A diverse ecosystem is self-supporting.

“Where do you stand on GMOs?”

~ a good friend

Good evening, friend.

Here are my two cents on why GMOs are not a path forward.

Big agro-business is geared towards making a profit, period. They do not account for impact on soil for future generations, waste management, water over-consumption and pollution, etc. In fact, if these external costs were to be accounted for these companies wouldn’t be profitable at all, following these obsolete mass production models.

These guys look at Life and the natural world as a resource, to be tamed and squeezed rather than understood and nurtured. It’s competition, rather than cooperation. So instead of organic systems producing in harmony with life and people, you get giant mono-cultures, known as “green deserts”, in which you get only one crop artificially kept alive with loads of oil-based inputs (fertilizers, herbicides, etc). If one plant catches a disease the whole system is compromised, since there is no diversity. So these folks tend to add more chemicals to the mix, and more, until that’s not enough and tweaking the genome of the plant is ultimately needed.

The part that we won’t feed a growing population if we don’t produce en masse is green wash. These guys don’t give a fuck about mankind’s needs. If they did they wouldn’t deplete soil and resources, nor pollute water streams like crazy. Nor would they want to create killer seeds that do not generate offspring so they can sell farmers more seeds. It’s all about the $$$.

IMHO the way forward are organic / permaculture farms in which not only do you work in tandem with nature, understanding and respecting its processes thus reducing the amount of external inputs (ahem, oil) needed to produce food, but you also add to the biodiversity and soil quality of the ecosystem around you. And this Earth does need healing.

This way you’ll get plenty of better quality food and leave a richer ecosystem for future generations of farmers and hungry citizens.