Monsanto’s Worst Fear May Be Coming True

[Judi Lynn]

Monsanto’s Worst Fear May Be Coming True
By Jonathan Latham, www.greenmedinfo.com
May 22nd, 2015

The decision of the Chipotle restaurant chain to make its product lines GMO-free is not most people’s idea of a world-historic event. Especially since Chipotle, by US standards, is not a huge operation. A clear sign that the move is significant, however, is that Chipotle’s decision was met with a tidal-wave of establishment media abuse. Chipotle has been called irresponsible, anti-science, irrational, and much more by the Washington Post, Time Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, the LA Times, and many others. A business deciding to give consumers what they want was surely never so contentious.

The media lynching of Chipotle has an explanation that is important to the future of GMOs. The cause of it is that there has long been an incipient crack in the solid public front that the food industry has presented on the GMO issue. The crack originates from the fact that while agribusiness sees GMOs as central to their business future, the brand-oriented and customer-sensitive ends of the food supply chain do not.

The brands who sell to the public, such as Nestle, Coca-Cola, Kraft, etc., are therefore much less committed to GMOs. They have gone along with their use, probably because they wish to maintain good relations with agribusiness, who are their allies and their suppliers. Possibly also they see a potential for novel products in a GMO future.

However, over the last five years, as the reputation of GMOs has come under increasing pressure in the US, the cost to food brands of ignoring the growing consumer demand for GMO-free products has increased. They might not say so in public, but the sellers of top brands have little incentive to take the flack for selling GMOs.

More:
https://www.popularresistance.org/monsantos-worst-fear-may-be-coming-true/

[enough]

1. No worries for Monsanto. This is exactly where TPP will come in to save the day for them.

They'll be able sue the resistant companies for putting up obstacles to Monsanto's expected profit. The three-judge panels will know what to do.

[truedelphi]

3. That is so very sad, and so very true.

When our children and grandchildren are all sick from the vomitoxin-contaminated seeds and grains, Obama will find out that he has an entirely different legacy than that of the ACA.

He will be remembered as the man who enabled Monsanto during the decade when doing so counted.

And he will have a great deal to answer for then. Even the fact of being the first African American won't get him out of that conundrum.

Who wants to be known as the President that ended a nation's food supply! (or perhaps, even the globe's food supply!)

[PatrickforO]

2. Maybe we're seeing the kind of 'across the board' populist rebellion we haven't seen since

the early 1930s. Lots of positive stuff going on, and it all boils down to people getting tired of corporate propaganda, tired of profits at the expense of the people, and very worried that we seem to be destroying the earth to make a buck.

All that has to stop, and there's a groundswell that will likely grow into a tsunami, especially if candidate Sanders begins winning primaries and his positions become better known to the general public.

Maybe it's too late, but like you, I'm hoping not.

[Trajan]

4. +1,000,000 ....

I've been wondering how we, the people, can be a stop to this exploitation, and participate, as much as possible, in a local economy that bypasses the major corps ... I work for a major electronics firm, but I can take that money and pump as much as possible to the small people ... Supporting local entrepreneurs that aren't funneling their profits to the massive multinationals, but spending it near to home or to small businesses elsewhere ...

Don't know ... Just rolling it around in my mind ...

[PatrickforO]

5. You know, there's an essay a friend in economic development turned me on to,

and you might like it. It is called 'regenerative capitalism' and speaks of slow money, slow food, micro-lending, B corporations, employee coops and other positive things being done at the local level. Basically, the idea is that we need to reorganize our economy so it operates like a living ecosphere - hence the 'regenerative.'

The author, who was a Wall Street guy but climbed down off the corporate ladder because he saw the current neoliberal capitalist model that has taken the world by storm is not sustainable.

It's a pretty good read. Here's their site: http://capitalinstitute.org/

Here's the direct link to the essay, which is well worth reading: http://capitalinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2015-Regenerative-Capitalism-4-20-15-final.pdf

[GoneFishin]

6. I think there is a wave of awareness spreading about these issues, and I think TPP is the

multinationals' pre-emptive strike against educated and fed-up consumers.

They don't give a shit about what consumers want. We will eat what they tell us to eat.