Imagine(tm)

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Z

 

 

ImagineTM.

 

 

June 21, 2004

By John Hepburn

 

Monsanto's global website says " Imagine innovative agriculture that

creates 'incredible' things today. " Actually, I think most of us are

more interested in 'credible' things when it comes to agriculture.

Like food that people can trust is safe. And crops that meet the needs

of the farmers that grow them.

 

The monsanto slogan used to be " food, health, hope " . As if this wasn't

absurd enough, it has now been changed to " ImagineTM " . John Lennon

must be turning in his grave.

 

Imagine a world with vast monocultures of patented, genetically

engineered crops, producing foods with inbuilt pesticides. Imagine the

world's staple food crops engineered with genes from bacteria and then

released into our food chain without any real understanding of the

health impacts. Imagine...

 

The Monsanto website states boldly that " Integrity is the foundation

of all that we do. Integrity includes honesty, decency, consistency

and courage. "

 

I suppose 'courage' isn't that far fetched. But 'audacity' would

probably be a more accurate word.

 

Imagine trying to introduce a new product into the market place when

most people don't want it, and when it is effectively impossible to

keep it separate from other similar products. Imagine being able to

insist that the cost of keeping this product separate be passed onto

the users of the other, existing products. It's kind of like insisting

that your neighbour to pay for the new fence when you bring home a pit

bull terrier for a pet. Imagine not only trying to pull off such an

audacious scheme but actually succeeding!

 

'Consistency' is also plausible. Although I suspect the appropriate

agricultural term is 'monoculture'.

 

As for " honesty' and 'decency', I'm not sure how the victims of Agent

Orange would feel about that. Or the thousands of people who have been

affected by PCB's - another one of Monsanto's brilliant and 'safe'

inventions. Or the 70 odd farmers in the US who have been sued by

Monsanto for saving seeds and breaching Monsanto's intellectual property?

 

I for one, imagine a world where Monsanto doesn't exist. Where I don't

have to spend my days struggling to stop possibly one of the most

irresponsible organisations in human history from involving all of us

in an uncontrolled experiment without our consent.

 

Monsanto are on the back foot. Millions of people have been rejecting

their foods. Thousands upon thousands of farmers have been rejecting

their seeds. In the face of this, they have 'voluntarily' withdrawn GE

wheat in North America, and GE canola in Australia. We can only hope

that 'voluntary' liquidation is the next step.

 

Imagine food without pesticides. Imagine diversity in agriculture.

Imagine seeds without patents. Imagine a future without Monsanto...

 

John Hepburn Australia. johnhepburn

 

 

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2004-06/21hepburn.cfm