Rooted in Chemicals
Although Monsanto’s marketing department touts it as a relatively new company, its roots date back to pre-World War I. Monsanto’s first product was saccharin; by the 1960s it was also producing such chemical niceties as PCBs, dioxin and Agent Orange – and there are dozens of Superfund sites across the country to prove it. By 1980 the company had figured out how to genetically modify plant matter. Barely three national election cycles later, Monsanto’s former chief counsel was nominated – and contentiously confirmed – as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. His name is Clarence Thomas. And a former Monsanto head lobbyist was named Deputy Food Commissioner at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. By 1994 he had returned to Monsanto, presumably with the FDA’s playbook under his arm.

Aggressive About Agriculture
Until 1980, one could not obtain a patent on a seed, since seeds were considered to be life-forms and not inventions. When Monsanto genetically engineered their seeds to resist Roundup weed killer (which is also made by Monsanto), they were granted a patent on their seeds as Genetically Modified Organisms – GMOs. For farmers, it meant they could use Roundup liberally without fear of crop damage. It also meant that they could no longer follow a custom as ancient as agriculture himself, known as “seed-saving”. Monsanto required every single seed to be returned to the company (necessitating the purchase of new seeds every year). Moreover, the company takes an extremely aggressive legal stance – even in the face of small farmers or small-town general stores – when it comes to protecting their intellectual property. Their reprehensible behavior includes hiring private detectives to conduct surveillance on small family farmers working their hardest to eke a living out of our nation’s breadbasket – out of their own land. The corporate giant has no problem litigating them beyond their means.

Nowhere to Hide
The fact of the matter, though, is that Monsanto products are already in nearly every household in America, even those dedicated to a “green” lifestyle that involves healthy nutritional choices. Ninety percent of American-grown soybeans come from Monsanto’s genetically-engineered seeds (soy is found in more food products than most people realize). With the abject surrender of the largest organic-foods retailer, Whole Foods, and the largest wholesaler, United Natural Foods, Monsanto alfalfa (complete with Roundup-resistant genetic modifications, whatever they are) will be fed to cattle which will eventually wind up on our grocery store shelves as beef products. Corn, cotton, sugar-beets and canola have all been subjected to Monsanto’s GMO engineering, which some scientists believe transfers to the very soil in which the plants are grown.

Bought and Paid For
Our friends and allies “across the pond” probably take no small measure of amusement from our plight, here in this proud Republic, where it was our freedom that was supposed to be iron-clad. Sure, they have genetically modified crops in Europe; they also have mandatory labeling laws, which don’t exist here and likely never will, given Monsanto’s appendages in our halls of government. So here we are, just 65 years removed from saving the world from monstrous tyranny, fresh out of the Cold War, with nearly all of our food production placed in the hands of a single monopolistic entity, one with a horrifying track record as a corporate citizen.

The Tipping Point: Citizens United
Ah, citizenship. Until the very recent Citizens United case, in which the Supreme Court (Clarence Thomas included) reversed a century’s worth of campaign finance law and bestowed “citizenship” unto corporations, that grand word referred to the people. You and me. Hearing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney declare that “corporations are people” in Iowa late last year should have given those Midwestern farmers all the information they needed about the man, yet he won the Iowa caucuses. Corporations, like Monsanto, are people now. They are people who can dump money anywhere they please without so much as a kernel of disclosure, taking all the power from a self-divided government, with both parties now completely unaware of who is funding their opponents. Everyone serves the corporations. No wonder Whole Foods caved. Not even the United States government can stop them.

Corporations, unless and until a Constitutional amendment wipes out Citizens United, may have legally established their “personhood”. What the people at Monsanto and others like them can never achieve is humanity.

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Let the Sun Shine In

Converting to solar power may be a pricey endeavor initially, but it is one that will pay for itself in no time. Open your blinds and curtains during the day to let as much sun shine in as you can. It’s healthy and it will save on your electric bill because you won’t have to turn as many lights on to see. A skylight in your closet (instead of that pull string light fixture) is another great way to save on electricity; at least during the day. If you can’t afford to convert to solar power, at least try to switch your light bulbs over to CFL bulbs. Just switching out one of these light bulbs with your incandescent bulb will not only be safer because it will emit 70% less heat but it will last 10 times longer and you can cut your electric bill by $30.00…one bulb! If every family in the United States did that 90,000,000 pounds of greenhouse gases would be eliminated. That’s like taking 7.5 million automobiles off the road. Scary isn’t it?

Walk, Ride a Bike, or Use Mass Transit

With the mass transit there will still, of course, be pollution; but at least instead of the pollution from one car for every one person there will only be the pollution from the one mass transit vehicle for all the people on board. You can also use less gas by combining all your errands into one trip.

We’ve made a nice little mess of things. It’s time to put our toys away and clean up.

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Steps To Protect Pandas

Conservationists have been aware of the Panda problem for decades, and have taken steps to protect the Pandas from being killed as well as attempting to breed more Pandas in captivity in order to keep the species alive. To date, only 180 Giant Pandas have ever been bred in captivity, which makes captive breeding a less than likely solution to the species’ current desperate situation. Yet, in the wild they are being denied the ability to freely migrate and find mates in order to produce young on their own.

Solutions To Prevent Extinction

Authorities for the World Wildlife Fund in Beijing are also aware of the precarious position of the giant Pandas and are working hard to find a solution. Unfortunately, when human progress and animal rights clash, human beings tend to take precedence no matter how many species become extinct.

Ideally, a solution would be found wherein the Pandas get to keep their natural home and China gets to develop its land and resources unhindered. Hopefully that will indeed be the case, and hopefully it will happen soon…for the Giant Pandas simply do not have much time left.

One step that we can take right now is to have “Save The Giant Panda” custom t-shirts printed to get the word out about the plight of these magnificent creatures. You can include a list of steps that we can take to help save Pandas on the back with an amazing Giant Panda picture on the front.

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Unfortunately, instead of living the high-life that every monkey who has been to space and back deserves, they are rotting away in a dilapidated research center.

What are your thoughts on this? Please comment below.

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Some people say the key to freedom is empowerment and self-sufficiency. Not everyone agrees, but most people who are concerned about the environment at all see that there really is a need for people to buy and use food from local growers.

Buying local is the first step in going organic. Many local growers don’t use the kinds of chemicals that big commercial farms use. What you’re eating is all natural, and when you purchase local organic, you don’t have to worry about the chemicals and pesticides that you’re putting into your body and into the bodies of family members – especially children who don’t need all those hormones and compounds. At the very least, you will be able to talk with the local farmer and ask what was used to grow the vegetables or what they fed their cattle.

When you buy from local growers, you’re also not contributing to the use of gasoline and other fuels that were needed to truck produce thousands of miles so you could buy it at the market. Sure, the local growers have to drive their products to the market, but it’s a much shorter distance!

It also costs about the same to buy local produce, so you really can’t argue that you can’t afford to buy local – and in most cases it tastes better, too. Of course it does, because it’s fresher. It came from the field to the market to your table, instead of spending several days in trucks and warehouses. If you had to do all that, you wouldn’t be quite as fresh either.

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While still on the subject of living harmoniously with nature, I want to talk about the harms of Palm Oil.

Right now palm oil is the second, behind soybean, most produced oil in world. It is estimated that within the next five years, palm oil will surpass soybean oil to become the leading vegetable oil produced.

Malaysia and Indonesia are the two leading suppliers of palm oil, contributing 89% to the world’s demand. In the past 20 years the area devoted to plantations has increased by 43%.

What’s causing this great increase?
First, in 2006 the FDA began to require that companies label Trans fat in their products. Knowing that the consumer was aware of the dangers of Trans fat, they needed to switch to a healthier, inexpensive alternative. Well, at least something that seemed healthier. Enter palm oil. While it may not contain any Trans fat, it is high in saturated fat. As we all know, a diet high in saturated fat is bad for our heart and cholesterol.

Next there has been a huge increase in the demand for biofuel. While North and South America get most of their biolfuel from soybean oil, there are a number of countries in Europe who use palm oil. By the year 2020 it is expected that the demand for palm oil will double.

Because of this huge demand, thousands of acres of rainforest are being cut down every year to make way for new plantations. As a result, hundreds of animals are losing their habit including the endangered Sumatran Tiger, Asian Elephant, Sumatran Rhinoceros and both the Sumatra and Borneo Orangutan.

According to the March/April 2008 issue of Science Illustrated Magazine, if we continue at the current rate of deforestation, 98% of the rainforest in these areas will be destroyed by 2022.

Not only are these animals lives being threaten by losing their habitat but they are also being tortured and killed when they wander onto plantations looking for food. There have also been reports of bonuses being offered to workers who kill orangutans and behead them.

Just a few of the reports of torture include orangutans having their hands and fingers cut off, being beat to death, gasoline poured on them and being lit on fire, as well as mothers being poached and their babies being sold on the black market. There have even been reports of these animals being used for prostitution and in some cases being buried alive.

The pictures that are provided at this site are both horrific and sickening, but it is happening and we need to be more aware of it. If you don’t know where your palm oil is coming from, odds are you are unknowingly contributing. Now you do know so you can do something about it.

On top of losing their habitat to both plantations and out of control fires that are burned to prepare the land, being tortured and being poached, pesticides that are used for the palm kernel are seeping into their water supply

In all fairness to the people of Indonesia and Malaysia, they are just trying to provide for their families.

However, there are better ways to achieve this. There are a number of companies and organizations, including The World Wildlife Fund, that are involved in The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil. They are setting standards which must be met for sustainable palm oil. This is a huge step in stopping the destruction of rainforest and precious ecosystems.

However, until this method is perfected and widely accepted, we all need to do our part. I encourage you all to visit http://redapes.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/bospalm_oil_report.pdf for extremely helpful tips including, making your local grocery stores aware of this issue, and raising awareness in your community.

Plus, they provide many other suggestions for what you can do to help save the lives of our close cousin, the orangutan.
If we do not stop the destruction of rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia, estimates conclude the orangutan will be extinct in 10 years! As it is now there are 15 times more deer in the state of Colorado alone than there are orangutans in the world.

Before you purchase anything, that package of cookies, chips, ice cream, cereal, laundry detergent, lotion, even shampoo, look at the ingredients. Chances are you will find palm oil listed. It is becoming a staple of our food and soap products, but orangutans are paying for it with their lives.

We can do something to help! Thousands of lives depend on it.

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