Not too long ago the Donald Danforth PLANT SCIENCE CENTER, 975 North Warson Road, St. Louis, MO 63132 mailed a slick, color cardstock brochure out to many, including our household. I noticed the pre-printed "box" (in place of the stamp) that reads NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID ST. LOUIS MO PERMIT NO 5385.

On the outside cover are three bold words, "ECOMONY", "JOBS", AND "OPPORTUNITY", and inside, the brochure assures us that "The Danforth Center is Focused on Global Challenges -- To Improve the Human Condition through Plant Science:" and beneath that bold statement are the two primary goals.

The first of these lofty goals is 'FEED THE HUNGRY AND IMPROVE HUMAN HEALTH. By developing plants fortified with additional nutrients and designed to survive harsh climates, we are working to significantly reduce rates of malnutrition worldwide."

The second equally lofty goal is "PRESERVE AND RENEW OUR ENVIRONMENT". We are formulating crops to require less water, pesticides and fertilizer..."

Actually I wasn't sure whether to burst into gales of laughter or what! Admittedly, nowhere in the brochure does the term "genetic engineering" appear, but its footprint is all over it. If these Plant Tinkerers, or Plant Gene Tinkerers, could or would open their eyes a little they might realize what thinking people have known all along. There exist many, many varieties of plants which already are resistant to harsh climates. How do they think the Native Americans survived for all those centuries in the Desert Southwest?

I have in front of me the "Seedlisting 2009" published by Native Seeds/SEARCH, 526 N. Fourth Avenue, Tucson, Arizona, 85705, and listed in this publication are nearly 200, that's right, nearly two hundred seeds listed that are suited for "HIGH DESERT" growing, and more than 180 that are suited to growing in either HIGH/LOW DESERT conditions, plus some that are suitable for LOW DESERT conditions only. There are listed beans, lima beans, amaranths, chiles, black-eyed peas, dent corn, flour corn, flour/flint corn, popcorn, sweet corn, wild corn relative teosinte, cotton, garbanzos, gourds, greens, herbs, lentils, melons, okra, onions, panic grass, peas, sorghum, sunflowers, tobaccos, tomatillos, watermelon, wheats, and the four main groups of squash: maxima, moschata, pepo, and argyrosperma. And, mind you, Native Seeds/SEARCH is not the only source of these harsh-climate crops. But alas, the Plant Tinkerers are trudging blindly ahead, oblivious that what they seek already exists, except for that one other little thing they probably forgot to mention in their slick brochure: PATENTS.

Then there is the fake issue of "PRESERV(ING) AND RENEW(ING) OUR ENVIRONMENT". Any genuine organic and/or biodynamic gardener or farmer knows that using "less pesticides and fertilizer" will accomplish nothing. The key is to use NO synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Another thing these Plant Tinkerers cannot grasp for some reason is that in all the hundreds of thousands of years that humans have been eating foods and food crops, before and after agriculture arose about 10-12,000 years ago, there were no synthetic inputs coming from the Monsanto's and other chemical giants. Food of all kinds grew well enough for humanity to reproduce themselves into the twentieth century when synthetic inputs became the fashion.

That "FEED THE HUNGRY" mantra seems to have become the mascot of all the gene giants. The main question I always have when I read or hear this nonsense is this: WHY ISN'T THE FOOD WE 'REGULAR FOLKS' EAT NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE POOR, HUNGRY, AND STARVING MASSES? WHY DO WE HAVE TO CONCOCT TINKERED, MUTATED, CROPS CONTAINING VIRUS PROMOTER GENES, ANTIBIOTIC GENES, ROUNDUP GENES, AND THE LIKE FOR STARVING THIRD WORLDERS? In my opinion, It be a lot easier on the already-stressed environment to just ship some of our excess "regular food" over there to feed the hungry, and re-focus the mission statement of that plant science center to something more environmentally friendly. And another important question I have about the starving and poor people is, HOW CAN THE POOR AFFORD PATENTED SEEDS THAT THEY MUST BUY EVERY YEAR?

Well, the Christmas season seems a good time to issue a rant about "helping" our fellow man. One way NOT to help poor and hungry people is to get them hooked on expensive patented seeds they must buy every year, and cannot save and store as they would with normal seeds. Another way NOT to help the poor and hungry is to addict them to crops whose every cell contains pesticide. (Think Round-up Ready crops.) Is pesticide a good thing to feed growing infants?

Anyone ever heard of "nutritionism"? It is a rather new word which describes a rapidly growing phenomenon in which so-called scientists are attempting to tweak food crops to contain excesses of certain nutrients that they have suddenly decided we are lacking. Michael Pollen wrote about it in IN DEFENSE OF FOOD, although he articulates it better than I. No, we don't need tweaked food--we need pure and unadulterated foods, and we need variety. No nutritionism needed.

Last but not least, The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center wants our help! They want our money! They want LOTS of our money! They want us to give them our hard-earned dollars so they can genetically mutate food crops whose pollen can then ontaminate our own crops! Just think of all the tax breaks they will receive as a non-profit ourfit. Merry Christmas.