| Last week, when the USDA announced its decision to deregulate (i.e. legalize) GE alfalfa, sustainable food advocates were - across the board - outraged. Even those who had been arguing within the organic community had been arguing over whether GE alfalfa should be entirely banned or whether we should concede to "co-existent" with it, which would have involved partially deregulating GE alfalfa while attempting to protect organic and non-GE alfalfa from contamination. Nobody in the sustainable ag movement wanted total deregulation.
One of the first responses was a call to boycott Monsanto. I saw the emails go back and forth, again and again, about this idea. Others have called for non-violent direct action, which I assume means destroying seeds or crops. Most of all, it seems that everyone wants to do something because the decision to deregulate GE alfalfa is simply too big of an outrage to take lying down.
My personal hope is that the Center for Food Safety et al will be successful in court on this issue and others. That, to me, seems to be our best hope. My other thought is that perhaps the time is now ripe to advocate the labeling of food containing GMOs, knowing Obama's love of compromise, given the huge victory he has just given to Monsanto, the biotech industry, and Republicans. (Biotech is hardly a partisan issue but in this case, several senior Republicans weighed in calling for total deregulation of GE alfalfa, whereas some influential Democrats have come out against it.)
As for a boycott: How is anyone going to boycott Monsanto? I already avoid - to the extent that I can - genetically modified crops. That means avoiding all non-organic corn, soy, canola, and cotton. I am sure that I don't do a complete job of avoiding these, but I try. It also means avoiding Hawaiian papaya, and perhaps sugar from beets, although at this point I am not sure. That can be done by using evaporated cane juice or sucanat if you need actual sugar, or opting for sweeteners like honey, agave nectar, or maple syrup.
But avoiding genetically engineered products does not necessarily mean that you're avoiding Monsanto. Some GE seeds come from other companies, like DuPont. And Monsanto sells non-GE seeds as well. Avoiding Monsanto would mean avoiding a hefty percent of all food grown from seeds... and consumers have no way to know where the seeds used to grow their food came from anyway.
Asking farmers to avoid Monsanto products, on the other hand, is something we could do. However, the other large seed companies aren't exactly saints. Boycotting Monsanto and buying from DuPont instead is like boycotting BP and instead buying your gas from Exxon Mobil.
What CAN be done is growing our own food and saving our own seeds. I can't imagine that we would actually make a dent in Monsanto's market share by doing that, but there is certainly plenty of good that comes from growing your own food and learning how to save seeds. I can say after a year of trying to save seeds myself that certain crops are easier than others. Beans, for example, are very simple to save. Tomatoes are fairly easy too, although they require fermentation. For buying seeds, I'm rather a fan of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. But if you want to do something effective, I'd say the best hope is to toss a few bucks to the Center for Food Safety to support their efforts to challenge GMOs in court.
That said, I would ask everyone to think of other things that can be done about the GE alfalfa decision. Writing or calling Obama is certainly a good idea, as it seems the decision came from the White House. And I would discourage any idea that hurts farmers, such as destroying their fields of GE crops. The farmers aren't the bad guys in this, and I would hate to see them punished for it.
What do you think should be done? |
