Have you heard of the 'Butterfly Effect?' Both a scientific concept and an ecological reality, its essence is that the flapping of one butterfly's wings in central Mexico can have consequences tomorrow in New York City, Rome, or Hong Kong. The notion is that our physical world is more intricately balanced than we know. Seemingly inconsequential acts in even the remotest area are connected to results far away in both time and space.
Okay, let me step down from the professional pose and put this in terms I understand: We human geniuses don't know what the &#%$! we're doing. Corporations spew tons of nasty chemicals called organochlorines into our air and water and suddenly male alligators in Florida are born without penises (you did know they had penises, didn't you?). Detroit loads up its auto air conditioners with CFCs and— lo!— there's a big hole in the earth's ozone layer. At issue here are industrial practices that amount to peeling a grape with an ax—the ax does get the peel off, but it makes a horrible mess of the pulp.
Now the ax is falling on the very genetic make-up of our food supply—and the Butterfly Effect is beginning to affect butterflies . . . not to mention you and me. The ax wielders are chemical companies that are determined to outsmart Mother Nature by manipulating the DNA structure within the cells of plants. They'll take a gene from a fish and put it in a tomato, a gene from a mouse and put it in corn cells, a gene from a peanut and put it in potatoes. The combinations are limitless— "Here a gene, there a gene / everywhere a gene, gene / Old McDonald had a lab / E-I- E-I-O." The results are variously known as GA (genetically altered food), GMO (genetically modified organisms), GM (genetically manipulated), GE (genetically engineered) . . . or, more rudely, Frankenfood.
In the forefront of this Brave New Food World are the big four global giants who refer to themselves with a straight face as "life science" corporations: Monsanto, Novartis, DuPont, and Hoescht. They plan to re-make the world's food supply, all in the interest of humanity, of course, to include foods with vaccines in them, foods that can go weeks without spoiling, and foods that have pesticides genetically implanted in them. But what if you're deathly allergic to a peanuts-in-potato concoction, or what if we don't want our children consuming foods with unknown vaccines and sex hormones (yes, sex hormones, too, are being added by the beneficent life-science people) . . . and what the holy hell do you mean that pesticides are genetically implanted in the foods?! No problem, you think, I don't have to buy their GA, GM, GMO, GE, or whatever other GD term they apply to the Frankenfoods that come out of their laboratory larder. You wish. Do your kids drink Coca-Cola, have you had a McDonald's french fry, has Kraft salad dressing been on your table, is Land o' Lakes butter in your fridge, do you use NutraSweet, and—get this—have you fed your babies with Similac infant formula? Welcome to the Brave New Food World. ... [ read more ]
Have you heard of the 'Butterfly Effect?' Both a scientific concept and an ecological reality, its essence is that the flapping of one butterfly's wings in central Mexico can have consequences tomorrow in New York City, Rome, or Hong Kong. The notion is that our physical world is more intricately balanced than we know. Seemingly inconsequential acts in even the remotest area are connected to results far away in both time and space.
Okay, let me step down from the professional pose and put this in terms I understand: We human geniuses don't know what the &#%$! we're doing. Corporations spew tons of nasty chemicals called organochlorines into our air and water and suddenly male alligators in Florida are born without penises (you did know they had penises, didn't you?). Detroit loads up its auto air conditioners with CFCs and— lo!— there's a big hole in the earth's ozone layer. At issue here are industrial practices that amount to peeling a grape with an ax—the ax does get the peel off, but it makes a horrible mess of the pulp.
Now the ax is falling on the very genetic make-up of our food supply—and the Butterfly Effect is beginning to affect butterflies . . . not to mention you and me. The ax wielders are chemical companies that are determined to outsmart Mother Nature by manipulating the DNA structure within the cells of plants. They'll take a gene from a fish and put it in a tomato, a gene from a mouse and put it in corn cells, a gene from a peanut and put it in potatoes. The combinations are limitless— "Here a gene, there a gene / everywhere a gene, gene / Old McDonald had a lab / E-I- E-I-O." The results are variously known as GA (genetically altered food), GMO (genetically modified organisms), GM (genetically manipulated), GE (genetically engineered) . . . or, more rudely, Frankenfood.
In the forefront of this Brave New Food World are the big four global giants who refer to themselves with a straight face as "life science" corporations: Monsanto, Novartis, DuPont, and Hoescht. They plan to re-make the world's food supply, all in the interest of humanity, of course, to include foods with vaccines in them, foods that can go weeks without spoiling, and foods that have pesticides genetically implanted in them. But what if you're deathly allergic to a peanuts-in-potato concoction, or what if we don't want our children consuming foods with unknown vaccines and sex hormones (yes, sex hormones, too, are being added by the beneficent life-science people) . . . and what the holy hell do you mean that pesticides are genetically implanted in the foods?! No problem, you think, I don't have to buy their GA, GM, GMO, GE, or whatever other GD term they apply to the Frankenfoods that come out of their laboratory larder. You wish. Do your kids drink Coca-Cola, have you had a McDonald's french fry, has Kraft salad dressing been on your table, is Land o' Lakes butter in your fridge, do you use NutraSweet, and—get this—have you fed your babies with Similac infant formula? Welcome to the Brave New Food World. ... [ read more ]
After casting her ballot for Barack Obama, Amanda Jones said simply, "I feel good about voting for him." Ms. Jones, of Cedar Creek, Texas (a town just south of Austin), is African-American, and what gives her vote some historic punch is that she's 109 years old. Her father was a slave. Her mother was born right after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. She's been through it all--Jim Crow segregation, women's suffrage, the Great Depression, the poll tax, FDR, the civil-rights movement, desegregation, 13 years of George W (five as guv, eight as prez), and now: Barack Obama. This last change fills her with joy, she says.
