Why Green?

There are a lot of reason to "Go Green." We've all heard of the various ecological, economical, and health benefits of recycling or eating organic foods. I, like quite a few others, have been intrigued by all of this and how we can change to make the world we live in a better place.

This intrigue brought me to buying the newest issue of Vanity Fair, their annual Green Issue. In this issue there is an article regarding the surprising practices of a super agriculture corporation, Monsanto. This company is the industry leader in creating Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Basically they modify several crops so that they are resilient to pests, weather, and even the pesticides sprayed on them, also made by Monsanto. They also create an injection that makes dairy cows produce more milk. First it should be said that no studies have determined whether these modifications are harmful to humans but I feel that God and nature probably had it all figured out better than we could ever do. So as a belief, when given the choice, I would choose the non-modified food.

However, I was never worried about what I was eating and where it came from until the article shed some light onto Monsanto's business practices. Monsanto takes extreme measures to ensure their products are used and protected. They require their seeds to accompany an agreement that farmers will not re-use seeds, i.e. go against decades of tradition of replanting the very seed they paid to grow.

Monsanto has also been known to test fields in the area where their seeds are grown to see if farmers are, albeit accidentally, growing Monsanto seeds. This is a natural occurrence because of wind, but that does not keep Monsanto from following through with lawsuits.

On top of this behavior, Monsanto is also responsible for the most toxic landfills in the U.S. and in the U.K. As they were a chemical company before they discovered their gold mine in agriculture.

I've never been completely devoted to organic foods or non-enhanced milks, but I would never be friends with someone who took the sort of actions that Monsanto has and as a result I find it hard to put money in their pockets and I would encourage others to ponder the dilemma as well.

Monsanto's lobbying and close alignment with the government has resulted in a lack of labeling on foods that contain GMOs and even trace amounts of them do find their way into organic foods but eating organic is the best way to keep your meals Monsanto free and I would much rather support people who value the world we live in and those of us who live in it, something that Monsanto clearly doesn't concern itself with.

Please read Vanity Fair's article for a more in depth look at this issue. The article can be found here.

I'd also love to hear everyone's opinion on this, especially if some farmer's are reading this and can talk about actually dealing with Monsanto products.