I had to take a little break from writing and editing in order to attend to life. This post was actually written a couple of months ago but is just as relevant today.

My last post about Monsanto included an embedded video from the French documentary “The world according to Monsanto” originally taken from the Internet Archive’s website. It didn’t take long for that copy to stop functioning and apparently many more versions around the internet including ones on Youtube(apparently all taken down - done so by the producer of the video or Monsanto no-one knows!). It looks as if for the time being, we can see the film on YouTube. The embedded video is part 1 of 8 so please make sure to check out the person who posted the video to see the rest of the footage. An amazing wakeup call to this company who single-handedly will be shaping the future of our collective health..

I don’t want to go on a bashing spree about a company which is ultimately run by fellow human beings who for one reason or another are not at a mental and conscious level to fully understand the harmful impacts of their acts even with preponderance of readily available information both in print and on the internet about the safety and health-effects of their products. Similar to how our parents who in the past only knew how to raise us to the best of their abilities and based on their conscious level at that time, we ultimately can’t blame these workers at these forms of companies either for they too are on their learning journey. A company with so many lives(ie. years in existance) is a living being and therefore we must collectively work to make sure that the offsprings of this being, much like our own children, can grow to be of higher consciousness so that they too have the opportunity and ability to change the world for the better.

The direction I’m wanting to steer this post towards however is the relationship between Monsanto and what some would coin the “Green Movement”. How is it that one of the most notorious companies, fought by so many environmentalists(see for yourself in the video) has stories on their website such as “Monsanto’s Biofuels Story — Food and Fuel: It’s not an “either/or” equation” with language that you’d normally see on a “green” blog or green news site such as GreenBiz.com? How is a company such as that connected with “green/clean-tech” companies such as reported in this article from Monsanto. Similarly how the big agricultural firm ADM makes an equity investment into a Bio-bases lubricant company. These examples show just the extent to which big agricultural and bio-engineering firms are now embedding themselves with the growing list of seemingly clean-tech/green companies. Is there anything to worry about you say? I won’t even go into the food supply impact but as more and more of our non-edible products such as building and manufacturing materials, special fluids including fuel, are going to be coming from plant based sources, its going to be critical that we pay attention to how and where these plants are grown. These companies clearly represent entities who are in the business of creating new life-forms made at the lowest price, to be sold at the highest price and with zero disregards for human and planet safety. As apposed to the downstream pollution of the petroleum era, we may soon be faced with an era where we will no longer be able to find plants that are not genetically altered, seeds that can’t be provided to poor or rich countries without patent licenses to companies like Monsanto or lands no longer profitable for anything other than for growing specialty crops to feed our new “green” lifestyle, our new biodegradable plastics, our “green” polymers, and lets not forget our compostable plasticware and green fuel at the pump. In terms of seeming opposition to nature, disregard to societal values and negative impact on world health, Monsanto, ADM and the likes may just be the Chevron, Mobil, Shell, BP of the future(if they’re not already there).

To finish this train of thought, I recently came across this chart showing the amount of crop land the US needs to convert in order to put a dent in our current oil consumption diet … it doesn’t look pretty. If companies such as Monsanto have anything to do with it, they will soon have proprietary, patented genetically modified blends of seeds and herbicides that will go after that market..

I had to re-read my last post[Link to previous post] another time to get in touch with the angst that was eating me from the inside ever since I wrote the post. I realized that what was bothering me was the fact that in my mind, as I was writing that post, I had demonized everyone in the biotech industry and made them all wrong. I recognized that I was making everything a bit too black or white. In my path to raise my consciousness, I have worked very hard to entertain the world of greyness. I know and knew then full well that not everyone in biotech is evil, nor is anyone who is looking to genetically modify corn, but it was nonetheless a great experience to see myself go to a place that I think we all go to in times when we need assurance for our point of view. My ego definitely took the best of me and wanted to protect my stance at the cost of truth. I ultimately believe there are no bad people in the world-at most misguided ones.

Now that I can write with a bit more presence and humility, I do want to point out that today we still as a species need to bring greater awareness to our acts in the name of progress and sustainability. I don’t know what is the right balance when it comes to bio-fuels, the subject of my last post. Do we want to see the earth, its resources in the form of the soil to be depleted so that our cars are fueled? Do we want to see the same pesticides and herbicides that have been devastating the farm lands of the world to be used once again in creating bio-diesel? Is this where food needs to be diverted to for progress? What is progress and who decides if we’ve attained it? I find in times like this it helps to listen to as many sides as possible. In the following excerpt, wisdom from indigenous people of the world is one such viewpoint I’d like to share with you.

Last week 3000 worldwide delegates met at the seventh session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues where Bolivian President Evo Morales gave the keynote address. I wanted to provide you with an excerpt of an interview session with Democracynow.org and Evo Morales regarding bio-fuels:

[Link to entire interview - text and audio/video]

JUAN GONZALEZ(Interviewer): You have raised some criticisms of some other Latin American leaders. You didn’t name any, but it’s obvious to many that some of your questioning is directed at presidents like Lula of Brazil, who has pushed biofuels. Have you talked to President Lula about this? And what’s been his response, if you have?
PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] We have had discussions at summits of heads of states, sharing some of our experiences. I am certain that these presidents will understand the cry of the people of Bolivia, of the people of Latin America and the whole world, which wants to have more food and not more cars. First food, then if something’s left over, more cars, more automobiles. I think that life has to come first.
But the most important thing—and this is the first time that I find I’m in agreement with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund—they’ve publicly stated that if food prices are going up, it’s precisely because of the biofuels question, and it has a major impact. So if we have these points of agreement, then we have an obligation to together explain and persuade these international organizations, together with the social movements, so as to be able to change the policies of some governments or some presidents.

I became aware of this story published April 8th in the BioFuelsJournal website [See Link] titled “Enzyme From Cow’s Stomach Allows Corn Stalks and Stover to be Utilized for Ethanol Production”. Ok, when I heard that fertile land is being used up for feed for the ethanol and bio-fuel industry, destroying forests, diverting farmers attention from growing food crop to fuel crops, increasing the price of food globally, I thought that was not very forward thinking and fraught with greed(not green) but this has to take the cake. Now scientists at Michigan State University have inserted a gene from a cow’s stomach that essentially breaks down the corn, removing the need for additional enzyme in the bio-fuel preparation. Where were these scientists during the last 2 or so decades when countless people and organizations around the world fought GMO’s not only because they are bad for human health but because of cross pollination and destruction of bio-diversity? I’m still amazed that in the name of profit, engineers and scientists overlook this very simple reality. The last thing we need is cross pollination of this newly engineered corn with corn in the food supply. It will make the diarrhea caused from the original batch of GMO corn taco shells that hit the supermarket to seem like a minor irritation. It is sad but today I’m seeing more and more signs of short-sighted thinking in the part of the “green”/clean-tech industry, overlooking natural processes in the name of CO2 reduction and access to the ballooning green investment money. We can do better.

[See my retraction] 

You’ve heard it here first, the term “Embedded Social Venture” that is.

Today, Coca Cola announced that they are taking a 40% stake in Honest Tea. The founder of Honest tea was quoted as saying “You partner with the whole organization, but we’re marketing the part that’s the solution. This isn’t us selling out - this is them buying into what we’re doing.”

I wanted to point out that partnerships such as this or the likes of Burts Bees being acquired by Clorox that I blogged about represent a new bread of “embedded social ventures” that will begin to create “right” within the walls of corporations with less than stellar reputations. By being purchased these “Good/Green” companies can act as agents of change at an unprecedented rate and scale never before attainable by anyone outside these corporations. The positive impact that one Honest Tea executive or team-member, one with the sensibility of what it means to run a company with the belief-set that corn-syrup does not belong in a beverage, and that all the ingredients should be organic and fair trade, can perhaps go much further than I myself blogging about it or even an NGO screaming publicly that they should do things differently. So I hope!

Coca Cola still has the option to purchase Honest Tea after 3 years. We’ll have to wait and see how it all shapes up… If this social experiment fails(If I may be able to call it that) then we’ll just have to find the next honest tea brand that matches our values. I’ll keep hoping that one day Coca Cola goes back to using healthier ingredients so that I can go back to drinking it they way I used to as a child before Corn Syrup and GMOs ..

Today at Macworld 2008 Steve Jobs unveiled the company’s newest computer Macbook Air. The one feature of this new notebook that perhaps got the least applause from the audience was unfortunately it’s “green” features, and I felt, due in part to how Jobs presented this feature.. WIRED ran this story about the launch along with reactions and criticism from Green-Peace. After reading this article, it became clear as to why there was a lack of enthusiasm on Jobs’ part in delivering this message… He was afraid of being blamed for not doing enough company wide to reduce environmental impacts.. I’m reminded of a story I heard from Joel Makower of Greenbiz.com at an event about 4 years ago about how at that time Nike was one of the biggest if not the biggest purchaser of organic cotton on the world markets yet no-one knew about it. When Nike was asked why they did not make that info public, they said that if they began talking about the fact that only a small % of their cotton purchase was organic, then people would ask why the rest of their cotton purchase was not. Oh the internal anguish people inside companies must feel when they find hiding behind the truth easier than living in it, then and today. Apple can either be blamed for not doing better or they can be applauded loudly for taking the first step and equally held accountable for their second step(something that clearly did not happen at the show) We can only hope that in future events, Jobs can bring the same level of charisma to launching green features as he does when he introduces new colors for ipods. To check out more photos of the environmentally friendly features of the notebook click on the following link.. (more…)

I can’t say enough about this video on http://www.storyofstuff.com/ …. If you have about 20 minutes, its time well spent. This is probably the first time I’ve seen a concise video that captures so well our society’s addition to “stuff.” The one thing that I feel this video lacks(though it touched on it briefly) is how we treat each other as humans.  Our ability to bring awareness to how we treat each other as human beings or our willing to tolerate how others are treated can go a along way towards sensitizing us to the impact of our “stuff” addiction.   Its not just about technical solutions to the global climate crisis, its also about bringing into our awareness the needs of people around the world…. I know I need to add that to my list of top 10 things to consider for the new year in 2008.

(image courtesy of San Francisco Chronicle)

If you didn’t catch this story, as reported on the San Francisco Chronicle article the fender that protected the bay bridge from the tanker Cosco Busan last November has now been repaired. When this incident first happened, it made me think of society’s true cost in maintaining the petroleum diet. For those of us who don’t keep up with the ins and outs of fuel usages by such vessels, it was our first introduction to the fact that they burn the lowest quality of oil, mainly the byproduct of the refining of crude oil into gasoline. Not only do we now understand the cost to marine life during the spill, but we are also awakened to the air pollution caused by such vessels when they burn this foul fuel… This was a wake up call for us to look at how much unnecessary products we consume, ones manufactured overseas which inevitably have to be shipped over here on these very container ships.

Now to the fun part of this post. (more…)