Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Monsanto’s New Seeds Could Be a Tech Dead End

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Monsanto’s New Seeds Could Be a Tech Dead End

Click here to access article by Tom Laskawy from Civil Eats.

Corporate agriculture is constantly introducing innovations that serves the profit interests of the One Percent. Their use of pesticides in combination with "ownership" of genetically modified seeds may produce more immediate profits, but these practices are creating long term threats to our food supply and our health. Because the One Percent also "owns" the government, we cannot look to it for protection. The author gives us the latest scoop on Monsanto's activities.

The USDA, along with the entire large-scale agriculture economy, is built around the profits of pesticide and biotech companies. You need only watch the USDA approve new genetically engineered products—which the agency admits represents a threat to other forms of agriculture—to see how deep in the tank to these companies our government is.