seeds of destruction

SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION


Before we review “Seeds Of Destruction” by F. William Engdahl, let’s take a moment for the usual unwanted detour. For some reason I had grandiose illusions of fame and fortune if I could only print up my book Life After The Collapse. Okay, I didn’t expect too much fortune and fame will never happen as long as I have to contend with American Idol for your few remaining brain cells, but I at least wanted to goose my e-book earning up a bit since they had dipped precariously ( from $30 a month to only twenty ). So I wasted all Friday’s lunch hour dinking around trying to get an ISBN number and what not. Now I remember what a pain it was to get Frugal Survivalist available for Amazon. I might still print out Collapse for my minions, but it will only be available through Lulu, without the crap needed for international sales. I love being a writer. I put on my writing hat, it fits just right, fur lined, the brim shading my eyes, the designs colorful and whimsical, enticing you on a voyage of awe and adventure. The editors hat, which I hate putting on, is tight fitting and uncomfortable, a snug beanie of a putrid color, with a propeller on top. Lucky for all of us Elko is actually going to see a few days of sun ( it’s the friggin desert and we’ve had Pacific coast rain here this winter-okay, perhaps slightly exaggerated, but ol Sol has been scarce for months ) so I’m able to write this article Sunday. Saturday after errands I had a sudden inspiration that since I had extra entertainment money even after buying books ( thanks again, Sam ) I would treat myself for the first time in a year to an actual movie at the theatre. I went to see “The Losers”, which was a great deal of fun and quite entertaining. I would recommend it, but do keep in mind the ending is a bit open ended ( I imagine for sequels, as perhaps they think they can take over while the Bond franchise hovers in limbo as the film company starves off bankruptcy ). A nice combination of action, buddy banter, humor.

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F. William Engdahl is one of my favorite social sciences non-fiction writers. He can combine all my favorite subjects, politics and economics and history and just a drop of conspiracy theory for flavor, and churn out very readable books. They are far from dry and actually are usually on par with the best fiction suspense genre for a great “page turner”. My highest compliment goes to this author, which is that I will spend above average money to buy his books. “Full Spectrum Dominance” was insanely priced at $23 for a 200 page book and I paid it gladly as soon as I had it to spare. I read the whole thing in one evening and went away happy. That book is a nice continuation of “A Century Of War” which is about the century long political and economic struggle to control the global oil supply. That book is only about fifteen bucks, and everyone should read it. I’ve read it three times already. “Dominance” is good, I loved it, but if you are not comfortable shelling out that kind of scratch I would recommend you pass. It mostly covered the political manipulation of non profit organizations to overthrow governments that are important for the oil control. I loved it, but it is a lot of money for the casual reader. On his website, http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/ ( a lot of great free reading there for you poor folk ) there is a graphic link for an upcoming book, Gods Of Money, but the link is not operational and there is nothing on Amazon ( which usually lets you pre-order ). I’ll definitely be getting that one, no questions asked. As I said, I love this guy.

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At first I put off buying “Seeds Of Destruction”. I really had no interest in reading about genetically modified foods. I know they most likely aren’t good for you, but I also know there isn’t a whole lot you can do to avoid them short of growing all your own food. Best to bury my head about the issue. Well, that goes to show you I don’t always pay attention when shopping for books. This book makes no judgments about GMO’s, nor does it go into much detail about the science of biology or what not. Thank God. At most, it cautions that the government has handed over safety control to the industry and thus we have no way of knowing if the food is safe or not. So, this isn’t about how FrankenFoods are poisonous, only that they COULD be and we’ll never know from our government ( the ones that won’t let us eat trans fat or smoke weed apparently feel comfortable letting us eat untested manipulated foods ). What this book does is cover the history of the rich ruling families setting out to control the global food supply. He leaves it on an upbeat note ( this was published in 2007 ), but we all pretty much know their reign of control has not slipped.

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The Green Revolution was not so much using better seeds and modern management of farms but by industrializing food production. The family farmer using his animals to fertilize, and using heirloom seeds that were crossbred over generations to thrive in that climate was forced out for mega-farms using large machines and large amounts of bank credit. In a lot of cases the small farmer using up to date methods would have out produced the mega-farms even as the large farms used oil to grow a mono-crop. But the promise of high yields only materialized in the first few years, and then shrank below the small farm. That fact never got the press the first yields did. The point here is that even before genetic manipulation, the global industrial farm took over and dominated. At its helm were the US chemical giants. The process lowered yields long term, but also substituted oil for fertile soil so the whole system has been able to survive. And it transferred control of world food to American corporations and banks. The two to three decade process of genetic manipulation is on one level important as it consolidated that power. But on another level it is far more sinister. It is bad enough that to farm economically ( and modern farming isn’t about sustainability-it is about affordability ) you must go hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt, but it is far worse when only four mega corporations control the hybrid seed you need. But when those seeds, usually the only available seeds, could actually be sterilizing you because you are poor with brown skin, that is really friggin evil.

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The bulk of this book covers the long process of global food control. A very interesting sideline to this is the exploration of the Rockefeller family and its interest in eugenics. They seemed to like the idea of a master race, which just to give you a heads up did NOT include little brown farmers. They were behind forced sterilization of mental defects and criminals in the Thirties. But of course that was just getting warmed up for third world mass sterilizations. At one point over a third of all Puerto Rican women of child bearing age were sterilized, mostly by non-consensual surgery while in the hospital for childbirth. Then of course there was the big to-do with the WHO tetanus shots being contaminated. But, again, one on one sterilization is very time consuming. Even more annoying to those in power, it requires actual paid labor. Perish the thought ( sometimes, even the big mega-farms have a robot tractor/combine unit controlled through GPS tilling and planting- the thought of paying even one salary is repugnant to a corporation ). The newest, and latest and greatest ( at least from the point of view of our puppet masters ) occurred when a smaller seed company perfected a genetic manipulation that included a spermicidal agent in a plant. My God! How perfect is this? We already have our little peasant farmers trapped by the banks and chemical companies, and now we can slowly eliminate them through wide spread birth control! By the very food they themselves plant! With none of our own paid labor! We even charge them a higher seed price for our patented plants.
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Perhaps, in the eyes of most Americans only concerned with a low cost SUV fill-up and an affordable bucket of KFC, the die-off of the rest of the world through poisoned seed monopoly is no big deal. But they should keep in mind that they will be next. The elite of a master race will turn on the less desirable members of their own country after they are done with the rest of the globe.

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