[Editor’s Note: This article is from our friends at Yes! Magazine. To subscribe to Yes Magazine click here.]

In January of this year, while procrastinating on Facebook, I
followed a link to an article reporting on evidence that there may be
health effects associated with consuming Monsanto’s
genetically modified (GM) corn. Clicking on that link was one of those
moments on which I look back and laugh. I had no idea how my life was
about to change.

Monsanto’s Reach

The article I stumbled onto concerned a study done in 2009 by a group
of French scientists investigating the safety of genetically modified
food. Their results, as published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences, pointed toward kidney and liver damage in rats fed GM corn.

I began to research where exactly Monsanto corn appeared in my
family’s diet. With a little online sleuthing, I learned that in
addition to producing the genetically modified corn, Monsanto produces
several other genetically modified crops such as soy, sugar beets, and
cotton. Many of these crops form the foundation of our diets: 70 to 80
percent of American processed foods contain genetically engineered
ingredients, according to the Grocery Manufacturers of America. A large
percentage of the cotton in our clothes and homes begins in Monsanto’s
labs.

Probing a little deeper, I was surprised to learn that a company
specializing in genetically modified plant crops also had an enormous
influence on America’s meat industry.
Sixty percent of genetically modified corn goes to feed America’s beef
cattle. Additionally, Monsanto’s recombinant bovine growth hormone
(rBGH) is used to increase milk production in many dairy cows.

Tracing Foods Back to their Source

I decided to see if I could go the entire month of March without
consuming any Monsanto products. I committed to an all organic, vegan
diet, and reluctantly invested in a small organic cotton wardrobe. It
was an experiment born of curiosity: I wanted to know just how deeply my
life was influenced by Monsanto, a company I knew little about before
that click of my mouse in January.

By day two of my attempt to remove Monsanto from my life, I realized I
was in way over my head. For the past 10 years Monsanto has bought up
seed companies around the globe. They now own a majority of the seed
lines in America, including a large percentage of organic seeds. For
everyday purposes, a Monsanto seed that is grown organically is still
organic, but in my attempt to avoid Monsanto, I was left without any
easy way of knowing what foods fit my experiment. I retreated to
subsisting on wild-caught fish while I dug deep to try to figure out
where exactly my foods came from.