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The Soon Coming Judgment Of God Upon America and How To Escape It 125
that herbicide-resistant gene in your crop so you can spray and kill everything in sight without
killing your crop. If you are putting a herbicide-resistant gene in every cell of every plant over
millions of acres, you certainly up the ante for the emergence of resistant strains of weed.”
394
A concern of a completely different nature is raised by Devinder Sharma, an independent
reporter. His concern rests in the power that GM provides to the seed companies and those who
control those companies. He states: “Still more worrying is that the genetic engineering
technique can be easily manipulated to reduce crop harvest in any given year. Depending on
what the commercial interests of the seed company and its food exporting allies is, crop
production can be programmed thereby threatening the food security of the country.”
395
Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Program openly admitted,
“Food is power.” Meaning it can be used as a weapon. She further stated, “We use it to change
behavior. Some may call that bribery. We do not apologize.”
396
Food can be used as the ultimate
weapon to control the people of the world. There is no one on this earth who can be trusted with
such enormous power. It has been proven over and over that “power corrupts and absolute
power corrupts absolutely”.
The magnitude of the above concerns becomes apparent when you consider the growth in
the use of genetically modified crops over the past several years. By 1998—“40 percent of
America's corn crop and 45 percent of its soybeans were genetically modified.”
397
Between 1996
and 2002 the worldwide acreage planted in genetically modified crops grew by a mind boggling
3,357 percent. The total acreage planted in genetically modified crops were 4 million in 1996; 70
million in 1997; and 100 million in 1998.
398
In 1999 the US planted an estimated 60 million acres
(roughly the size of the United Kingdom) of genetically modified corn and soybeans alone.
399
In
2002 an estimated 138.3 million acres worldwide were planted in Monsanto genetically modified
seed.
400
This figure doesn’t include seed produced by Dupont, the largest seed producer in the
world or any of the other manufactures of genetically modified seed.
Every farmer owning crops on these millions of acres planted with genetically modified
seed has given up his right to save seed. The seeds are patented and the seed companies who own
the patents hold all rights to the seed. Farmers must buy new seed every year from the seed
companies. The penalty for breaching seed patents (saving genetically modified seed for
replanting) is up to six months in jail and fines up to $250,000.
401
But seed corporations must
catch any violators. They do this by hiring inspectors. “Monsanto employs five full-time
inspectors to hunt down and prosecute farmers who are ‘seed pirates.’”
402
But the world is a big
place for the seed producers to police. In fact it is an impossible task. There are “1.4 billion”
farmers in the world, mostly impoverished third word farmers, who traditionally rely on “farm-
saved seed for their survival.”
403
Terminator Seeds
A new technology has been developed that overcomes the seemingly insurmountable task
of policing the world’s 1.4 billion farmers. The technology was jointly developed by the US
Department of Agriculture and Delta Pine Land, a US seed company.
404
This new technology
prevents plants from producing seeds. The press has dubbed this technology “Terminator
Technology.” Currently there are nine entities that hold patents on this technology; seven of
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