This is a special edition of Local Views just for the Saturday listeners. I don’t really believe we’ve seen the last of the hot weather for this year, but yesterday was the autumnal equinox and a little bit of rain has us all thinking about fall. It feels like time to be putting away the toys and the tools of summer, topping off the cordwood stacks, preserving the fruits and vegetables of our labor, and getting the quilts down from the closets. Something I like to do when I’m putting the summer garden to bed is save some seeds, and some of the things we’ve been talking about on Local Views suggest that next year’s crop isn’t the only good reason for doing that.

Most of us know a little bit–at least as much as we hear from the news media–about genetically engineered food crops. We know that GE food is controversial, but unless we dig a little deeper, we may not understand exactly why some people oppose it so vigorously. We also may know that grocery store shelves in this country already are littered with processed food that’s made with GE corn and soybeans, but in Europe, the grocers want nothing to do with GE products imported from the US. Wherever and whenever the subject is discussed, the name Monsanto always enters the picture. Monsanto isn’t the only corporation in the Frankenfood business, but it’s the 900 pound gorilla and the symbol of all that’s feared about corporate genetic research, the Wal-Mart of the GE food business.

Monsanto makes a powerful herbicide called Round Up, then it sells seed that has been genetically modified to produce plants which resist Round Up. That way, Monsanto can sell the farmer an easy way to kill the weeds, while the corn and the soybeans keep on growing. Monsanto has a patent on these GE seeds, so you have to pay Monsanto if you use them. I can’t confirm it, but it’s widely reported that Monsanto has successfully sued farmers over corn which sprouted from seed which migrated from neighboring farms. If you grow that stuff, you have to pay Monsanto, even if you didn’t intentionally plant it.

Lest you think that Monsanto engineers this seed just to sell more Round Up, here’s another story that’s just below the radar and just above the paraquat. One of the first acts of the new government after the US occupied Iraq was to make it a crime to save your seed. If you want to be a farmer in Iraq, you have to buy your seed–GE of course–from Monsanto. So why would a huge international corporation be all that concerned about the competition from small farmers who engineer their own seeds without modifying the genetics?

To answer that, I may have to drift into Chamba’s territory a bit, and he’ll tell me to stick with the commentary and leave the conspiracy theories to the professionals. The obvious suggestion, however, is that corporate agriculture, as symbolized by Monsanto, is following a business plan which leads to controlling the world food supply. Throughout history, emperors and tyrants have dreamed of ruling the entire world, but the avarice of an individual never has been enough to fulfill that delusion. A handful of oil companies are now as close as anyone ever has come to having the world by the throat, but "peak oil" is looming. Who will rule the world after the last decomposed dinosaur has been pumped through a carburetor and exploded out the exhaust pipe? It won’t be the makers of solar panels or hydrogen cells; what better way to rule the world than to have a patent on the supply of food? Already, the US government uses our money to subsidize the corporate farmers of wheat, corn and soybeans, while other crops with at least as much potential for feeding the masses get nothing.

Here’s a couple more scary stories that get no attention from the mainstream media. The US Food and Drug administration has adopted administrative regulations requiring everyone to register their livestock and their farms. The stated reason is to track the spread of things like mad cow and bird flu. Corporate farmers simply register their entire herds, but small farmers are expected to plant an electronic tracking device in every single animal, even the poultry and the fish. Naturally, the small farmers are resisting, but the FDA isn’t worried. It’s systematically identifying everyone who keeps livestock and puting them all in the data base anyway. The FDA also is well on the way to making all herbal dietary supplements subject to the prescription restriction. Everyone is accustomed to variations of the hemp plant being illegal, but imagine going to jail for getting caught carrying illegal echinacea.

Corporate ag has a lot to fear from the small farms. The peak oil scenario has given rise to a movement dedicated to sustainable communities. A big part of that concept is growing your own and producing the things you need right in your own neighborhood instead of buying the stuff that corporate ag trucks all over the continent and beyond. If we all did that, not only would Monsanto not rule the world, it might not even turn a profit. I suspect that if Monsanto gets the food, the next step will be to patent the water and the air.