Monsanto, the seed of wrath
the hegemony over seeds, over human survival
As we will advance in time, leap with circumspection in the future, commodities will rarefy as a fact. The logical response for the multinationals who anticipate potential markets, possible predicaments, is to trigger off from their neoliberal indoctrination, a monopolistic behavior. Mathematics in synchronicity with economics express the best what may occur.Thanks to cartesian mathematics, economics admitted that the scarcer a commodity is, the more it will gain value on the market. A statement that proved its validity. And, logically, any corporation that will acquire, control the access to the commodity will, by simple reasoning and deduction, thrive on that same market.
With labs disseminated sporadically on the American soil, the giant in agribusiness Monsanto developed a niche in biotechnically engineered genetics. Behind this pompous denomination hides the core of the world crop, the world granary.
The synthesis of a magic seed: the BT seed is their secret. With its new and exceptional properties, no more hunger in the world. That's the promise? If I were not a skeptical by nature, I would tend to believe this Pre-Sovietic like propaganda!
So, what are their mission? I guess to fill those granaries! But at which price? Our health, our blood?
To the benefice of the plants, Monsanto's scientists labor industriously to eliminate Mother Earth's imperfections in playing God by manipulating plants' genes, by instilling a resisting gene in their DNA.
To the profitability of the agricultural sector, it will be synonymous of financial expansion and simultaneously of reduction of losses. To the prospect of more yields, more sales, more profits, (who would not dream of this allegorical triptych) anyone would do whatever necessary? With that magic BT seed, won't everybody live happy ever after in the best of worlds? Rousseau idealized it, Voltaire doubted it, agriculturalists experienced it at their expenses!
Spread like the plague in poorest continents (is it a random act or a well-thought-plan?), banned in Europe for lack of transparency, the BT seed did not respond to its users' expectations. What did go wrong, then? Which parameter did those Ph.Ds., those flashes of genius miss in their equation?
The product of the BT seed did develop an anti-resistance towards their enemy the ballworm, a vulnerability towards other diseases. The product of BT seed did morph to another species questioning its impact on our health, on our environment. Which factor did fecundate the BT seed mutation generating hybrid plants? The wind or bees? Aren't they too many unknown variables to consider? As if the genetically modified seed did not suffice wholly to the plant to guarantee its resistance, the user has to adopt Monsanto's pesticides to eradicate "totally" any harm. Doesn't it unveil another flaw?
Be careful! Too late! The fish has the bait in its mouth now. No need to struggle or wiggle for air!
Was it written in small letter, at the very bottom of the signed contract between the two parties? Only illiterate peasants in India! Smoking mirrors work well on this portion of any third world population!
The use of the BT seed is strictly and closely monitored. Monsanto is entitled to its return to investment. That's the policy of the group. The strategy of the plutocracy hidden behind its eloquent silence! Every seed is "patented" and its "usus" is strictly regulated. In economicus bogus, it is called the butter and the money from the butter.
What? What are you saying? I can't hear you!
In the Indian continent, one of the scientific lab or guinea pig of the world, the cotton belt insurrected already against the damages caused by the BT cotton seed exploitation in the region. In the name of greed or improvement of their economical and social status (can we blame them?), small agrarian exploitations invested with trust in the new monocultural seed. By taking considerable loans with the promise of an abundant crop, unknowingly the Indian peasants jeopardized a social position already precarious. Dependency, the enslavement of the XXIst century is the consequence. The result, suicides. The blood cotton is on their hands. In no case did Monsanto disclose the side effects of the new seed in its rosy advertising campaign.
So let me recapitulate, not only doesn't the BT seed guarantee a better plant genetically, not only doesn't it assess of its inoffensivity to health and environment, but it also requires the use of pesticides like a regular crop, a lifetime slavery to Monsanto, each time the cultivator will use the seed. Isn't it the example applied to the letter of the Marxian theory of exploitation of the working class redefined?