The Upheaval of GMOs

In case you don’t know what GMO means it is a Generically Modified Organism which is where scientists, using genetic engineering techniques, alter the genetic material of different organism. This is most commonly done in vegetables and -raised-for-meat animals.

The debate over GMO has been going on since the mid 1970s and evidence seems to be split on if GMOs are good for feeding the growing population of the world or bad for mutations and possible side effects from consuming GMOs.

GMOs are modified for various reasons, a main being that GMOs are made more pest and weed resistant, helping with more bountiful harvest. Every year companies that have made and patent GMOs have to make them more resistant the the previous year, because both pests and weeds adapt to the rising repellents in the GMOs.

Companies have also tweaked characteristics of some GMOs making them larger, more vibrant and even tastier.

The problems with all this genetic manipulation that GMOs have been largely untested on the effect of those who consume them. In the past only handful of experiments have been done to test GMOs on animals, let alone human consumption. And most of these tests are hard to track down as lobbying efforts done by companies have silenced scientists or anyone else who talks up against them, going so far as to smear their names until they step down from their academic and professional positions or are alienated from the scientific community (though as more discussion is done by the scientific community lately, more and more scientists are testing GMOs than 10 years ago and are receiving less harm from the companies).

Along with a growing concern in scientific groups and journals, the public is also starting to question not only the safety of GMOs, but also the unethical treatment of farmers, animals and the environment that big foodcorps have been getting way with for years.

Two articles recently published deal with both the problems with GMO foods sold to the public selves, and how foodcorps have been getting away with bullying independent farmers into paying year after year in ‘royalties’ for the use of ancestors that were derived from the foodcorps original seed.

The first article is about how California wants to introduce a bill in their house so that any GMOs are labeled across the state. Though it doesn’t seem like much, this eventually will lead, if passed, to other states and maybe the whole country in the labeling of GMOs.

Doing this will harm big foodcorps as they will see a lost in profit as some people will choose organic rather than something they know to be modified.

And this has happened before.

When Californians were outraged with how chickens were treated, stuffed into cages where they couldn’t move at all, they passed Proposition 2 in 2008. Because California is the largest farm state in the country and is known for starting trends that spread across the country. When legislation like Proposition 2 is passed or when the public wants GMOs labeled, it will affect the rest of the country.

The other article is about how Brazilian farmers are suing huge foodcorp Monsanto because the company has been collecting royalties on the farmers for years as 85% of soy-bean farmers in Brazil use a seed that has ordinarily came from a Monsanto seed. Essentially these farmers are paying a private tax to Monsanto on their crops.

Well 5 million farmers are upset and want their money back from Monsanto.

Being one of the biggest foodcorps around not only know for their GMO soy-beans, but also for the leader in manufacturing growth hormone to inject into cows for bigger milk production. But when farmers began labeling their milk hormone free, Monsanto slapped them with lawsuits.

But Monsanto is finding it hard to take on 5 million farms when it usually goes after individual farmers.

As GMOs appear in the news more and more, the public will start to realize problems with the food industry that is dominating the market and their lives, and a corporate giant will realize its not as tall as it thinks.

Urban Gardens Bring Communities Together Through Food

I found this article  two days ago and thought I would share it with all of you. It is about a San Fransisco neighborhood, located in Bayview-Hunters Point, which 10 years ago was a center of crime, violence and drug trafficking. Then Jeffery Betcher, a gay white man who moved to the neighborhood for lower housing costs, saw that one of his neighbors had planted flowers in some dirt by his driveway. This inspired him to pull together people from the community and make their neighborhood a nicer place to live.

Now the neighborhood is adored by flowers and gardens. The gangs have left, the streets cleaned up, children are safe to play outside and the neighborhood is thriving. This is happening all over the country, where low-income communities are coming together to create a better place for themselves, their families and the future generations that will live there.

And community gardens is the tool that helps this happen.

The reason for this is that food is ultra-simple way of bringing people together. Whether it be for a home cooked meal, food shopping or going out to a restaurant, food is a easy way to meet people and have an enjoyable time. A cook I used to work with said that was the reason he wanted to go to culinary school and become a chief.

Not only does community making gardens and growing food bring the neighborhoods together, it teaches children the simple skill of how to grow and produce food, along with providing children with mindsets of working hard, eating healthy, and teamwork.

If you want to see how gardening can bring people together, grow something in front of your house. I guarantee that not only neighbors will stop to ask you about your garden, random passerby will too.

Human beings were meant to socialize. When we come together we can do wonderful things. And just turning around a once crime ridden neighborhood is only a walk in the park for some of the great things we can achieve.