Monsanto: “Playing God in the Garden”

Mutato Potato For Alien Food Supply?

A Monsanto official told the New York Times that the corporation should not have to take responsibility for the safety of its food products. “Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food,” said Phil Angell, Monsanto’s director of corporate communications. “Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA’s job,” Angell said. — Playing God In the Garden New York Times 10/25/98

The 10/25/1998, New York Times, printed an article, Potato-Playing God in the Garden, by Michael Pollan. This article explains that Monsanto has genetically engineered a potato (Labeled “New Leaf”) that is immune to insects that attack potatoes.

Monsanto has genetically engineered a naturally occurring pesticide into this new breed of potatoes. Thus the FDA, considers this potato a pesticide under present law, and this means that consumers do not have to be told that they are eating a pesticide. Monsanto sees genetic engineering as a way to get off “the pesticide treadmill” and to have environmentally safe agriculture. But this course has many pitfalls.

In past articles I have explained that prior to the large scale introduction of pesticides one third of all crops were lost to insects, weeds and bacteria. Today, the loses are exactly the same because insects, bacteria, and weeds multiply quickly and develop immunity to the pesticides.

This has led to more and more pesticides being used and continuously higher costs for agriculture.

The great tragedy is that humans (unlike insects) do not reproduce fast enough to develop immunity to the chemicals used in farming. We now know that many pesticides cause cancer after long-term exposures. Unfortunately, there has been no extensive testing about the long-range effects of consumption of this pesticide.

One of the Monsanto executives interviewed by Michael Pollan in response to questions about this issue said: “Trust Us.?!”

Monsanto, it must be remembered, was one of the manufacturers of “Agent Orange” which Monsanto considered safe to spray on civilians and soldiers during the Vietnam War.

Monsanto also produces other similar products: Roundup and rBGH. rBGH is used to increase milk production in cows. Monsanto wants us to “trust them” that this compound, too, is safe.

rBGH, when injected into cows, produces milk that contains rBGH. And when rBGH is consumed it becomes IGF-1 in the body. Recent scientific studies have shown that IGF-1 increases the risk of breast cancer and prostrate cancer.