Future of Food

Interesting, thanks for sharing Brian :)
So is it just a case of consumers not buying the genetic modified food? If nobody buys it, then they won't produce it, right?

First consumers need to care, then second governments need to stop allowing big agribusiness to hide the origins and nature of its products. Part of the solution is at the check-out counter. The other part is at the voting booth.

Future of Food is a good resource for people.  We've been showing it alot here in Sonoma County in the past year.  We tried to get a moratorium on GMO crops passed in November.  Unfortunately it failed. 

Another GREAT movie is The Real Dirt on Farmer John.  I think we need more real people like farmer john growing real food in real dirt. 

And my question is (referring to monsanto here): will these mega-corporation crumble under their own weight?

I've just been doing some googling of Monsanto.They must be a huge company, seeing as though they have websites for US, Canada, UK, South Africa, and probably others…

Here's a story I've just read, found it on the Monsanto UK website: The GM Farmer's Story

The farmer says: “My main point is that it will cut down on the use of chemicals. There has been talk about there being a herbicide tax coming in and margins are so tight at the moment that we could not afford another tax.”

Ok, now for a millisecond I thought this guy may be concerned about the environment, until he mentions that it's about lowering the tax.I'm sure if herbicide had zero tax, he'd be splashing tons of it about.

However, here's a question from someone with a brain, ie: Me not the Genetically Malnutritioned farmer: If GM reduces the use of chemicals, then why not use it? I mean we can't all eat organic foods can we? Aren't there too many people in the world to feed them all via organic farming methods?

Ok, well, thought I'd at least try and get a little debate out of this, but it wasn't easy, LOL!

Can you believe the farmer says this: “If pollen can blow for three miles so can the chemicals, so none of these organic farms is completely free of contamination. It's all very well putting the boot into GM but are they 100 per cent clean themselves? I don't think so.”

I mean seriously, I literally had to double check I was on the official Monsanto website and not on this one: MonsantoSucks.com
Perhaps I am naive but I am honestly aghast that companies in the “Science and Technology” field themselves circulate such an unenlightened, and basically 'utterly stupid' attitude.It took me five mins to read on I was so taken aback by what I had read there.

It's interesting (well not really but ya know) that at the end the farmer says:

“There are no big sums of money involved at all. A lot of folk would say, 'Then why accept all the hassle that goes with this and why get involved at all?' The reason is that I do genuinely think it is the way forward.”

Yet at the start he talks about the reduction in tax.So it all to do with money, and you get the strong impression that “the way forward” to him is “whichever way makes me the most money, without a thought to environmental consequences.”

You know in a funny kind of way realising how unenlightened such companies are is empowering.People, including myself, have at some time or other thought “how can I really change the world?”
And the answer is just to be ourselves.But then you see yourself and that's it and you think well so what am I doing.And it is only when we realise how enlightened we are, through reading about how unenlightened such companies as Monsanto are, that we think to ourselves “ahh, obviously that needs changing.”

That, for me, is what changing the world is all about, shining your own light on everything.

Steps up to the soapbox:
I agree the fight is not from the outside it's from the inside of the nature of our lives. We are struggling to raise the higher vibrations of making money without loosing our souls or buying into the old dogmas.
It's freedom with rules and regulations, but it's a cleaner way of doing business.
I owned and operated a successful Organic Landscape company, and Organic Farm, and Organic nursery for more than 15 years. I am an organic certified grower by the federal government…and their idea of what's “organic” is not reality. I even create most if not all my artworks in a recycled “green” way…and I support small local business…and I ask people for their thow awy stuff, so it won't go to the landfil…instead I tuen it into something “new”.
Our power in this life right now is where we spend our money, and time AND KNOWLEDGE…what are you doing with your power? I grow my own food as much as possible, I don't eat animals, I pack my kids lunches everyday…and I read package labels…any suggestions on how I can make MORE of a differance? Great topic! And a great Post.

“what are you doing with your power?”

That's an awesome line Heather.One I'll write down and always keep in mind.Thankyou so much for that.I reckon it'd be a really good idea for an official zaadz slogan.

Cheers!

this is the second time over several days that i have opened this comment box and have been reluctant to chime in.  reluctant because i tend to see this relatively quiet revolution in genetic manipulation – especially in the hands of corporations like monsanto* – as potentially more inimical to our future than war and terrorism, global warming, and chemical pollution combined.  the projects and results already seen … (no need to list them here).  it simply seems monstrous to me. 

but i am just “a mote on the leg of a flea on the wing of a bird on the limb of a tree in a valley-o.”  what does my fear or faith amount to?  yet on this one, hard as it is – and i've sat here, like i said, for days on this  – maybe i'm ready to get off the fear and move over to faith.  maybe i'm persuaded by the infectious brian johnson *flow* on this one, and the other comments here, too – another hunk of doubt chipped away, and looking forward to what a growing cadre of “enlightened entrepeneurs” (like heather and others) can do, are doing, will do.  personally, i feel a kind of tectonic shift going on.  right here in this lttle comment box!  really, honestly, it's like i'm coming to Jesus here!  my heart is changing.

if i can move from fear to faith facing this biggest-of-all-buggaboos on my own personal horizon, maybe others can, too, eh?  and if i can see hope out past this fear, the others become much easier to knock down.  further, when we begin to act not out of fear but faith, and pitch in however we can, maybe we can change the world.  am i getting with the program, here?  fear and doubt pin us down.

pass that soapbox over here…

a bazillion of times a day, on every matter under the sun, moment by moment, humans are opting for fear or faith.  we want to choose faith.  i want to choose faith.

since i've come here to zaadz, in all of my moment-by-moment choosing, some of it on the same damn things over and over again, standing up and confronting one fear after the next, the choice is getting easier and easier.


“… follow your bliss …”            “… come to the edge …”


i'm tipping!  the world is tipping, too!  and zaadz (with brian johnson's thumb heavy on the scale) is egging us on. 

what side of the balance will we choose to be on?

pretty potent stuff, zaadz. 


okay, pass the box.   enough from this mutt.


thank you, brian.  and thank you, fellow zaadzsters.


Monsanto, the company criticised in a US court in 2002 for behaviour “so outrageous in character and extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency so as to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in civilized society.”  ~ the people of anniston, alabama vs. monsanto

I aslo have this DVD. after watching it- I had just two big questionmarks in my eyes.
???? where is a limit of stupidity ?? is there any?  who are these people ? do they still look like humans ? how is this possible in US? or maybe it only can be possible in US?

I saw this movie and it literally transformed the way I eat, shop, approach the whole subject of food.  It's an amazing and eye-opening film.

rhobherto, you inspire me.  You see, I've had SO many people say to me that they would change if they really thought one person could make a difference.  But, since no one else was going to change, why should they?  I've never (in my life) understood that approach.  Actually, it confuses and baffles me to no end.  Which is why your shift from fear to faith is so powerful.  I now know it's possible for people to make the shift, which inspires me to continue being a loving zealot!

Here's to choosing higher consciousness in all that we do!

Hello, Brian. Very interesting post. I’ll have to check out the movie. Did the link work for you?