"PORTLAND, Maine -- Agriculture officials say 40 percent of Maine's field corn acreage last year was genetically modified, which is half the national rate.
"According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey, Maine farmers last year planted some 29,000 acres of field corn, which is primarily used for livestock feed. The figure does not include sweet corn, the type that is sold at roadside stands during the summer.
"Of the total, nearly 12,000 acres were genetically modified for herbicide tolerance or insect resistance.
"The survey was the first time that Maine field corn farmers have been polled on their use of genetically modified varieties."
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are an issue in Maine, because for the past couple of years organic farmers have been struggling to maintain their government certification, as GMO plants have been finding their way into their gardens and fields.
Last year Montville, Maine became the first town outside of California to ban all GMO plants. Traditional farmers cried foul, asserting that they have a hard enough time keeping their financial heads above water, and they need the advantage that the lab has given them in battling bugs and disease, but even they would not claim they can keep the genie in the bottle...once a field is planted with genetically altered seeds, the wind, the rain -- even the birds and bees -- carry pollen from one field to another. And, bingo, the organic field is infiltrated by altered genes.
So Maine has drawn a line in the sand. The opponents are lining up against each other. And many Americans say, "Why does it matter?"
Monsanto is perhaps the biggest peddler of GMO seed, and their biggest seller is "Roundup Ready" corn and soybean. With this modern miracle of the laboratory, a farmer can plant the seed and then spray the bejeebers out of the field with Roundup, killing every plant that grows...except the corn.
According to Wikipedia:
The Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) is an American-based multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation. It is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as "Roundup". Monsanto is also the leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed, holding 70%–100% market share for various crops. Agracetus, owned by Monsanto, exclusively produces Roundup Ready soybean seed for the commercial market. In March 2005, it finalized the purchase of Seminis Inc, making it also the largest conventional seed company in the world. It has over 21,700 employees worldwide, and an annual revenue of USD$11.365 billion reported for 2008.
Monsanto's development and marketing of genetically engineered seed and bovine growth hormone, as well as its aggressive litigation and political lobbying practices, have made the company controversial around the world...
They were also the main developer and seller of DDT (now banned) and Agent Orange -- which was used to defoliate the jungles of Vietnam when the United States was fighting a war there.
In my opinion the main problems with GMO are:
- A tomato plant was never meant by God to carry a fish gene (this is an actual GMO, which gives the plant resistance to cold)
- These chemicals that are pervasive in our system of food distribution and consumption could easily be responsible for the high rate of cancer, autism and other afflictions of our day that did not seem to be as common 100 years ago. Is anybody trying to find out?
- As explained in the Maine case, you can't keep a plant from spreading. These altered seeds are contaminating fields of organic and heirloom plants all over the country. Will we lose the valuable diversity of our agricultural heritage, and then find out too late that we can't eat what Monsanto is feeding us? Will we have a choice?
- I believe the Colony Collapse Disorder of bees could be eventually traced to the bees' exposure to GMO crops, and bees are necessary to pollinate crops.
Where I live in Tennessee, I pass daily huge field after huge field of corn, soybean and other crops that are grown with the no-till method promoted by the chemical manufacturers and the government agricultural consultants. Farmers are told that this is the way to preserve the earth, yet it looks like nothing so much as a "scorched earth." They are told not to disturb the soil, but rather spray herbicides over the whole field, wait for everything to die, and then plant. Another spritz of poison once or twice during the growing season, then harvest, and there you go! More corn per acre with a lot less work!
It is a lie that this is good for the earth. Farmers used to work in harmony with the soil, cultivating rich soil that grows good food naturally. Now, they kill the soil. It becomes just a medium in which to grow things artificially, much the same as hydroponics. The soil is a medium devoid of life.
If you should pass one such field one day, even if something is growing in it, look at the ground there at the base of the plants...what do you see? If it is brown stubble, the field is no-till. And when you see that, just remember that apart from Monsanto and other companies like it, the field could grow nothing. If a terrorist wanted Americans to starve to death, all he would have to do is bomb all the chemical plants. Without the chemicals, a modern American farmer could not clear the field, could not plant, could not grow anything. There would be famine in the land where once was a bountiful harvest.
Our desecrated farmland has become sterile.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "The nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.”
Maybe it's not too late, if we undertake to preserve and restore the fertility of our farmlands. But we need to stand up now.
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