The Danger of GMO Foods

The pictures of the hungry children holding up placards with the single word "Food" and another that cried out "Help", these among many others were heart-wrenching cries of hundreds of thousands of poor people whose lives, homes, and families were wrecked by the devastating, all powerful storm to hit the Philippines last 7 November.  The memories will never go away and they bring home to us with sharp reminder, that food and clean water are the most basic human needs of all.  In fact, this is such a powerful need that when it is unsatisfied, there is severe malnutrition, hunger, famine, starvation, and that in turn causes mass migration, civil unrest, demonstrations, revolutions, looting, robberies, wars, massacres, and the fall of governments.  

It is when food is plentiful and evenly distributed, there is greater peace in a country and the nation can be stable and prosper. When there is justice and respect for human rights, then it is civilized and developed. Whoever can supply and control a plentiful supply of food for all will grow rich and powerful and rule forever. That seems to be the sinister plan of those who hunger and thirst for political power. Decades ago, the powerful nations dominated the weaker by luring or coercing poorer nations in their debt traps. Governments incurred huge debts which the people had to pay through oppressive taxes and austerity.  

They were then forced to comply with the demands of greater nations to sign unequal contracts to favour the oil, mineral, pharmaceutical multinationals, and the military industrial complex. Military bases proliferated. One more richer and powerful nation could ride roughshod over the sovereignty of small nations especially in Africa and South America and parts of Asia and control and extract their natural resources with the connivance of the corrupted governments. When some patriotic, uncorrupted rulers refused, they were replaced through coups, regime change or assassination.

But some of the agents who were the field officers, implementing this global strategy of the great powers had qualms of conscience and soon it was leaked to the media and a worldwide outcry against it led to the “Freedom from Debt” campaign and the Jubilee campaign. Bono, the Irish leader of the Christian Rock & Roll group U2 was a major inspiration and leader of this movement.  

The great political powers looked for another mechanism to control the smaller nations, the poorest and most vulnerable. Foreign aid was not enough and competing powers could offer more than the other. Through business monopoly, elite fractions that greatly influence democratic elections found another powerful mechanism to exert influence that is the greatest need of all - FOOD. They saw their opportunity in the scientific development that changed the genetic make-up of the humble tomato. 

It all started in 1994. The tomato had a very short shelf life; it ripened very quickly and had a shelf life of only a few days. The big plantations could not deliver in time to dominate the markets so the food science laboratories experimented to find ways to extend the ripening time. By taking the gene of another organism that did not ripen so quickly, they inserted it into the tomato and bingo, after much trials and errors, it worked. The new tomato had a very long shelf life, the big food growers swamped the market with low cost tomatoes, the small farmers went out of business and then with the competition eliminated, the plantation corporations increased the price of their tomatoes and made a fortune. They still do. 

The food science industry boomed and every possible modification to the food we eat has been made. The “not so humble” tomato was to again lead the way. Cold snaps in Florida decimated the tomato crop, the laboratories went to work. This time, as the story goes, they found an organism, (an arctic fish some say) that had a gene that enabled them to survive minus 30 degrees. With this gene spliced into the DNA and genetic make-up of the tomato, the tomatoes had stronger resistance to cold and the plantation owners became even richer. But that is the general idea behind genetically modified plants that make up our food.

The scientific research laboratories of the multinational  food corporations launched frenzied research and development programmes to find ways to genetically modify every possible plant that could be used in food and they own the patent for that food .So tomatoes and corn and many more crops that now dominate the food chain is owned and controlled by these corporations.  The seeds that produced them are terminal. That is they can’t be planted to grow more crops. The farmer has to buy the seed every year from the corporation that holds the patent.

They own and supply the specific fertilizer that makes the seed grow and upon which it is dependent. In this way, the corporations control the food supply through their GMO seed and food products. They will own us too one day and nations will become dependent and subservient to them. If they don't supply the seed people will starve, riot and topple government. That is greater power than that which grows from the barrel of a gun.  

Fair Trade Fights For Justice and Freedom

Before I became a missionary priest I thought about my life during a spiritual retreat and asked how could I best live usefully and worthwhile since human life is so short. Would I reach eternal life? No one can know the answer, we have to die first. So I realized that since I was not a brilliant student I would not be rich in this world but I could be spiritually rich by helping others in this world and that’s when I became a missionary priest.

I was by God's will sent to the Philippines on mission to spread the message of the gospel to the Filipino People. The Philippines was already a Catholic country converted by the Spanish who occupied the Islands for many hundreds of years. So why was it necessary for missionaries to go there and what more needed to be done? Well, as I discovered there was the established Catholic Church and people went to church on Sunday for Mass and participated in the rituals, devotions, pilgrimages and processions but this did not mean that the gospel was being lived out as Jesus Christ preached it. If He came to visit the people there he would not be happy, he would cry out and weep over the cities and he would say again, as he did to his apostles and followers "I have been with you a long time and still you do not understand my message".

And he would tell again the story that we read and heard in the gospel today. How the rich man named, Mr. Richman had good food every day, he dressed in expensive clothes and completely ignored the suffering and starving man, called Lazarus who was begging for the scraps of food that fell to the floor. But even the crumbs, the rich man would not share. The malnutrition cause sickness and sores and there was no one to help, no one had pity, or compassion, but it was only the dogs that came to heal him and have pity.

That was the situation that I found in the Philippines, a vastly rich and wealthy elite, about 200 powerful families owned the land, the food, the factories and all industry. The millions of Filipino people, were mired in poverty, hunger, sickness and were begging for the scraps that fell form the tables of rich who lived in palaces and made billions of money from corruption. They even owned the government. The congress was stacked by the relatives and friends of the rich and government served them and not the poor. But these rich people were very religious, went to Mass, thanked God for their wealth and gave money to the church.

I wanted to put into action what Jesus preached and did; he said the poor were the salt for the earth, the most important of all, that innocent children were the models of sanctity that we should imitate so we will be worthy to enter the Kingdom of God.

It was a big challenge and much progress together with many other development agencies implementing the social teaching of the church society began to change. I started a charity called PREDA, an organization that works for justice in all aspects of life. It rescues the children form the jails, save children from the human traffickers and sex slavery in brothels. Today there is training to the youth so they could get jobs and we would try to protect children in every possible way from abusers and traffickers. The goal of the charity is to make justice real, and to work to stop the corruption and wrongdoing and bring freedom to many people.

The charity called PREDA brings Economic freedom and human dignity, self-reliance, to thousands of people through the practice of FAIR TRADE. This aspect of our work at Preda Fair Trade is to help the poor by establishing livelihood opportunities so the poor can learn and to use their skills in the home and farm and produce quality products for the market. Preda fair trade gives interest free loans to the producers. Fair Trade finds buyers that pay a good fair price for the products. There is no cheating or price fixing or corruption and the producers share in the profits.

Fair trade is another word for economic justice and improving the lives of hundreds of thousands by getting buyers for their produce at fair prices, it means that they can live in dignity and economic freedom. Fair Trade is working to give life to the hungry like Lazarus at the gate of the rich man. To save the children from the international criminals that abduct and sell children into slavery. We rescue them and give them a new life. We rescue and save the child workers in brothels and when they are pregnant save them from forced abortions. We take legal action to bring the abusers to justice and jail where they cannot harm and abuse children. All this important work is supported by the earnings that comes from the selling of fair trade products like dried tropical fruit, juice concentrates, and other handicraft products.

Buying fairly traded products is a way to fight for justice and reduce hunger and poverty. Fair trade helps them to help themselves and to stand on their own and survive and prosper in dignity.