days no longer exist as massive industrial farms have taken over from the independent family farms. Which incidentally are suffering because of the inputs that they must buy in order to grow the crops which do not as promised, have greater yield or are less prone to disease. This millennia long practice going to the wayside has seen massive industrial farms set up in places such as Africa or South America in order to keep up with the ever increasing food demands.
Another (often not discussed) impact of our ever increasing use of GM or GE foods is that the inputs which are being used to grow these crops are now having a negative impact on water, causing both shortages and a poising of our water table as the fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides due to the increased amount of water to grow the crops eventually leaches into our water system. What is the impact of that decision for our species in 50 years?
Evolution has enabled us over long periods of time to deal with certain changes to climate, etc. One thing I am not certain that evolution can or will be able to do is to deal with increased toxins in our food while nutrients are being selectively and purposefully for profit removed from our food supply.
Make no mistake about it. I am not Chicken Little. BUT THE SKY IS FALLING! Malthusian theory through human ingenuity has been sidelined up until now. However, I believe, strongly, that the next fifty years are going to see massive food shortages which result from inadequate and ill informed food policy today. That these shortages are going to lead to a break down of those things that we consider civilization forming. And that the erosion of those forces of civilization are going to lead to untold strife. And yet countries pour billions into machines of death… does that make sense?
Our food supply chain in the oceans and rivers of the world is also unsustainable. As a result we are seeing large fish farms created with little to no study on the environmental and species impact. Extremely dangerous. As a species we are so greedy that we are eating ourselves to death, in fact to extinction and yet when is the last time you heard a World Leader, Obama, Harper, Sarkozy or anyone for that matter utter a single sentence on the coming shortage and crisis. There is a lack of true leadership at the levels that there has to be in order for our children to eat. This is not an issue which can be avoided. It is going to become reality. Sure we may be able to stave it off for a while but AT WHAT COST!
In the industrialized countries we have manufactured scarcity in order to inflate prices and thus stabilize profit centres. In Canada alone we destroy enough grain to feed the worlds hungry every year merely to protect profitability. Sure the powers that be will tell you that it is not fit for human consumption but do you really think that is the case? The same is true of other industrialized powers, the United States as well as the European Union. We also rely heavily on the World Bank and the IMF to create policies and funds which will help the problem. Unfortunately history proves that they are not concerned with the problem. Look at the conditions of loans in developing and under developed countries. The conditions create a consistent debtor country which has no means to get out of debt. When are we going to stop focusing on profit and start focusing on our species survival? A short reading of the history of Africa and Latin America bears witness to the previous statement.
Population has risen largely unchecked since the end of World War Two. The emergence of China and India as powerhouses in the next twenty years (best case scenario, worse is in the next five to seven) is going to strain the ability of the earth to produce even the most basic food stuffs for survival. Ultimately, I believe the answer we are going to be provided is a pill of some kind. My question is this; Where is the leadership on this issue? Where are the people raising the alarms about our imminent demise (in earth’s timeline sense)? Where are the people in power protecting us?
So where does this leave us. What can we do? First is buy local from local farmers. There is no shortage of Farmers Markets all over the industrialized world. In Ontario we have access to a seemingly endless supply of fresh foods, vegetables and fruits, game, etc. Buy local. Support your farmers.
Of course there is a big move to organic foods right now. But again I caution that organic foods have taken on the same life as GM or GE foods but in the opposite. Organic is largely unregulated and has a smattering of regulations from various bodies but nothing that is consistent or global let alone national in nature. This is not an attack on organic as I believe that it is a great movement. It is merely an acknowledgement that anything left largely unregulated ends up becoming less than the original idea and can be destructive.
We need to move away from industrial farms which are poisoning us. We need to demand, TRULY DEMAND action from our leaders today. For if the world continues on the same trend as the past sixty years we are headed to a world of 15 Billion people soon with little to no plan to feed that population or provide it with clean drinking water. Our current system is pushing us ever closer to the brink of destruction and NOONE IS PAYING ATTENTION.
Malthus was and is right. He was just off by a few years. There are countless articles, scholarly and opinionated on the matters discussed in this post. Find them. Figure out what you can do to make yourself healthier and in turn providing support, much needed, for the survival of our children. We can make a difference one person at a time. But we need to act now.
Adam Smith (you should also read Wealth of Nations) once wrote; “Such is the delicacy of man alone, that no object is produced to his liking. He finds that in everything there is need for improvement.... The whole industry of human life is employed not in procuring the supply of our three humble necessities, food, clothes and lodging, but in procuring the conveniences of it according to the nicety and delicacy of our tastes.”
Norman Borlaug once said; “Civilization as it is known today could not have evolved, nor can it survive, without an adequate food supply.”
Jeffrey Sachs in Scientific American wrote; “The recent surge in world food prices is already creating havoc in poor countries, and worse is to come. Food riots are spreading across Africa, though many are unreported in the international press. Moreover, the surge in wheat, maize and rice prices seen on commodities markets have not yet fully percolated into the shops and stalls of the poor countries or the budgets of relief organizations. Nor has the budget crunch facing relief organizations such as the World Food Program, which must buy food in world markets, been fully felt. The results could be calamitous unless offsetting policy actions are taken rapidly.
The facts are stark. A metric ton of wheat cost around $375 on the commodity exchanges in early 2006. In March 2008, it stood at over $900. Maize has gone from around $250 to $560 in the same period. Rice prices have also soared. The physical inventories of grain relative to demand are also down sharply in recent years.”
Oxfam has also started publicly crying out about the shortages that are coming;
"World leaders have a window of opportunity to prevent a worse situation resulting from the triple crunch of the economic crisis, climate change, and energy and water scarcity," Oxfam agricultural policy expert Carlos Galian said in a statement.
"Failure to act will see millions more people falling into hunger," he added.”
I am hopeful that something will be done in the coming months and years which can stave off our own destruction. We all have a part to play. Are you going to play yours?
Einstein was right when he said; “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
Are you dreaming big and inspired?
A la prochaine
SDM
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Genetically Modified Foods (file under Do you know what your children are eating?)
This is a follow up post now that I have a little bit of time to expound on the post that related to this last week. You can read it at http://newbieintheweeds.blogspot.com/2008/12/times-file-under-they-are-changin.html .
There is no doubt that the last generation has seen a technological leap no less significant than the steam age, the industrial revolution or the post war period. This leap has been the result of our primary civilization drive to make the world a better place. If you believe this last statement I think that you should check your head or let me sell you a beautiful plot of land on the moon.
The leap that has occurred since world war two is the result of the spoils of war. Our medical advance is largely due to the inhumane practices of German and Japanese scientists that suffered no punishment for their crimes against humanity and were instead treated as intellectual heroes, taken from their homelands and given free reign and freedom in America (a little known fact to the general public) as long as they continued their research on behalf of America. This may seem like a far fetched statement but if you study history you will see that it is in fact accurate.
From the initial push on this advance the next primary driver or catalyst has been profit. Slowly we have watched as politicians, the supposed leaders of our countries have become less the man than the companies that “sponsor” them. These companies act with impunity as long as shareholder value is maintained or increased, as is the bottom line. This may have seemed like a good thing in the eighties or even the nineties, but now can anyone argue that the impunity that they operate with is in fact damaging the world in which we live? The Mantra of Gordon Gecko from Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” that; “Greed is good,” may have been true at one point for shareholders and stakeholders but what about the public at large. Look at the current situation in the world markets, it is the result of unchecked greed. Men and women that knew in the absence of regulation they could get away with things that robbed Main Street, you and I, of everything that we have worked hard for. In light of the current loss of seven trillion (7,000,000,000,000) dollars from the American economic engine and the complete collapse of the “free hand” of the market by ludicrous bailouts I’m left with a horrible taste in my mouth which relates to the impunity with which these organizations are destroying the fabric of our societies. This all relates to what I am about to write about in the following paragraphs.
Profit for any company is the end all and be all. It is THE driving force behind innovation, creativity and productivity. If there is an adverse affect on the bottom line you can watch as companies start downsizing and shutting down operations. How does all this relate to food you may be asking. I will illustrate the point now.
Choice. In our market system we are fooled into believing that we have choice. Choice between Coke and Pepsi. GM and Ford. American Airlines and Southwest. But are these real choices or two pigs dressed differently feeding at the trough of both our hard earned dollars and our taxes to boot to add insult to injury. This same belief n choice has lead to massive mergers and acquisitions that have created supranational businesses (again operating with virtual impunity) that are making decisions each day under the supposed guise of profit guidance but which are in fact hurting humanity.
Thomas Pawlick in his book; “The End of Food,” which again I strongly urge you to read, as a starting point, illustrates this point quite clearly. These Leviathans of industry are slowly but surely eating away at the health of citizens, under the supposed watchful eye of government, and are getting away with it.
Geneticists, since approximately 1994, have been invading our food supply for the sake of profit. Companies such as Calgene, Monsanto, Bechtel and the like have created a system by which family farmers are slowly wiped out by industrial farms with which they can not compete. Even more importantly is the fact that nature has a way of dealing with certain problems effectively, while, the seeds and industrial production of food is now threatening the very balance of that system in the name of profit. Pawlick points out that the Tomatoes we eat are not the tomatoes that our parents eat. The North American tomato varieties used to number somewhere around 5500. The tomatoes that we currently buy in the market are predominantly of two varieties. One from California and one from Florida. Both genetically modified to attempt to ensure that size, colour, firmness are uniform. However, what they haven’t told you is that through this genetic modification we are receiving tomatoes that are far less healthy than the tomatoes that our parents ate. In fact, the nutritious elements of tomatoes since the end of world war two have been slowly attacked and replaced with, get this, lipids (fats) and sugar. Now correct me if I am wrong but nature gave us the tomato, do we really need man to perfect it. To corporations the answer is yes. They want to ensure that the crop, year after year, produces the same tomato so that then end consumer can get something that resembles a tomato but in fact is more like a red ball that man has created to look good in a supermarket.
Tomatoes are not the only food that is affected. It is just a good example because I am sure that all of you reading this can go to your fridge right now and find that you have either that tomato from California or Florida. The result is the death of the farming family. And that is a tragedy. Some of the other food stuffs that nature provided that man has tinkered with now include, Cotton, Soybeans, Corn, Potatoes, Canola, Sugar Cane, Sugar Beets and Rice. This list is not exhaustive either. And for what reason is man tinkering with natures already perfect bounty; Reasons include; to make them resistant to herbicides and pesticides and pests, viruses, to abate degradation (predominantly due to the practice of picking unripened fruit for shipping long distances) and in some cases to improve the nutritional aspects of foods (but these are few and far between Rice being the best example).
What the companies that sell these seeds do not want the public to know is that these genetic modifications require a greater number of inputs to sustain the crops. Herbicides, pesticides, inorganic fertilizers and the like which end up costing more money than the crop is worth UNLESS it is on an industrial scale of production.
To me there are even more problems with genetically modified foods. First off, who owns the seed controls the crop. Thus, a company such as Monsanto can selectively cultivate crops anywhere it wants in the world without regard to what nature wants. But it does so at the expense of the farmer who can not take seed from a genetically modified piece of produce and use it to plant next years crop as has always been the case throughout history. Moreover, in the name of profit, the ancient and proven practices of soil protection of planting one crop one year and another the next has fallen to the wayside. The result will surely be a degradation of the soil to the point that the affect will be scorched earth. Top soil that is so beaten by the herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers that it is no longer useable. Does this sound like good food policy? Or is it good profit policy?
These companies now go into developing countries and have them create massive industrial production farms of crops that were never meant to be there. And in so doing destroy the natural cycle of crop production which will have an adverse affect on ALL OF US no matter where we are on the planet.
These are but a few reasons that we need to pay attention to what corporations are doing in the name of profit with respect to food. We need to demand that our government do studies (not the companies who profit from it) into the long term affects of this current food production strategy.
Profit is also the reason that numerous fish species are in decline and are on the verge of destruction. The reason that diseases such as Mad Cow Disease enter the food chain. You may be asking yourself how does this happen. In the case of Mad Cow which is really called Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) which you can read more about at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy is the result of profiteers using discarded parts of the cow, grinding it up and putting it in feed for cows to make the cows fatter and larger thus more profitable at slaughter. Does anybody else see the problem with feeding herbivores themselves? This practice has supposedly abated but I’m sure that the profiteers have found a new way to disguise what they are doing. How long will it be before the government starts paying attention to what is done in the name of profit?
AND to make matters worse these are just a couple of examples for which there is evidence that PROFIT is at the core of the destruction of the human food supply system. We need to have a massive grassroots effort to return food to humans instead of faceless profiteers. We need farmers to start being people again and not machines. We need to bring back the experts, the farmers, not scientists in order to ensure the sustainable development of the food chain.
I don’t want to write so much here in terms of what needs to be done because I believe that once people start seeing what the truth is they will come up with their own solutions. Some that are out there right now include the Organic and Slow Food Movements. We have tried the fast food model and look at the result; Massive health implications including Coronary Disease and obesity which is affecting life on this planet for billions of people.
I will write more about this again but think that for now this represents a good starting point for discussion.
Professor Phillip James states; "The perception that everything is totally straightforward and safe is utterly naive. I don't think we fully understand the dimensions of what
we're getting into."
Doctor Geoffrey Clements states; "The genetic modification of food is intrinsically dangerous. It involves making irreversible changes in a random manner to a complex level of life about which little is known. It is inevitable that this hit-and-miss
approach will lead to disasters. It must disrupt the natural intelligence
of the plant or animal to which it is applied, and lead to health-damaging
side-effects."
I urge you to look into what companies for the sake of profit are doing to destroy your health,
Are you dreaming big and inspired?
A la prochaine
SDM
There is no doubt that the last generation has seen a technological leap no less significant than the steam age, the industrial revolution or the post war period. This leap has been the result of our primary civilization drive to make the world a better place. If you believe this last statement I think that you should check your head or let me sell you a beautiful plot of land on the moon.
The leap that has occurred since world war two is the result of the spoils of war. Our medical advance is largely due to the inhumane practices of German and Japanese scientists that suffered no punishment for their crimes against humanity and were instead treated as intellectual heroes, taken from their homelands and given free reign and freedom in America (a little known fact to the general public) as long as they continued their research on behalf of America. This may seem like a far fetched statement but if you study history you will see that it is in fact accurate.
From the initial push on this advance the next primary driver or catalyst has been profit. Slowly we have watched as politicians, the supposed leaders of our countries have become less the man than the companies that “sponsor” them. These companies act with impunity as long as shareholder value is maintained or increased, as is the bottom line. This may have seemed like a good thing in the eighties or even the nineties, but now can anyone argue that the impunity that they operate with is in fact damaging the world in which we live? The Mantra of Gordon Gecko from Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” that; “Greed is good,” may have been true at one point for shareholders and stakeholders but what about the public at large. Look at the current situation in the world markets, it is the result of unchecked greed. Men and women that knew in the absence of regulation they could get away with things that robbed Main Street, you and I, of everything that we have worked hard for. In light of the current loss of seven trillion (7,000,000,000,000) dollars from the American economic engine and the complete collapse of the “free hand” of the market by ludicrous bailouts I’m left with a horrible taste in my mouth which relates to the impunity with which these organizations are destroying the fabric of our societies. This all relates to what I am about to write about in the following paragraphs.
Profit for any company is the end all and be all. It is THE driving force behind innovation, creativity and productivity. If there is an adverse affect on the bottom line you can watch as companies start downsizing and shutting down operations. How does all this relate to food you may be asking. I will illustrate the point now.
Choice. In our market system we are fooled into believing that we have choice. Choice between Coke and Pepsi. GM and Ford. American Airlines and Southwest. But are these real choices or two pigs dressed differently feeding at the trough of both our hard earned dollars and our taxes to boot to add insult to injury. This same belief n choice has lead to massive mergers and acquisitions that have created supranational businesses (again operating with virtual impunity) that are making decisions each day under the supposed guise of profit guidance but which are in fact hurting humanity.
Thomas Pawlick in his book; “The End of Food,” which again I strongly urge you to read, as a starting point, illustrates this point quite clearly. These Leviathans of industry are slowly but surely eating away at the health of citizens, under the supposed watchful eye of government, and are getting away with it.
Geneticists, since approximately 1994, have been invading our food supply for the sake of profit. Companies such as Calgene, Monsanto, Bechtel and the like have created a system by which family farmers are slowly wiped out by industrial farms with which they can not compete. Even more importantly is the fact that nature has a way of dealing with certain problems effectively, while, the seeds and industrial production of food is now threatening the very balance of that system in the name of profit. Pawlick points out that the Tomatoes we eat are not the tomatoes that our parents eat. The North American tomato varieties used to number somewhere around 5500. The tomatoes that we currently buy in the market are predominantly of two varieties. One from California and one from Florida. Both genetically modified to attempt to ensure that size, colour, firmness are uniform. However, what they haven’t told you is that through this genetic modification we are receiving tomatoes that are far less healthy than the tomatoes that our parents ate. In fact, the nutritious elements of tomatoes since the end of world war two have been slowly attacked and replaced with, get this, lipids (fats) and sugar. Now correct me if I am wrong but nature gave us the tomato, do we really need man to perfect it. To corporations the answer is yes. They want to ensure that the crop, year after year, produces the same tomato so that then end consumer can get something that resembles a tomato but in fact is more like a red ball that man has created to look good in a supermarket.
Tomatoes are not the only food that is affected. It is just a good example because I am sure that all of you reading this can go to your fridge right now and find that you have either that tomato from California or Florida. The result is the death of the farming family. And that is a tragedy. Some of the other food stuffs that nature provided that man has tinkered with now include, Cotton, Soybeans, Corn, Potatoes, Canola, Sugar Cane, Sugar Beets and Rice. This list is not exhaustive either. And for what reason is man tinkering with natures already perfect bounty; Reasons include; to make them resistant to herbicides and pesticides and pests, viruses, to abate degradation (predominantly due to the practice of picking unripened fruit for shipping long distances) and in some cases to improve the nutritional aspects of foods (but these are few and far between Rice being the best example).
What the companies that sell these seeds do not want the public to know is that these genetic modifications require a greater number of inputs to sustain the crops. Herbicides, pesticides, inorganic fertilizers and the like which end up costing more money than the crop is worth UNLESS it is on an industrial scale of production.
To me there are even more problems with genetically modified foods. First off, who owns the seed controls the crop. Thus, a company such as Monsanto can selectively cultivate crops anywhere it wants in the world without regard to what nature wants. But it does so at the expense of the farmer who can not take seed from a genetically modified piece of produce and use it to plant next years crop as has always been the case throughout history. Moreover, in the name of profit, the ancient and proven practices of soil protection of planting one crop one year and another the next has fallen to the wayside. The result will surely be a degradation of the soil to the point that the affect will be scorched earth. Top soil that is so beaten by the herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers that it is no longer useable. Does this sound like good food policy? Or is it good profit policy?
These companies now go into developing countries and have them create massive industrial production farms of crops that were never meant to be there. And in so doing destroy the natural cycle of crop production which will have an adverse affect on ALL OF US no matter where we are on the planet.
These are but a few reasons that we need to pay attention to what corporations are doing in the name of profit with respect to food. We need to demand that our government do studies (not the companies who profit from it) into the long term affects of this current food production strategy.
Profit is also the reason that numerous fish species are in decline and are on the verge of destruction. The reason that diseases such as Mad Cow Disease enter the food chain. You may be asking yourself how does this happen. In the case of Mad Cow which is really called Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) which you can read more about at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy is the result of profiteers using discarded parts of the cow, grinding it up and putting it in feed for cows to make the cows fatter and larger thus more profitable at slaughter. Does anybody else see the problem with feeding herbivores themselves? This practice has supposedly abated but I’m sure that the profiteers have found a new way to disguise what they are doing. How long will it be before the government starts paying attention to what is done in the name of profit?
AND to make matters worse these are just a couple of examples for which there is evidence that PROFIT is at the core of the destruction of the human food supply system. We need to have a massive grassroots effort to return food to humans instead of faceless profiteers. We need farmers to start being people again and not machines. We need to bring back the experts, the farmers, not scientists in order to ensure the sustainable development of the food chain.
I don’t want to write so much here in terms of what needs to be done because I believe that once people start seeing what the truth is they will come up with their own solutions. Some that are out there right now include the Organic and Slow Food Movements. We have tried the fast food model and look at the result; Massive health implications including Coronary Disease and obesity which is affecting life on this planet for billions of people.
I will write more about this again but think that for now this represents a good starting point for discussion.
Professor Phillip James states; "The perception that everything is totally straightforward and safe is utterly naive. I don't think we fully understand the dimensions of what
we're getting into."
Doctor Geoffrey Clements states; "The genetic modification of food is intrinsically dangerous. It involves making irreversible changes in a random manner to a complex level of life about which little is known. It is inevitable that this hit-and-miss
approach will lead to disasters. It must disrupt the natural intelligence
of the plant or animal to which it is applied, and lead to health-damaging
side-effects."
I urge you to look into what companies for the sake of profit are doing to destroy your health,
Are you dreaming big and inspired?
A la prochaine
SDM
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
