02) THE THREAT OF AGRIBUSINESS

 

By T.J. Petrowksi

 

            The capitalist system is based on the exploitation of workers and the environment in an effort to maximize profit, and therefore privatization and the corporate control of essential services is a recipe for disaster. Corporate control of food and agriculture is a particularly serious threat to both working people and the environment. Democratic rights, despite their limitations, are increasingly being eroded to make way for unlimited corporate control of our food system.

 

            In 2012 we witnessed the largest tainted meat recall in Canadian history from an outbreak of E. coli at an XL Foods Lakeside meat processing plant in Alberta. Almost 2,000 items were removed from store shelves in Canada and the United States, and over 600 tons of meat were dumped at a landfill in Alberta. The scandal rocked the Harper Government, but Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, who presided over the 2008 listeriosis outbreak at a Toronto Maple Leaf Foods packing plant that killed 23 people, refused to acknowledge any responsibility.

 

            The 2012 outbreak raised questions about food safety regulations in Canada, which have been being systematically dismantled for decades under both Liberal and Conservative governments. The Harper Government drastically cut back food safety regulations and muzzled critics, but the outbreak is only the latest expression of problems when corporations control our food system.

 

            From genetically modified organisms (GMO), unsanitary and unregulated food production, terminator seeds, slave labour, to toxic chemicals in our food, working people and the environment are under attack by major agricultural corporations that have no interest other than to make a profit. Agribusiness does everything it can to lobby governments and to keep its farming practices secret from consumers.

 

    Eric Schlosser, co‑producer of the documentary Food Inc., has said, "The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000... Now our food is coming from enormous assembly lines where the animals and the workers are being abused, and the food has become much more dangerous in ways that are deliberately hidden from us. This isn't just about what we're eating. It's about what we're allowed to say. What we're allowed to know."

 

            According to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, the consumption of GMOs is linked to adverse health issues, and a test done on rats shows severe organ damage from the consumption of GMOs.

 

            Of course none of this matters to major corporations. A Monsanto official told the New York Times that it's not the responsibility of the company to ensure the food is safe, their only interest is selling as much of it as possible. But how do consumers know if their food contains GMOs?

 

            An attempt in California to require retailers and food companies to label products that contain genetically modified ingredients was defeated, thanks to the tens of millions of dollars that major corporations like Monsanto and Hershey contributed to the campaign against the legislation.

 

            Studies have also shown that the use of GMOs has a number of serious environmental consequences, from soil fertility to the decrease in the number of certain plants and animals.

 

            The majority of GMOs are designed to be able to tolerate an excessive use of toxic chemicals, such as pesticides and herbicides. Some scientists predict that the use of herbicides will triple as a result of GM agricultural products, leading to an increase in soil toxicity. Do we want more chemicals on our food?

 

            GMOs have been linked with the decrease in some beneficial insects that are critical to the environment, especially important pollinators like Monarch butterflies and honeybees. During Monsanto's trial of GM cotton, 40% of the bees died, and GM canola flowers are known to be harmful to important pollinators. Technology companies are now building robotic honeybees as a possible future replacement for real ones. Lacewings, springtails, and ladybird beetles are among other insects that GMOs are known to harm.

 

            Although corporations want us to believe their claims about GMOs, David Ehrenfield, Professor of Biology at Rutgers University, is not convinced: "Genetic Engineering is often justified as a human technology, one that feeds more people with better food. Nothing could be further from the truth. With very few exceptions, the whole point of genetic engineering is to increase sales of chemicals and bio‑engineered products to dependent farmers."

 

            As more crimes committed by these corporations come to the public's attention, they are lobbying right‑wing governments to enact legislation to make it illegal to expose or film corporate agricultural practices.

 

            In several U.S. states, this aggressive legislation, supported by anti‑worker and anti‑democratic companies like Koch Industries and ExxonMobil in addition to agricultural corporations, will prohibit anyone from filming or exposing illegal farming practices, other than law enforcement and food and safety regulators. No doubt the push to criminalize exposure of brutal and inhumane corporate farming practices is a result of the high costs associated with massive food recalls, and the unwillingness of corporations to follow current food and safety regulations.

 

            Earlier exposés by animal rights and environmental activists have shown sick animals being shocked or beaten before being shot, farm animals with infected wounds, and animals living in their own waste.

 

           The American Legislative Exchange Council, an ultra‑right‑wing organization, called these activists "terrorists". A Republican Senator claimed that because law enforcement agencies exist, this legislation is necessary to maintain corporate privacy. However, the senator didn't say that as regulations are dismantled and austerity forces cutbacks in safety regulators, official agencies are less able to deal with illegal corporate practices.

 

            The real terrorists are companies such as Monsanto, which recently purchased Blackwater (Xe Services), the infamous mercenary army that committed extensive human rights abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan, to target anti‑GMO activists.

 

            Corporations should never be trusted with any vital service, whether healthcare, water, or food. Working people and farmers need to fight the corporate takeover of our food system, and create our own reliable, healthy, and safe food for consumption.

 

(The above article is from the December 1-31, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)