Random Sunday

It amazes me how corporate executives who were the cause of our financial melt down make out like bandits while workers are getting screwed. Yes even while execs at AIG are busy selling off the company assets they are still getting bonuses and mulit figure incomes as I write this. If a worker were to cost the company a few thousand dollar loss they would be out on their ear with a pink slip on the next payday. And with all this restructuring you think the executives will be making any less? Nope they will still be making several thousand times what an average line worker was making.

More corporate greed and environmental damagee
The world according to Monsanto

Monsanto has been developing genetically altered corn for a while now. They say their intent is to design a corn that is resistant to draught and insects. Since they have a patent on the modified corn they can charge farmers royalties for growing. Now for the kicker. Since corn cross pollinates with other native varieties it's slowly becoming Monsanto corn. There are several varieties of organic corn that have been grown in rural Mexico for centuries that don't require fertilizers or weed killers. Mexico had bannned genetically altered corn but this was after they had planted some 40% of their corn bought from Monsanto. The Monsanto corn requires fertilizers and Roundup their preferred weed killer. Farmers who plant Monsanto corn must pay the company royalties in addition to the fertilizer and Roundup. This is simply corporate greed at its very worst. Genetically engineering plants is not as easy as it might appear. It's not as if they were taking genes from one corn plant and attatching it to another or as has been done in the past cross pollinating different varieties of corn. What they are doing is adding things like genes from animals (pigs to be exact) to get their outcomes. And the results aren't too promising. We are now the lab rats for their experiments. No body knows the long term effects from eating this corn for a long periods of time and yet we were not given a choice in the matter. It was profits before all else.