Organic Consumers Assoc.: Ten Ways Monsanto and Big Ag Are Trying to Kill You - And the Planet

[Patricia M. McBride]

And Obama wants to put Monsanto in charge of the FDA.  Not exactly a comforting thought, but even worse is the fact this president is doing what is good for America, he is doing what is good for his friends at Monsanto (and one wonders how much they donate to his campaign and past campaigns).

 

By Alexis Baden-Mayer & Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association, February 1, 2012

Energy-intensive industrial farming practices that rely on toxic chemicals and genetically engineered crops are not just undermining public health--they're destroying the planet. Here's how:

#1 Generating Massive Greenhouse Gas Pollution (CO2, Methane, Nitrous Oxide) and Global Warming; While Promoting False Solutions Such as Industrial Biofuels, So-Called Drought-Resistant Crops, and Genetically Engineered Trees

Evaluations of corn grown for ethanol show that whatever reduction in emissions you get from burning corn instead of oil in the gas tank is more than offset by the fact that producing biofuel from corn requires as much fuel as it could replace.

Corn production, like the production of all of the crops (corn, cotton, canola, soy, and now, sugar beets and alfalfa) that Monsanto has so successfully industrialized through its business model of selling patented GMO seeds to increase the use of its pesticides, is very fossil fuel intensive.

But that's just the beginning of Monsanto's contribution to agriculture's green house gas emissions. With ever-increasing acreage, where are all those GMO crops going? They're being fed to animals, and when you look at emissions from factory farms, you'll wish we burned them in the gas tank instead!

Added to the greenhouse gas emissions from crop production and factory farms is the pollution related to heavily processed food and the fact that food in the U.S. travels anywhere from 1500 to 3000 miles to reach your plate and must be either cooled or frozen in transit or storage. That's fossil fuel intensive, too.

Before we total the life cycle contribution of Monsanto's crops to greenhouse gas emissions, we have to take several steps back and acknowledge that clearing land to grow GMO crops for animal feed is the biggest driver of forest and wetland destruction, which generates 20% of all climate-destabilizing greenhouse gases.

All told, the production and processing of Monsanto's GMO crops, from deforestation to fossil-fuel-based pesticides and fertilizers, polluting factory farms, and fuel-intensive food processing and distribution, is estimated to produce up to 51% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

• TAKE ACTION:
• Tell Obama, Congress & the USDA to Dump Monsanto's Failed...
• Tell Congress: Organic Is the Answer to Climate Change!

Link:  http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_24800.cfm