Dear Editor,

As usual, I enjoyed Bill Slusher’s recent Franken-law opinion piece. The treatment of Farmers by the USLD, as discussed by Bill, is an outrage. But the real problem is that the US has a “justice” system that is so corrupt, that such an outrage can take place.

It is my impression, that Bill doesn’t believe in conspiracies. What is a conspiracy? According to my dictionary, a conspiracy is a combination of persons plotting secretly to commit an unlawful act. Thus, as an extreme example, a group of teenagers working together to obtain a keg for a party, are involved in a conspiracy. The world is full of conspiracies, big and small, public sector and private and always has been. The USLD, as discussed by Bill, was involved in a conspiracy inasmuch as striving to deprive farmers of their Constitutional Right to Due Process is a violation of USC Title 42 Section 1983.

Re: GMO foods, Bill has an impressive list of organizations that clearly state GMO foods are completely safe. But, for my money, said list means virtually nothing. Why? (OK, so I’m cranky.) Over the years I have arrived at the conclusion that when lots and lots of money is involved in any situation, it is prudent to be very, very cautious and skeptical re any statements on said situation. This is especially true of any statements in support of the “lots of money” side of the equation.

Why do I perceive potential problem areas? There are a couple of areas where I perceive possible problems, without doing the requisite research to uncover all such areas. First, involves the insertion of genes into food crops that make the plants insensitive to the herbicide Roundup. Second, is the insertion into food crops of genes from the Bacillus Thuringiensis that generate toxins which kill certain insects feeding on the food crop.

Do these things make said food crops unsafe to eat? I do not know! I do know that neither my wife nor I wishes to serve as an unpaid guinea-pig to test the safety of Monsanto’s creations. Where the requisite information is available, we strive to buy foods which are organic and/or non GMO. “You pays your money and takes your choice.”

Per Bill, some nuts even believe that Monsanto wants to “take over the world food supply”. Where would anyone ever get such a crazy idea when large corporations are known to bend over backwards to help their competitors increase market share. While Monsanto has been busy walking on water, they have also been busy suing farmers. ( Why let USLD have all the fun? )

A typical lawsuit involves a heritage seed grower or organic farmer located next to a farmer who grows GMO foods. When pollen from such a GMO grower inevitably blows over the the heritage and/or organic crops, the latter is obviously damaged by exposure to the unwanted GMO genes. Monsanto then turns around and sues the victim for patent infringement. The problem has been so severe that a large percentage of the independent American and Canadian farmers have banded together for protection and to sue Monsanto.

In its usual zeal to look after us “little guys” the Supreme Court in, Case. No. 13-303, recently upheld the right of Monsanto to sue farmers whose fields are inadvertently contaminated with Monsanto materials. All of this has been beneficial for Monsanto. As of 2013, roughly 85 percent of corn, 91 percent of soybeans and 88 percent of cotton produced in the US is Genetically Modified.

Incidentally, if you want to do some interesting research, do some reading about the severe danger of a narrow gene pool.

Mason E Hess

Tonasket