Growing up and living in a small rural town I see farms on a daily basis. It seems as if every other person in my high school farmed, or had some hand in farming. I know several families that rely solely on what they grow to eat and to bring in money for their bills. Farms our passed through generations, dads teaching sons how to grow crops, and how to feed the livestock. For some people this is all they know, and all they've ever know. With major corporations like Monsanto coming in with their genetically engineered seeds and bovine growth hormone, our small town farmers aren't going to have a chance in this economy.
I had never even heard of this company until my English professor discussed who they are and what they are doing to America. He showed an image of a billboard. There is a hardworking farmer on this billboard. The background images give you the feel that it is a small town kind of farm. The slogan "America's Farmers Grow America," is on it next to the farming man. There is a website on this billboard, AmericasFarmers.com When visiting this website in the top left corner there is small text saying, "Brought to you by Monsanto." You instantly get the feeling that Monsanto is for the small town farms. With no link to further who Monsanto is, the average person, myself included, would just continue browsing the site thinking that Monsanto is helping these small farms. After being enlightened by my English professor, and browsing through some articles myself, I have learned that it is quite the opposite.
Monsanto has patented their genetically engineered seeds. This means that no one else can use these seeds without Monsanto's permission. Monsanto is going as far as to sue farmers if they find even a trace of the seeds on the farm. So I thought OK, no big deal, everyone buy their seeds from Monsanto. Unfortunately if everyone were to do that there would be no more organic farming. Everything we eat would be inorganic. Part of the altered seeds is that the plants that grow from them do not produce seeds that can grow plants. So farmers would have to return to Monsanto to get their seeds every year. This is very expensive for farmers, and unnecessary considering they know how to grow organic plants that produce seeds.
In order to prevent a lawsuit from Monsanto farmers are having to buy land buffers around their farms so that Monsanto's seeds have a lesser chance of blowing on to their farms. some farmers are just minimizing the area that they plant in to create land buffers. Most of these organic farmer's have no interest in Monsanto's seeds but they have to spend the unnecessary money in order to keep their farms organic.
I feel this is where we should step in, and let our government officials know that this isn't right and that something needs to be done. If Monsanto continues their won't be organic farms, and people will lose their jobs as farmers.
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