July Nat Geo Magazine - Dwindling Food Variety

[JRmom]

The July 2011 issue of National Geographic has an article on the looming global food crisis and our dwindling food variety (including livestock). The author talks about the downside of monocropping with genetically "uniform" seeds, but doesn't even mention Monsanto or the involvement of governments worldwide when talking about the farmers who grow food this way.

Worth a read, but it's certainly not the whole story!

 

[Wifezilla]

Very interesting glaring omission. I wonder how many advertising dollars National Geographic gets from Monsato and related companies?

 

[freemotion]

I was about to say the same thing. A few years ago I cancelled my sub to Prevention for that reason. As I got more educated on nutrition, I started to get irritated with the articles. One day I counted the pages owned by Big Pharma. 20-25% of the magazine. Of course they are not going to give you the EFFECTIVE natural cures. Same with Reader's Digest....the natural health articles were pretty stupid....counted up Big Pharma pages, same proportions.

Nat Geo did a spread on the part of the country that I was living in at the time, some years ago....we knew the reporters and photographers were working with some people we knew and were so excited to buy the magazine when the issue came out. It was shocking how the area was completely mis-represented. The photos were not of the typical beauty of the area, but close-ups of unusual spots that individuals created....romanticized. The pics WERE beautiful, but if you visited the area, it would not resemble what the article portrayed. We all felt betrayed.....didn't they see the beauty all around them?

Ooops, kinda off topic. They probably didn't mention that most of the seed catalogs are owned by 2-3 of these giant corporations who are working hard at getting the garden seeds that we buy down to a few varieties of hybrids. Thousands of varieties have been lost just in the past decade. That is why I bought exclusively from Baker Creek this year. Integrity.

But at least the article was brave enough to mention the problem even exists.

 

[Wifezilla]

Since I discovered baker creek, I have made a special point to order something unique and different every time I get a shipment. First of all I never know what will grow in my whacky climate. Second of all, the lack of variety offered in the stores does concern me.

 

[valmom]

I get my seeds from Seeds of Change for the same reason. I don't want to feed into the monoculture mindset. And, I don't really like those big round tasteless tomatoes. I'd rather have heirloom anything- smaller and tastier.

 

[GOOGLE NIKOLA TESLA]

aint it the truth, were all owned by the big business lol...
u ever see the growth hormone program that was pulled by fox, it was because the monster saint was giving them money not to talk! non free media!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trWcqxrQgcc

so this is early 90s i think, just imagine the lies, i like fox news, but this is bad stuff if they are doing stuff like this! wake up yall!!!

they producers threaten freedom of press! serious stuff!!

 

[abifae]

Well, it could also be that people take it more seriously if you don't go conspiracy wacko on them. Even if there is a conspiracy. But more likely a funding issue

 

[JRmom]

I don't think it would say "conspiracy" to at least go into depth a bit more about the company(s) producing GMO seeds and the governments/banks that are pushing GMOs on their farmers. Farmers in India are committing suicide at alarming rates because of genetically modified seed. Google it... monocropping failure at its worst.

If the article serves to convince more people to buy heirloom seeds (and livestock), that's a great thing. But there is more to the story, lots more!

 

[GOOGLE NIKOLA TESLA]

I don't think it would say "conspiracy" to at least go into depth a bit more about the company(s) producing GMO seeds and the governments/banks that are pushing GMOs on their farmers. Farmers in India are committing suicide at alarming rates because of genetically modified seed. Google it... monocropping failure at its worst.

If the article serves to convince more people to buy heirloom seeds (and livestock), that's a great thing. But there is more to the story, lots more!

yep! thats why i gave the link, its not a conspiracy if there is proof. without the internet i would have never learned about gmo, never about what they were doing in the 90s, the illegal gmo star corn without fda approval that was given to people. all a big experiment on innocent americans, yes the indian farmers are killing themselves because the big business ruined there whole food system and cotton, thats not a conspiracy. its not a conspiracy when the head monster-sainto boss is in charge of american agriculture, how more obvious can it get. hope you guys watch the link i provided, it makes everything make sense.
the most evil thing i heard so far, is the indonesians are being fed sterile GMO rice instead of there own varieties, guess whos selling the seeds, its not a conspiracy(ill give you a hint, the company starts with a big "M"). whats sad about this that one day the farmers will not have the money to buy the sterile seeds, and one day there will be a huge famine. its a disgusting thing, all fact.

 

[Wifezilla]

It could simply be a case of Lazy Journalist Syndrome. You see that A LOT!