by Alanna Peterson

First off, let’s get this straight: I am all for American innovation. But I also think that when our dear old forefathers scribbled up the Constitution, akin to a hastily written note left on the kitchen counter, like any parents they had absolutely no idea what kind of crazy stuff their kids would get into. Automobiles, baseball and boy bands: not too bad. Sweatshops, pollution and genetically modified foods?

We would be so grounded.

In a time when people can actually trademark living things (ponder that one morning over your Starbucks TM coffee) Americans seem suspiciously ambivalent. Sustainable, mindful and environmentally conscious doesn’t have quite the same ring as bigger, better, faster, stronger, and scientists, with a generally mute conscience, have been using biotechnology to manipulate foods for decades. Using antibiotic marker genes and mimicking the invasive restructuring of viruses to alter food crops on the most fundamental, genetic level, biotech companies have even been able to create corn that produces its own pesticides. Although these Franken-crops may paint a prettier picture on grocery store shelves, feng shui has overridden health concerns; the FDA requires very little safety testing, if any, and no one seems to want to take responsibility for the complete unpredictability of these manufactured fruits and veggies. The FDA doesn’t require the labeling of GMO foods and so it is almost impossible to track the consuming public’s adverse and potentially devastating reactions to genetically modified products. You’ll be comforted to know that there have been no human trials (unless you consider the millions of Americans who unknowingly consume GMO foods every year) but animal experiments have served up results Mendel would be proud of: in a documented test of Flavr Savr TM tomatoes, many test rats grew erosive lesions in their stomach lining and seven died of “unstated reasons” two weeks after eating the doctored tomatoes.

Genetically modified foods have been slowly replacing naturally produced foods on supermarket shelves, hiding under the cover of anonymity provided by the FDA into juice boxes, packaged foods and enticing consumers with their unnatural plumpness and Day-Glo colors. We can call biotech companies the new green-collar criminals, abusing power and influence to render it even harder to consider yourself a truly educated consumer. One of the cover stories of the June 2009 issue of National Geographic presented an objective view of the future of food, with explanations of both genetically modified foods and sustainable farming. When you peel back the cover, the second page of the magazine is an advertisement for Monsanto, the nation’s most powerful biotechnology company.

The water gets a little murkier when you start asking questions and get caught in the web of red tape swathing the answers. With the help of the Constitution and a delusional Supreme Court ruling, biotech companies can trademark seeds, which then grants them the power to completely monopolize the industry and bully small farmers into compliance. Take this scenario: a gentle breeze blows across a road, catching a few genetically modified seeds and blowing them into a neighboring field. Like seeds tend to do, they grow and cross-pollinate, contaminating the farmer’s crop like undercover agents infiltrating a trusting community of corn plants. The farmer is then sued by the biotech company, run through the ringer of the U.S. justice system and spit out the other end. Sound crazy, a little too conspiracy theory? Ask over a dozen Midwest farmers who have settled out of court with Monsanto, the ruthless czar of biotechnology, silenced like serfs by out of court settlements and the threat of a smear campaign.

Growth, probably the definitive word of the last two hundred years, has been misconstrued and misappropriated: as Americans grow outwards and their ambitions skyrocket upwards, integrity and responsibility have become antiquated terms only dusted off during election time. Maybe the answer to the moral conundrum of American progress can be gleaned from humanity’s first recorded encounter with genetically modified foods, poor Jack and his debacle with the Beanstalk. Whatever anyone says, there is no such thing as “magic beans,” just hard work. Giant beanstalks may be distracting and good fodder for one-upping the neighbors but they always come with equally daunting consequences. Giants, even though they are quite impressive, tend to abuse the undulations of capitalism and monopolize markets; never trust them. Last of all, support your local farmers: by eating local produce, consumers can do their part to make sure Jack never has to pawn his cow in the first place.