Congress passed a bill last week that included a provision which "protects genetically modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks." This provision is now called the "Monsanto Act." This provision was snuck into an "emergency" bill (its always an emergency, isn't it?) which prevented the shutdown of the government, and many of those who voted for it may not have actually read it.

We don't know the eventual consequences of genetically engineered food—we don't even know the current consequences of it. I keep thinking back to the invention of plastics, which must have seemed like a magical solution, but now pollute every ecosystem in the world and also our bodies, causing hormonal changes, cancers, and other effects. There are often unintended and unforeseen consequences in the implementation of new technologies that become obvious only decades or even generations afterward. We are currently running an uncontrolled experiment on the entire population of this country, and other parts of the Earth, without any agreements or controls.