by Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey
Common Courage Press
1998
SKU: 9781567511505
Is biotechnology the world's new risk-free breadbasket? In this impassioned report, the authors reveal that the quest for corporate profits has ridden roughshod over questions of public health, freedom of choice and ecological stability. From environmental issues of biodiversity and increasing use of chemicals to health concerns about eating genetically modified food, Against the Grain provides a comprehensive and devastating picture of biotechnology and food.
What you eat is changing: agribusiness giant Monsanto is genetically engineering corn, beets, rice, and soybeans to make the crops resistant to Monsanto's own herbicide, Roundup. This means that more herbicide goes on the food you eat. By the year 2000, Monsanto plans to have locked up 100% of the U.S. market in soybeans to incorporate their Roundup Ready technology, while it sprays over 26 million pounds of herbicide worldwide annually. The human health consequences of the herbicide are still not completely understood.
The consequences to farmers are becoming increasingly clear. Farmers must agree not to give seeds to others, or to save any seeds from the crop for replanting, and to use Roundup Ready herbicide--a Faustian bargain that makes them dependent on the corporation.
No one reading this book will be left unshaken about the future of our agriculture system--or about what they eat.