Monsanto & Shiva

I think both of these videos are of very poor quality and reflect the level of importance Monsanto places on informative advertisements and accurate depictions of the agricultural industry. Perhaps what I find most amusing is the fact that the second newsman can barely remember what he’s supposed to say; how much time and effort did Monsanto put into making this video? Hardly none, I suspect, since they do not need consumer support to run their business anyway. In my opinion, these videos only reflect a larger conspiracy, and the intended aim was to keep the sheep (we the ignorantly herded humans) content. Yes, yes, everything is fine, America! Monsanto is hard at work privatizing the seed industry by patenting everything they can possibly pilfer, beneficial to the Green Revolution, from the global south.

But what really seals the deal for me is the main message that the second video wishes to convey to its audience: “Modern farming will feed the world.” According to the Kavana reading, there is enough food in the world to feed every single person on Earth 3,200 calories a day (Myth 1). Monsanto plays on the good nature of the majority of humanity in order to obtain market imperialism. They say that the world is starving, and so we have to discover other ways to produce more and faster. So, we give money, and they create new technologies. Yet, millions of people starve and ironically 80% of those deathly famished are farmers, whose sole profession is to produce food. Good old Mark said that Monsanto would be interviewing a delightful family to discuss modern farming techniques.

What he neglected to mention that the preponderance of agricultural produce come from farms in foreign countries. Farms that break the backs of starving men, women, and children as they desperately strive to coax the earth into providing enough crops to meet company quotas and if lucky, sustenance for the family. These few main corporations destroy the land with monocultures, desecrating the soil until it can no longer bear fruit. Now these farmers will drown in debt with nothing but ruined land and nonexistent credit, and no one so much as glances back. Driven by starvation and anguish, the farmer migrates to the city with his family with the hope that he may find a job to sustain what meager livelihood he can for his family. Unfortunately, thousands of other farmers have had this same idea, and the bum rush to urban areas has thrown the economy, specifically the import-export trade balance, into oblivion.

“We have to reclaim our right to save seed and to biodiversity.” By allowing these corporations to ravage the planet, we allow our present “dictators” to put future generations at a massive disadvantage. Rather than spending time with truly beneficial innovations, imminent geniuses will instead have to focus on cleaning up our disgusting mess. As Shiva declares, we must promote “food democracy”, breaching the monopoly Monsanto and other allied corporations have on genetic seed patents and international trade tariffs, redistributing the land, and placing more specific and severe punishments on the degradation of our home planet and both its infinite and finite resources.

[ I can't link this video, but I found it pretty interesting. It just goes to show how these companies are completely and totally indifferent to the suffering of millions of people in order to gain wealth for just a select few. ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av6dx9yNiCA