March Against Monsanto: "This is our mess"

Join us this weekend - Saturday, May 24th!

Monsanto is a company often in the news for its controversial genetically modified crops. Genetic Modification uses enzymes to splice together desirable traits into a seed or plant that would not naturally occur. “March Against Monsanto” is a major international grass roots movement in over 50 countries. I reached out to Victoria, B.C. March organizer, Laura Weileby, to get her views on some of latest issues to hit the news.

"The point of any protest is always to raise awareness. In this instance it’s to bolster awareness of the evil corporation, Monsanto, and the dangers of genetically modified organisms (“GMOs”). The participants of March Against Monsanto want their right to know what’s in their food respected, and GMOs clearly labeled. The global [march] encompasses many objectives, including speaking on behalf of the environment, our bees and butterflies and all living beings unable to speak for themselves, severely at risk from Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide."

Corn, for example, has the highest production of any GMO crop and has been altered to resist both pests and herbicides. One modification causes the corn plant to produce a “dormant” insecticide that only reacts with an alkaline (the opposite of an acid) environment. The human stomach is naturally acidic, so it doesn’t activate the poison. This of course, doesn’t take into account people who have acid reflux and take alkaline medications on a regular basis to lower the acidity level in their stomach. Would taking these medications either before or after consuming GMO corn activate the poison and what effect would that have on the human body over a long period of time?

GMO corn also differs in nutritional value from organic corn. Organic corn has 7 times more manganese, which helps regulate blood sugar, protect against free radical damage, increase skin integrity, and prevents calcium loss from bones. It also has 437 times more calcium than GMO corn! If calcium is being removed from our food, no wonder we have to rely on supplements in our orange juice. GMO corn does contain one substance in greater quantities than organic corn; it contains 200 times the amount of formaldehyde. Yum.

So why aren’t products being labeled as GMO on our shelves? “Everyone has a right to know what they are eating and feeding their families. Health issues abound in the world today. GMO corporations fight labeling to make it difficult to trace these issues back to their product. The only reason acquiring labeling in Canada and the U.S. is such a struggle is because North America is home to the GMO corporate giants. Their roots are here, and they’re strong ones.”

In fact, there are over 64 countries around the world who require mandatory labeling of GMO products and it is up to grass roots organizations like March Against Monsanto to let the government know that we want it too! “Thanks to the internet, ignorance of this situation is weakening and the power of public awareness is slowly kicking in and killing these GMO giants who once thrived on the ignorance of all. This is our mess we let happen. It only makes sense we should have to put in the most effort yanking out the deepest, most prolific roots.”

Recently, Monsanto has also started their foray into more “traditional” methods of crop modification which have been used for thousands of years. Namely, crossbreeding – identifying plants with traits they want to cultivate, cross breeding them with each other, looking for those traits in the offspring, and re-planting from those offspring until those traits show up in 100% of plant offspring.So far they have introduced five new produce items to grocery stores, under unassociated company names of course, with at least two more getting closer to market. So far there are the: Beneforté, Bellafina, Melōränge, EverMild, and the Frescada.

“I don’t care what they sell. I, for one, will always be seeking ways to be more mindful of what my grocery money goes to support, and Monsanto will always remain a company I do not trust.”