Agriculture / Organic Farming, STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS
Monsanto Meme Disintegrates as Organic Ascends?
By Staff News & Analysis - April 29, 2014

Monsanto and Big Food Losing the GMO and 'Natural' Food Fight … Food and farm activists in Vermont, backed by a growing movement across the country, are on the verge of a monumental victory – mandatory labels on genetically engineered foods and a ban on the routine industry practice of labeling GMO-tainted foods as "natural." – HuffingtonPost

Dominant Social Theme: GMO food is merely an advancement of science.

Free-Market Analysis: Here at High Alert we can tell the difference between science and exploitation. Much of what passes for applied science these days in the West is unfortunately fear- and greed-based exploitation.

It is the power elite that organizes these faux-science applications. We use the term "faux-science" advisedly, of course. Real science works through trial and error and in the case of food, scientific applications should be carefully presented and vetted. But Monsanto-style faux science is sneakily integrated into food products and the intention is apparently to trick people.

Monsanto executives and those supporters in the political realm are not seemingly honest about what they are adding or why. One has to wonder, in fact, what market niche Monsanto actually serves.

It seems to us that Monsanto simply follows the power-elite blueprint, which is to create massive corporate entities that drop a maximum profit to the bottom line via incredible economies of scale married to often-dangerous technological achievements.

This is certainly the Big Pharma blueprint – and Monsanto seems to be following it within the context of "Big Food." Of course, there is Big Soda as well. Soda pop – especially the caramel-tinted ones like Coke and Pepsi – are surely unhealthy, especially when taken in large doses on a regular basis.

And then there are milk products. Pasteurized cow's milk is toxic to many people and so are the ingredients made from it – cream, butter and cheese, especially. Pasteurized cow's milk is said to be a major cause of inflammation and can aggravate diseases like diabetes.

In fact, the virtual epidemic of diabetes that has swept the West and especially the US is no doubt in part due to the ingredients and additives in many foods. It is difficult to find food in the US that has no additives or chemicals of any sort, especially Big Food grown, packaged and shipped from agricultural corporations.

This is certainly one of the factors driving "organic farming," which seeks to grow vegetables and produce meats without any additives at all. So powerful is the organic movement in the US that Big Food has been doing everything possible to redefine the word "organic" within a legal context. That way food that is NOT organic can be labeled organic, confusing the consumer.

But Big Food, and especially Monsanto, are involved in other fights as well when it comes to labeling. And the confrontation in Vermont is actually challenging Monsanto's market position and could severely damp the company's current business model.

Here's more:

On April 16, 2014, the Vermont Senate passed H.112 by a vote of 28-2, following up on the passage of a similar bill in the Vermont House last year. The legislation, which requires all GMO foods sold in Vermont to be labeled by July 1, 2016, will now pass through a House/Senate conference committee before landing on Governor Peter Shumlin's desk, for final approval.

Strictly speaking, Vermont's H.112 applies only to Vermont. But it will have the same impact on the marketplace as a federal law. Because national food and beverage companies and supermarkets will not likely risk the ire of their customers by admitting that many of the foods and brands they are selling in Vermont are genetically engineered, and deceptively labeled as "natural" or "all natural" while simultaneously trying to conceal this fact in the other 49 states and North American markets.

As a seed executive for Monsanto admitted 20 years ago, "If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it." Proof of this "skull and crossbones" effect is evident in the European Union, where mandatory labeling, in effect since 1997, has all but driven genetically engineered foods and crops off the market.

The only significant remaining GMOs in Europe today are imported grains (corn, soy, canola, cotton seed) primarily from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and Argentina. These grains are used for animal feed, hidden from public view by the fact that meat, dairy and eggs derived from animals fed GMOs do not yet have to be labeled in the EU.

Given the imminent passage of the Vermont legislation and the growing strength of America's anti-GMO and pro-organic movement, the Gene Giants — Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Bayer, BASF, and Syngenta — and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), representing Big Food, find themselves in a difficult position.

Early polls indicate that Oregon voters will likely pass a ballot initiative on Nov. 4, 2014, to require mandatory labeling of GMOs in Oregon. Meanwhile, momentum for labeling continues to gather speed in other states as well. Connecticut and Maine have already passed GMO labeling laws, but these laws contain "trigger" clauses, which prevent them from going into effect until other states mandate labeling as well.

… General Mills, Post Foods, Chipotle, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and others have begun to make changes in their supply chains in order to eliminate GMOs in some or all of their products. Several hundred companies have enrolled in the Non-GMO Project so they can credibly market their products as GMO-free.

This is really an incredible development and one that fits right into our paradigm regarding dominant social themes and the challenge that the Internet is providing to them. The damage keeps piling up.

Whether it is the phony war on terror, climate change (once called global warming) or central banking or any one of a number of other cultural memes that proved far more believable in the 20th century than the 21st, the elites are facing pushback on a number of fronts.

Predictably, tried-and-true tools of cultural manipulation such as economic depression and military conflict have been applied to try to slow resistance to elite memes. But in our view, the Internet has created an extraordinary level of exposure when it comes to globalist manipulations.

Even people who are not fully aware of their manipulation are informed in some instances, nonetheless – and this pushback against Big Food is just one example.

After Thoughts

From a business standpoint, High Alert seeks to identify elite memes that are either strengthening or foundering in order to determine a level of opportunity. When it comes to organic food, there is definitely a potential entrepreneurial niche. And there will surely be more announcements to come.

Posted in Agriculture / Organic Farming, STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS
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