I am not making a case here for any of the GM products sold by Monsanto. I personally avoid any food that contains GM ingredients because it usually means Roundup residue in the food and I do not want that.
I am also not totally sure of the inherent safety of the GM food which is engineered to survive Roundup.
But we need Monsanto, Sygenta, Bayer and their ilk.
The reasons why I think they are essential are as follows:
- With the advent of technologies like CRISPR, any small lab can create genetically modified plants
- Many of these will be released into the environment and will spread.
- Some of these may be unsafe/poisonous/toxic for human consumption. In fact, some could be specifically and maliciously engineered to be so.
- Only the large GM product companies have the experience and expertise to conduct large scale controlled field trials. Going beyond Monsanto and it’s ilk, only large corporations have the ability to spend significant amounts of money to test the products on humans.
- Only large corporations and huge grocery retail chains have the money, processes and technology to control the entire supply chain from farm to fork
An explosion of GM species is round the corner. I cannot see how anyone can prevent it.
Like it or not, we need the large corporations. Who else can we trust? Not the small farmers who will lack the ability to prevent contamination of their field by GM varieties. Not the small retailers or markets selling unbranded produce because they lack the technology to test what they buy.
I hate the idea of increased dependence on large corporations for our food. But I do not see a way out, a few years from now.
Do you?
Here’s A link To The Article That Inspired This Post: