Thank you Monsanto

Today I'd like to give a big shout out to all those companies, corporations, executives, and fraudsters that have decided to enrich themselves and their shareholders at the expense of common sense, humanity, social responsibility, dignity, and existence. I'm referring to the marketing of products under the general label "green" although this also applies to things labeled "eco-friendly" and "environmentally sound".

When it was first thought up, the green label was supposed to represent something. It was supposed to represent products that used natural, renewable, non-toxic, and biodegradable ingredients rather than non-renewable petroleum based chemicals with unknown side-effects, high toxicity, and thousands of years of existence in our landfills, water supplies, and soil. What we have now in the market place it a travesty and a tragedy.

Take a good look at most "green" products and you'll find names synonymous with corporate excess, massive environmental damage, refusal to clean up their messes, and a general lack of good social and environmental stewardship. Look at the ingredient list and you'll find things that are most certainly not natural, renewable, or biodegradable. And every day it gets worse as corporate lobbyists and political fools gut legislation intended to clarify what can and can't be sold under green labels. By gut, I mean allow things to be sold as green that aren't green at all.

It's no different than what happened to the organic movement. Look at your organic foods. You'll find a vast majority of "organic" and "natural" foods still contain garbage (high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, artificial flavors, etc). Organic meats are not organic at all. Remember- chicken can be marketed as "free range" as long as it has ACCESS to a pasture. By access, these farmers provide one small door (often smaller than a chicken) and they provide it late in life when the chickens are already accustomed to roost life and will never leave the door (because they are chickens and they are stupid).

So once again greed triumphs over good. The organic movement was about healthy eating and being aware of where you food comes from and making it as healthy and chemical free as possible. The green movement was about making products less resource intensive, less chemically harmful, and less prone to remaining in our water. Instead, these have become marketing buzzwords, advertising fodder, and a sop to people that still want to consume but want to feel less guilty about consumption's harmful side effects.

To be fair, there are a large number of products that ARE green and a large number of companies and people working hard to make sure their products do as little damage as possible while still making a profit. Using lemon juice and baking soda instead of bleaches, ethers, and alcohols is great. Removing pesticides from food and allowing cattle to eat grass (which they evolved to eat) rather than corn (which they did not) is wonderful. And using fewer resources to make the same product is commendable (though not necessarily deserving of a "green" label). The problem is that green is green is green to the average fool shopping for a product. Most people don't have the capability to know which products are actually more environmentally friendly than others. But I think we can all agree that marketing things as green because you removed 2 ingredients while leaving the other 12 is lying. Selling "green" window cleaners that still contain man-made chemicals with long lifetimes and toxic breakdown products is unethical. And using your market position and money to make environmental protection rules laxer and the punishments more lenient is just messed up.

The greenest, most environmentally conscious thing you can do is NOT BUY THINGS IN THE FIRST PLACE. Buy less and we'll use less resources. Buy less and we'll have fewer chemicals ending up in our water and soil. Buy less and our landfills will stop filling up so fast. For those of you that can't have a conversation without worrying about terrorists, then buy less so that less money goes over seas to fund terrorist activities (surprise!- it's not just oil money that funds terrorism even if that's what the news told you).

Long term vision and common sense people. Lets get some.