For the common misconception reading “I’ve seen it all, know it all, what the hell can <they> tell me” and even for the Rudyard Kipling version of the cat that shall always walk alone, I have a tough one:
There is such a thing as a seed activist. It is a fellow that has had it with the abuses against seeds and will tolerate no more of such behavior. Naturally, some questions pop in mind when the subject occurs:
1. Who cares? – asked in a rather condescending manner – which is easy: Internet age, baby! who knew? – people care about all kind of dementia [like collecting lightening stricken sand turned into glass or Bernt he rabbit]. Also, the greater kingdom of Norway, that hosts the largest seed bank in the world in Svalbard.
2. How come the seeds are terrorized ? – had to use the T word. Because anything T related happens to seeds, that will get everybody’s attention. Genetics. Engineered seeds are bought by peasants to plant crops. These seeds produce an output up to 5 times higher than the old school seeds. One of their bad sides is that they can’t be reused. That means that the first generation of seeds has a high fertility rate, whilst the next generations have lower and lower fertility, if aren’t sterile to begin with.
3. Who cares, again? – Well, farmers should, but have recently gained enough knowledge and experience on the scam in other countries, meaning that, by the time the issue will be signaled in Romania, it might as well blow over.
4. Why should they [care]? – The seeds need to be bought every year from the seed silo. There is a strong recommendation to use specific recipes of pesticides to the genetically – enhanced crops. While not all pesticides used today post a significant thereat to the environment, mind you that the peasant, already tax-crushed by midgets like Boc, now has a new tributary army of corporate fuck-ups to pay yearly: the guys with the seeds and the guys with the pesticides. The peasant is registering double crops and only a fraction increase in the profit.
It might look to you as if the benevolent corporate merchandisers are providing the needy Romanian farmer with the means to grow a sustainable and rich crop. But much of that crop will be transformed into money to pay the seeds and pesticides. The seed factories are steadily gaining market shares across the globe and soon they will control the crops of half the world’s population.
