Diana Sparx Hates Monsanto and the Franken-Food-Fuck-Us-Fest

I have to give props to Alan Moore’s magazine Dodgem Logic for my first exposure to the term “Franken Food”, which is a nicely concise and apt way to describe what the Monsanto corporation is doing to our fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains and fibers.

Before we go any further, and because Monsato is so sue-happy, let me say that these opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect Mindcore Studio’s views. And if anyone would like to counter me, I encourage it. If I’m wrong, I’d rather be corrected. However, the GMOs and herbicides manufactured by Monsanto could possibly have the potential of causing mass starvation, new food allergies, and a food monopoly that could exponentially increase what we pay for foods and fibers. Pay attention kids, this is important.

I try to eat whole, unprocessed and raw foods as much as funds and conveince reasonably allow me. Natural, unprocessed foods are equivelent to medicine in my opinion. But it seems that as a US citizen, my food is getting screwed with before it ever pops up out of the ground.

Monsanto’s website is a disarming fawn color with a photo of happy Indian children on the front. Its corporate message is meant, I suppose, to be assuring but reads as sanctimonious to me:

In the hands of farmers, better seeds can help meet the needs of our rapidly growing population. That’s why we are working on making agriculture truly sustainable. To get more from each acre, each raindrop, each seed. And to improve the most valuable resource of all: people’s lives

How nice of them! Their whole mission is to improve our lives. However, this mission becomes suspect- they have an entire page dedicated to refuting the controversies that have arisen around their products.

The first controversy I’d like to address is the suicide of Indian farmers after the failure of Monsanto seed crops. This first came to my attention while I was listening to BBC radio. I have never known the BBC to release untested or suspect information, which is why I’m a daily listener. BBC radio is very interview driven, and I heard Indian women in tears as they described the suicide deaths of their husbands. The cotton seeds sold by Monsanto to Indian farmers failed miserably, and unable to provide for their families or pay their debts, these dishonored men acted in desperation. Furthermore, they could not recoup any loses, as Monsanto does not allow seed saving. Which brings me to another troubling point- Monsanto has the power to copyright genomes. This idea frightened me so badly that I had nightmares of a dystopian future where people were owned by Monsanto Corp. But that’s tangential. I am very interested in being truthful and fair, so here is Monsanto’s response to the deaths of Indian farmers:

If you search the Internet for Monsanto, you will likely come across claims that failure of our Bollgard® cotton seed products has caused many farmers in India to take their own lives. Not everything you see or read on the Internet is fact and this is a good example.

The reality is that that the tragic phenomena of farmer suicides in India began long before the introduction of Bollgard in 2002. Farmer suicide has numerous causes with most experts agreeing that indebtedness is one of the main factors. Farmers unable to repay loans and facing spiraling interest often see suicide as the only solution.

Umm, okay. First of all, don’t talk to me like I’m a five year old because I dared question you: “Not everything you see or read on the Internet is fact” No shit Sherlock, and fuck you for rubbing my nose in it. Monsanto sites the fact that they have repeat customers and that other farmers have killed themselves before BT cotton. This is a piss-poor argument in my opinion. Show me that there was not a spike in farmer suicides and I may concede a little. Also, the world is full of stupid people. I’ve gotten diarrhea from Taco Bell before, and stupidly returned for more. That argument doesn’t impress me. They have some links backing them up on their stance, but keep in mind this is a multi-million dollar company. Money talks, especially in research grants.

Let me take a quick aside to address their “sustainability” claim. First of all, Monsanto manufactued Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. They say the are not culpable, because they were acting on government orders. I hope that helps you sleep at night- it’s not your fault that you gave thousands of enlisted men a compound that was contaminated with a known carcinogen. It’s not your fault that their very genome is being eaten away by your product. I suppose it is also not your fault all those bald eagles died and we’ll probably all get cancer from the DDT you manufactured, or all the chemical dumps you’ve let leak into the soil and water supply. As a matter of fact, Monsanto’s very first product is a known carcinogen: saccharine, the artificial sweetener. But hey, Monsanto is no  longer a chemical company so I suppose they are no longer culpable.

Monsanto is now a bioengineering firm. Sounds technical and fancy for sure, but on their “Issues” page they talk about terminator plants. This will really fuck us. Monsanto, in their blind lust for profit, created plants who “terminate” after one year, that is, they do not produce seeds. This is to ensure that a farmer must pay for their precious copyrighted seeds year after year. Why is that so bad? Because nature doesn’t see it as your genome, Monsanto, and plants cross-pollinate all the time, which means the terminator gene can enter into other plantlife. Which means this could spread like a virus and cause other plants not copyrighted by Monsanto to “terminate”. That’s fucked. Luckily, they are not manufacturing it for sale now, due to how obviously dangerous and unpopular it is, but it really is only a matter of time. Monsanto is so deeply in bed with American politics that they are quite literally getting away with our future murders. The Obama administration appointed a former Monsanto official to a high ranking position in the FDA. Now, we are truly fucked.

I could go on and on for pages and pages decrying many individual instances of Monsanto abusing its power, but I really do encourage you to research it for yourself. You will find dozens and dozens of horrific acts that will make your jaw drop.

However, I want my opinion explicit- GMOs will not keep us from starving- sustainable agriculture will. The dangers of GMOs far outweigh the benefits, and Monsanto has a long history of unethical practices. And we have the right and the responsibility to question their actions, and if need be, “fight the good fight”

- Diana Sparx