Today We Discuss Monsanto (Sorry to Ruin Your Day)

Two reasons why, at all costs, I try to avoid eating foods with hormones, antibiotics, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), pesticides and other synthetic ingredients are flavor and health. The better products' flavor far exceeds the taste (or lack thereof) of the staples of our modern food supply. I am also convinced that many of our illnesses are caused by the foodstuffs foisted upon us. At best, they are nutrient-poor; at worst, they make us really, really sick.

There's also a third reason, one I didn't conceptualize until yesterday, after I read two pieces about Monsanto, the far-reaching, bio-technology/chemical company that puppeteers much of the world's food supply. If I were to eat food grown with the aid of pesticides or GMOs, there's a good chance I'd be supporting Monsanto.

Want some reasons to not support Monsanto? Here's one, courtesy of Scott Edwards, the co-director of the Food & Water Justice project for Food & Water Watch. (There are three sides to every story, but even if the guy is only 20 percent correct . . .)

"Whenever I hear the name Monsanto I can’t help but think about one of the greatest environmental crimes in the history of the United States. Back in 1935 Monsanto bought out a small chemical company located in Anniston, Alabama, a struggling town of about 22,000 poor and working class people. Monsanto spent the next 36 years using Anniston as its manufacturing headquarters for PCBs, an industrial coolant. Tragically, the company was also recklessly poisoning the local community, environment and its own workers with hundreds of tons of this highly toxic material."

Click here to read the rest of "Monsanto Returns to the Scene of the Crime."

But not is all bad news in regard to Monsanto. According to an article in the Daily Mail yesterday:

"The giant bio-tech firm Monsanto yesterday announced a major withdrawal from the [United Kingdom] amid intense opposition to genetically modified foods . . . Monsanto's decision was made public on the eve of the Government's final announcement on the prospects for GM crop cultivation here. Earlier this week it was revealed that the Government's own research had found that GM farming would pollute the countryside for generations."

(Click here to read the rest of "GM Giant Quits Britain Amid Backlash.")

Yet, in the United States, Monsanto's march to an increased GM presence travels on a toll-free road, as our elected politicians and appointed government officials kowtow to the company at almost every opportunity. And most Americans don't know that much of our food contains GMOs, since no labeling requirements exist. (Organic foods, by law, are GMO-free.)

Do you want foods with GMOs labeled? (Over 90 percent of Americans do.) Click here to sign a petition telling the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) how you feel, joining more than 500,000 Americans who have done so already.