These poisons are partially responsible for extending our life expectancy. They have made food cheaper and able to be stored longer. The same scientific advances are responsible for our life expectancy and the improved crops. I think it is unfair to tout science that brought the longer life expectancy and condemn the science that makes better food available to the world for millions.
Whether you use selective breeding, a carrier virus or a gene splicing on an organism the results are the same, the DNA has been changed from what nature intended. It is like deciding to walk, ride a horse or fly in plane from one coast to the other, the results are the same the time involved to get there is the only difference.
I do agree with Minnie in one respect, we have lost diversity in our foods. Apples is the prime example, I believe we had over 100 varieties of apples in the 1800 in Minnesota, now we have just a handful. Rye use to be plentiful in this area, now I seldom see it. I remember fields of flax, that too is nearly gone in this area.
Even our dairies are monolithic, most being Holsteins, when is the last time you saw a herd of Brown Swiss or Ayrshires?
I like that some of us keep the old breeds alive, I worry someday a disaster could strike and eliminate one variety from those we now produce, say corn. It would be a horrible thing for health and the economy. BUT that does not make corn poison.
The great thing is we are still free enough to raise and eat what want, even though our choices have been limited.
I do not find companies like Monsanto to be the "enemy". I do not blame them for the changing of the rural landscape. It is pure and simple economics. It is a factor of the longer life expectancy and scientific advancement.
If you look at farm families you can see life expectancy, technological advances and economics have changed the farms not Monsanto. Farmers live longer and work more efficiently producing more than ever before in history. In our family there were 3 boys, when my youngest brother graduated from High School my Dad was 48 years old. Dad was farming over a thousand acres then. There was no way the farm could have supported anyone of our young families at that time. We were all forced to learn different professions and unable to farm. When Dad retired the land he was farming went to another farmer to increase the size of his farm, none of us could afford or were willing to give up our careers to start farming at around 40.
This in my opinion changed farming not Monsanto or companies like it, it was companies like John Deere, International Harvester, Case, Minneapolis Moline that changed farming, and in the process even they caused their own demise in many cases.
Anyways to each his own, but I know I will happily go on eating my GMO corn.
