Do you knowingly and willingly consume genetically modified food? Whatever one's position on that proposition, agribusiness heavyweights have relentlessly promoted the virtues of scientifically altered crops. Since some of the United States' principal exports are agricultural, such as corn and soybeans, the controversy over GM food becomes important to American national interests.
As Beijing discovered when a Chinese firm made an offer to acquire US pork producer Smithfield, corporate agriculture has many, many friends in Congress who see a security parallel between agribusiness and our country's defense. (No jokes about Congressional pork, please.)
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| Image: worldfoodprize.org |
A few days ago, the State Department and the World Food Prize Foundation announced the winner of -- you guessed it -- the World Food Prize (WFP).
As a Mother Jones piece notes, the foundation's funders include major nonprofit players, the state of Iowa (ok, I would not have guessed that one right away) and agribusiness interests. Winners in recent years tend to reflect the idea that bigger is better, that data-driven approaches to yield management are sacrosanct, and that technocrats, MBA suits, and scientists know more about farming than family or community-based farmers.
This year's WFP winners, according to the New York Times, include Robert Fraley, Monsanto's chief technology officer and strident advocate of the benefits of genetically modified food. The two other co-winners are scientists instrumental in developing GM food and genetically modified organisms.
If you eating a meal, having a beverage, or grabbing an energy-boosting snack, ask yourself whether you're consuming something based on plants the ancient Chinese, Pharaonic Egyptians, or pre-Columbian native Americans would have recognized, or something dreamed up by a team of self-assured scientists in a closely guarded laboratory.
Bon appetit!
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