Monsanto

Today's New Standard had a feature on Monsanto and their application to patent certain pig reproduction techniques. This is scary.

The whole issue is predicated on a cold, scientific insensitivity to intelligent sentient beings, in this case, pigs.

Cristoph Then, a Greenpeace researcher based in Germany, was interviewed by journalist Jeff Shaw for the article. According to Shaw,

The dangers, Then said, are quite concerning. As food production centralizes, consumers could become dependent upon fewer and fewer companies -- raising the risk of dangerous monopolies. In this case, Monsanto -- already a giant in other arenas -- is making a bold move into pork products, on which American consumers spend about $38 billion each year.

We've heard about Monsanto's work in seed monopolies in India and Iraq. This company is out of control. Not only do they want to patent natural breeding processes of plants and animals, they are incautious about the environmental effects and the results of their products' dissemination. Charles Margulis, spokesperson for the Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group specializing in food policy, told Shaw,

"We're talking about one of the biggest polluters of the 20th century. This is a company with a 100-year track record of polluting the planet: now they're moving in and trying to control the food supply. This is a very troubling development, and people need to be aware of who is behind it."

Worst of all, their entire effort here, as usual, is proceeding with no ethical considerations about the animals and the mass production of pork. Monsanto is going to have such a vested interest in pork consumption that they will lavish billions on advertising and promotion to expand their market, to the complete disregard of the animals they are profiting from.

As Michael Parenti says in a current piece on ZNet, entitled, Why the Corporate Rich Oppose Environmentalism,

An ever-expanding capitalism and a fragile finite ecology are on a calamitous collision course.

It is not true that the ruling politico-economic interests are in a state of denial about this. Far worse than denial, they have shown utter antagonism toward those who think the planet is more important than corporate profits.