Social Consciousness

It seems the more I am in an urban environ, the more I realize the disconnect between how nature operates with complete disregard to human inputs. Sure humans have, since the dawn of crop domestication, tried to shape natural systems to be more in line with with anthropocentric needs and wants. The eventual outcome, well the experiments are still being ran, who knows how it will pan out? What agriculture allowed humans to do was move from hunting and gathering foods towards less mobile, larger agriculturally subsistent communities. The more people that gather in an area obviously need more food to nourish themsleves. Where does this food come from? The Earth of course. [Computers lack the ability to clothe and feed us, yet many people, even I, spend a large chunk of their waking hours toiling away in front of one, for what?] What took our ancestors centuries to develop and domesticate grains, fruits and vegetables are now being patented, so that no one other than the patent holder, may use or be in possession of certain genetic material. Why has our society become complacent enough to not create an uproar when a corporation beleives they can control a natural system? Who is speaking for the small guy and the politically and econimcally down trodden? On that front I fully back all the efforts of authors like Micheal Pollan, Vandana Shiva and Sandor Katz who are putting information in the hands of the people. Anyone concerned with personal health, the health of people around them and our societies health in general should take a look at some these authors works. Archer Daniels Midland has been involved in putting more than handful of small farmers out business through finding their patented genetics that had cross pollinated in adjacent non-patent fields. That's nature and corporate greed for you. Or is corporate greed second nature at this point? To sum it up, heirloom varieties that have been passed down through inumerable generations are now at risk of being contaminated by genetically modified organisms, negating their ability to reproduce. Also at risk is the ability for humans to continue to subsist by means of agriculture if all our seeds are made sterile by a scientist.

Carpe diem,
A.