Latest Biotech BS: ‘The First Biotechnology was Beer Making’

Latest Biotech BS: ‘The First Biotechnology was Beer Making’
Or was it?

Monsanto wants you to think of biotech as a fun and frolicsome advancement benefiting society, or at least that’s the latest pronouncement in a propaganda piece issued by a mainstream magazine obviously desperate to paint a pretty face on the corpse that is becoming GMO support.

As the public learns of the World Health Organization’s proclamation that not just glyphosate, but three other herbicides made by the biotech industry, biotech has little more than a rainy day parade’s participants cheerleading for their next product.

The NY Times is one of those soggy pom-pom holders, with this little nugget:

“The earliest known practitioners of biotechnology — Babylonians who added a variety of yeast fungus to grain about 5,000 years ago — produced beer and helped make civilization fun.”

Maybe they listened to Hilary Clinton’s advice, that Biotech should just become ‘re-branded.’ You know, make GMOs sexy again so that public would hush hush and eat the Bt toxic corn, or estrogen-mimicking GM soy. Biotech just needed a Winston and Salem cover girl to sell their latest bamboozle, but this one about the beer really takes the GMO cake.

Related: GMOs in Your Beer and Wine?

I’m not sure where you can get off calling the addition of yeast to NON GMO grain that has already been harvested biotechnology – but let’s go with that.

If we accepted this line of reasoning from one of Monsanto and Syngenta’s obvious beneficiaries, then that would mean that adding salt and pepper to non GMO food was ‘biotechnology’ or that the freezing of milk and sugar to make ice-cream is also ‘biotechnology.’

Just because you add one substance to another post haste doesn’t mean that you’ve achieved some biological, DNA-altering wonder – because you haven’t altered any DNA, and you certainly aren’t extracting bacteria DNA and inserting it into corn.

The NY Times must assume that since most Americans don’t know too much about GMOs, that comparing GMOs to Babylonian brew will help to sway public opinion. It’s kind of like Monsanto telling us that glyphosate would create pest-free corn rows shining in the sun.

About Christina Sarich:
	Christina Sarich is a humanitarian and freelance writer helping you to Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga for the New World. Her latest book is Pharma Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of Yoga.

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