The US Government and Their GMO Propaganda in Africa

I generally love our government system especially the constitution, but not necessarily the possibly murderous thugs at the top. Yep, corruption runs high in our government as shown time and time again by multiple sources. How do you think people get to the top of the government; it is with cut-throat tactics.

I recently read about our government's unfortunate international policy to push genetically modified agriculture on Africa. I think that the IMF and other countries have pillaged Africa enough. Does our government really need to make them debt slaves to the companies that sell them patented seeds. No, we don't need any genetically modified crops. GMO crops have largely been a failure as standard hybrid varieties typically outperform them. The huge failures and hundreds of thousands of deaths due to GMO crops is one attestation of their huge failure. If you go in debt to buy the seed and the cotton crop is an American variety not adapted to India it I would say has a good chance of failing. Then if you send your livestock out in the field and they eat the cotton plants engineered with a protein toxin and they die. You are left with nothing buy a huge debt and no crop to sell. I think the failure of GMOs is so big we should outlaw the practice completely. The genetics for superior production, drought resistance, and disease resistance already exist within the plant population.

For example look at Native American corn varieties. They are highly tolerant of salt stress, can be dry farmed in the desert, and can sprout more than from a foot deep in the soil. Most commercial corn has only been bred for production and is highly disease and drought prone. These problems could be easily solve using marker assisted selection for new commercial varieties and by not growing a monoculture.

I avoid genetically modified food like the plague. If you are smart you would also avoid GMO food, most new prescription drugs, etc., until they have been thoroughly tested for a number of year preferably many more than 10 years to assure safety. Engineering plants with protein toxins, pesticides, and herbicides is a risky business. It is way too soon to know the long-term effects of GMO foods on health. Hey, maybe that is one reason why Americans as a society have generally become deathly ill in the last ten years.