Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Bob Stannard, a former lobbyist and author.
While you were asleep somebody stole your food.
Over the past two and a half decades there appears to have been a concentrated effort to hijack America’s food supply. Back in 1987 a chemical company known as Monsanto, the creator of a toxic vegetation killer called “Round-Up,” developed genetically modified seeds for our crops. The technology is known as GMOs, meaning genetically modified organisms.
“So big deal,” you say. Perhaps allowing a chemical company, as opposed to say, farmers, to determine the quality of the food we eat is OK for some people, but what about those who would rather eat just plain old food versus food that cannot be killed by the chemicals in Round-Up?
This may not seem like a big deal to some, but our customers abroad think it’s a big deal. They don’t care that the U.S. FDA has declared GMOs safe. They refuse to use GMO seeds to grow their crops. This should worry you, because some Asian countries have put buying America’s wheat on hold.
From the Daily Mail in the United Kingdom:
“Unapproved genetically modified wheat has been discovered growing in the United States.
The revelation is threatening the outlook for U.S. exports of the world’s biggest traded food commodity, with importers keenly aware of consumer sensitivity to gene-altered food.
The European Union is preparing to test incoming shipments, and will block any containing GM wheat. Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures fell 0.5 percent on Thursday.
‘We will refrain from buying western white and feed wheat effective today,’ Toru Hisadome, a Japanese farm ministry official in charge of wheat trading said.
GM wheat was discovered this spring on a farm in the west coast state of Oregon, in a field that grew winter wheat in 2012.
USDA officials said yesterday that when a farmer sprayed the so-called ‘volunteer’ plants with a glyphosate herbicide, some of them unexpectedly survived.”
Nice.
To make food matters just a little more alarming, last week we learned that China, the country that brought you toys for our kids sprayed with lead paint and is hacking our technology secrets, purchased Smithfield Foods, one of our nation’s largest producers of pork, for $4.7 billion.
Why should you, oh oblivious reader, care that China bought an American food company, presumably with money that you are sending to China in the form of interest payments on our debt to them?
Why should you, oh oblivious reader, care that China bought an American food company, presumably with money that you are sending to China in the form of interest payments on our debt to them? The business response to this purchase was that this was a great move for America because it would allow us to sell more pork to China. Really? The question is why can’t we sell pork to China without having China own the farm?
These quotes from the New York Times shows why this sale may not be in your best interest:
“We are importing more and more food from China at the same time we are hearing more and more about food scandals involving Chinese companies,” said Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food and Water Watch who testified in Congress at a hearing on Chinese food imports. Food safety problems, like melamine deliberately put into pet foods and baby formula as well as unsafe levels of cadmium in rice, have plagued China. The latest episode involved fox, rat and mink meat that was doctored with gelatin, pigment and nitrates and sold as mutton.
“What I think is more concerning is if China owns Smithfield, who knows if that pork will stay in this country if the food supply gets tight?” hog farmer Neil Keppy said. “In that case, a lot of pork will head for China instead of feeding U.S. mouths.”
Are you listening yet? While Monsanto modifies our crops seeds to be (almost) impervious to toxic sprays the Chinese are buying our meat supply. And we thought just losing our manufacturing jobs to the Chinese was undermining our nation.
Look, I’m as much for free trade as the next guy, but at what point do we stand up for America? What happens if a seed from a GMO crop drifts over to an organic farmer’s crop? First, the farmer is sued by Monsanto’s bastion of attorneys for illegally growing GMO crops. Next, he’s out of business, because his customers don’t want to buy GMO food.
Nothing is more important than the food you eat. If you are one who was left in a state of depression at learning that Twinkies were being pulled from the shelves then you need not worry.
However, if you are like me you might take your food more seriously. You might decide that you don’t want your food supply controlled by a chemical corporation that cares only for their bottom line and nothing at all about your health.
You might wake up one day and say to yourself that you don’t want to get “porked” by the Chinese, again. You might wake up one day and decide that your kid’s future is going to be in hands of others. You might wake up.
There is a lot of work to be done. You can begin by growing your own food and buying locally.
