Synbio - NO - to be continued...

I’m sorry to have to inform those of you who aren’t religious about organics, you have another horrible, terrifying issue to deal with: synthetic biology. So when you consume or use such things as coconut oil, vanilla, cocoa or cacao, ginseng, saffron, stevia, palm kernel oil, in addition to worrying about gmo’s and 1 billion tons of pesticides, you have to worry about whether it’s the real thing grown on land or a 3 dimensional fabricated image of the real thing springing from a test tube and fomented in factory vats.

Apparently when the attempts at synthetically manufacturing bio-fuels failed, the industry moved on to attempting to synthetically manufacture the above and more. I’m not totally clear or an expert – I went to one panel discussion with the experts – and my understanding is that they take dna and add tons of sugar to come up with a product that looks & tastes (or so they say) like cocoa or ginseng, and off they go with laboratory-developed food, oil, medicines, etc.

So maybe you think you’ll just look for the label (like gmo’s, yes?) and you’ll be able to tell. These synthetic biology people are marketing their product as “natural” – just like the gmo and pesticide advertising – so you have to know that “natural” means jack shit, has always meant jack shit, and now means even more of jack shit.

Maybe you don’t care about what you’re consuming. I’ve even heard folks says they have to die of something – and I say, sure, why not cancer?

I was at the y today when I overheard a middle-aged (maybe 40’s) white womon speaking about her diet. She said she tries to eat organic but sometimes she eats just whatever she wants to eat.

I approached her of course and asked her why she eats organic. She was surprised and said ‘for my body of course’. And I asked her when she doesn’t eat organic, how does she reconcile that with her body.

She told me she believes her body is strong enough to deal with a few toxins. So this might be true, I concede. She is quite buff, tall, and bounces in rhythm to her words while we talk.

I ask her if she considers herself “green” and caring about other people, the environment, and the mother earth. She nods enthusiastically and smiles broadly.

Then I ask her, those times when she decides to not eat organic, to eat ‘whatever’, how does she reconcile knowing she’s contributing to farming practices that are destroying the mother earth, let alone sickening and killing the farm workers who have to handle pesticides, herbicides, fungicides.

Her body stills and her words cease as she stares at me, color ebbing from her face like a receding wave. “I don’t” she says stiffly. I ask her back if that’s okay with her.

Synthetic biology will not just harm your body but if you’re not motivated to avoid synbio (for short) images of food, think about the mother earth. Or even more clear, think about the farmer. Synbio cuts out the farmer – except to grow extraordinary amounts of sugar cane for this industry. Once again, it is the small person and everyone she hires and depends on who will get severely hurt.

Small farmers – along with our very food both growing and delivery systems – have been under attack forever in this country and other countries burdened with our “free-trade agreements”.

But this synbio has potential to threaten the very lives not to mention livelihoods of even more farmers and all the people who support this small farming system. And what about the health of consumers or the mother earth?

Growing sugar cane destroys land and sugar cane is almost impossible to remove from land once it takes hold.If folks have to sell sugar cane for us, how can they grow food for themselves?

I know, some believe this is a great 'techno fix' - like gmos were supposed to be, etc.etc.etc.

I suppose if you believe in "techno fixes" you'll want to embrace this newest technology that's destroying our mother earth and her people. And you'll justify your acceptance as wiping out world hunger or disease.

The problem is when you want to identify "world hunger" as the issue, you've already falsely set yourself up to think certain solutions will work, i.e. 'techno fixes'.

The problem is not world hunger, but certain countries' gluttony: we throw away MINIMUM one rosebowl stadium's worth of food EVERY DAY. That would be enough food to feed every person in the world who is starving.

What the U.S. and Europe spends on perfume per year, would provide ALL the food and sewerage needs of the 2/3rds of the world's humans who are going without.