California Coastal Redwoods
Yeah, we could have guessed those were coastal redwoods.
(Even I can, and I'm no hippy living out in the woods, but I've visited the coastal redwood areas as well as the mountainous areas where the giant redwoods naturally grow).
But in food, things aren't that clear, anymore.
So Monsanto decided to play with us, hoping we're too stupid to figure out their mind games.
You've likely heard their Rovian commercial whining that Soymilk would have to declare whether it was made from GMO enabled plants, but not real milk, implying that there was something unfair in that one kid of milk was targeted, but not another.
But we're not that stupid, are we?
Soy milk is not real milk. I use it on my cereal, It's a good substitute, has calcium added, and I like the taste though I also use a little regular milk so I won't become latose intolerant. (I'm not a vegetarian, and only was introduced to soy milk when I ran out and tried my vegan daughter's.)
But they are not the same product. Soy milk is made by grinding up soybeans and letting them soak, then filtering the solids out. That transfers products in the soy beans straight to you.
With milk, cows are fed silage of GMO corn and soy plants as well as other plant products, but, in the first place, cows have incredible digestive tracts. Remember the seven stomachs? And each of those stomachs have been developed by their genetic history to take plants that are mostly indigestible to us, and give them a different environment that will turn their food into massive amount of flesh and with the females a copious amount of milk given the proper conditions.
Most animals have strong immune systems, and combined with the cows digestive tract what she eats is dealt with much more effectively than how you would fair consuming it. At the very least, You can't eat grass and the leaves and stems of soy and corn plants and hope to get through a reasonable day that way. You aren't a cow.
Furthermore, if the stalks and leaves of GMO corn and soy plants cause intestinal problems in cows, dairy farmers have a lot more clout than you have. They buy a lot of that feed for their herds, and the producers of it are going to pay attention. Unfortunately, similar eating problems in humans often take years to be identified, especially on a large scale. Think of all the years we thought that fatty steaks were a good thing to eat though most of us were a so much less active than our ancestors.
Monsanto has created GMO products that can give many people digestive problems that might mimic trying to eat normally indigestible grass and leaves. Remember how some scientists found a bacteria that kills caterpillars? We all went out and bought the new natural product BT to protect our flowering plants instead of dangerous pesticides. But you wouldn't want to consume the toxin those bacteria create and release into caterpillars who eat your flowers or food crops. (Hint: it explodes their stomachs.)
You would wash the food sprayed with it completely. That's because the BT is a bacteria. It shouldn't infect you, but it does create a toxin that can make humans sick as well. Guess what Monsanto's GMO corn and soy contain. The genes of that bacteria that make a toxin that cause some human stomachs to have problems, and voila' the plant makes the toxin itself and distributes it through out, including into the parts that we eat. Suddenly someone is getting sick and doesn't know why. If they're a middle or working class person, they might not even be able afford thousands of dollars of medical tests to find out why. And , even those might not pinpoint the cause as being common forms of GMO foods, especially if GMO containing foods are not identified.
Those people who have natural chronic problems with digestion can tell you, you don't need that. You don't need the pain and weakness, or the missed work. There are bad enough diseases out there that even people who eat healthy food can have, but at least they aren't being tortured by unknowingly eating a known toxin. The last thing that hard working people need is to try to live on food that makes them sick.
And, as a matter of fact, WalMart has announced that it will start selling corn from plants that have the genes that create the toxin right in them. Formerly, such corn was used to make corn sugar because the heavy processing denatured the toxin.
WalMart thinks it can be successful selling the GMO corn, because only a portion of the population gets sick from the toxin, but what if it's you, or your significant other, and without Proposition 37 other retailers don't have to identify their corn as containing anything different than other corn? It is likely that many more stores will slip in the pretty corn that is not missing kernels.
Monsanto should at least have to tell us what they are doing to our food when we are the primary consumer. Their word games are just an attempt to evade accountability.
Please ignore Monsanto's mind games and vote yes on Prop 37.
More on this subject:
CA: Yes on Prop 37 Is the Only Way to Keep Your Family From Being Fed An Agent Orange Toxin As one of Monsanto's herbicides stops working the company seeks to create food plants that will resist the effect of another of their products which just happens to be half of the blend called Agent Orange which has been recognized as toxic to humans. Then the chemical won't just be used on the borders and between seasons in food crop fields, but right on them, and the only way you will know which ones they may be the GMO label on the packaging --- if we pass Prop 37. Otherwise, you and your family can play the eating version of Russian Roulette.
Video: Our families are being used as lab rats. Kids have something to say about that.
Picture above used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user Carodean Road Designs who has no connection to this blog or blogger.
