Owning the Responsibility

It's so easy for me to be disgusted with Monsanto, Genetic Engineering, and Big Ag in general, but the reality is, these things did not exist until Americans left the farm.  And the reason so many left the farm?  Just like all these corporations we are so angry with . . . money!

There was money to be made in the Big City!  Not to mention the convenience of just buying groceries, rather than working the land.  And do you know what happened to the last of the inherited farms?  That's right, sold for the MONEY!  Now, why do so many enjoy loathing Monsanto and Big Ag when they really don't have any different motive than when the farms were sold?  Makin' MONEY!

It's just so much easier to be mad at Big Corporations and Big Ag than it is to be angry with all the individuals who saw their "golden opportunity" and sold to the "Big" in America.  Not that I'm defending GMO or Big Pharma or Big Ag, but the reality is, they don't know any of us individually, and they don't claim to love us or care about the next generation.

We can keep on collectively blaming these entities while buying their products, or . . . we can do something about it on an individual basis.

Making Food Unclean

The madness is gaining momentum.  We posted a few months back about human DNA being added to rice, and it being termed "nutritionally enhanced" or "nutritionally enriched."  Remember back when we were kids and some sibling would ask through dinner, "Do I have to eat my liver?"  The answer now is yes, but it's in your rice!

Scripture tells us very clearly what is good for us to eat and what it not.  Now, that which G-d called good, is being tainted intentionally!  The reasons are varied, but the bottom line reason, is the bottom line . . . the love of money.

This past week, as I've been wading through information about the Health Care Reform Bill, I began to ponder how very controlling this measure is.   The saying, I've used for several years now, "Whoever controls the food will control the people," I thought could also apply to health care in the near future.  Then as I read articles like this, it becomes very apparent that both our health care and our food supply are enmeshed.

Making our food unclean is to make the populace unhealthy.

Revolving Door

http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/monsantoLs.html

Except for the misspelling of Roger Beachy's name, I can't find any errors in this list.  As a servant of our Creator, El Shaddai, I have an obligation to point this out . . . as a resident of this country, and specifically the region which hails much of this biotech, I find myself called to stand in the gap to oppose this revolving door between government and tampering with creation.

http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Revolving-Door.htm

What G-d Has Called Good

Man can make so much better . . . I do hope you note the tone of sarcasm.  Genetic mutilation, as I call it, is being subtly classified with hybridization.  These two terms and definitions are vastly different.  Breeding two different breeds of of the same species of animals or grafting a tree branch of the same species is hybridization.  Altering creation on the genetic level is invasive and changes the integrity and cellular identity of the organism.  

Another subject we addressed was Genetic Alterations. It has suddenly come into the spotlight that genetic alterations must be "bad". Really? Who wants to go back to grapes or watermelons full of seeds? How about an ear of corn that's 5 inches long? When I was a kid, Angus and Hereford cattle were about 4 feet tall. Hybridization and genetic alterations have been with us for hundreds if not thousands of years. With our growing worldwide population, we must continue to look for ways to grow better, faster, safer food. No matter how you look at it, we really need to eat!

There are two wonderful examples in Scripture of hybridization, which is not at all genetic alteration.  Jacob crossbred the herds in his care for strength and numbers.  We know to this day, the purer the pedigree the more inherit some recessive traits become.  I know from my own herd, a purebred buck will throw "ringstreaked, speckled, and spotted" with most any doe that is a different breed of goat or a cross.

I have also learned as I strive for my "Jacob's herd" this particular cross bred buck will produce shorter legged babies for easier births, but good milk producing does and meaty bucks.  The buck pictured is Jedidiah, Jed for short.  He is an Alpine/pygmy cross.  His mother was the biggest milk goat on the place and his sire was a stocky short legged buck that, as it turns out, was quite agile in fence jumping . . . as this guy arrived rather unexpectedly.

And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstreaked and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons . . . And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.  And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.  And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstreaked, speckled, and spotted.  Torah of Holy Scripture

Paul referred to the grafted wild olive branch.  Hybridization has been around for thousands of years.  The only part of genetic alterations that take place in a petri dish in a laboratory that has been around for centuries is the attitude: "we can be as gods."