Results of a three-year study at the University of Kansas are clear: genetically modified (GM) crops actually produce less food than regular crops, not more, despite the claims of GM proponent corporations like Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). Earlier studies confirm the result, and similar results are being reported in non-food crops like cotton.

Remember: The chief reason for GM crops, pushed hard by corprations like Monsanto, was to increase yield by protecting crops: to make them invulnerable to heavy duty pesticides (and certain pests) and other crop-damaging problems. And, as a result, address Third World hunger and make crops more profitable in the First World.

As you might have guessed, human and ecological health are beside the point in a GM food discussion.

Yet GM crops are likely a part of your diet–most are grown in the USA and the worldwide percentage of acreage devoted to GM crops is rapidly growing.

Writing over a year ago, I called this “acting in ignorance.” For me, it’s more than just being wary of technology or science; it’s being skeptical of the very idea that we can understand the potentially catastrophic consequences of our actions well enough to just go ahead and do something like genetically modify crops. It is, in the end, a remarkable act of faith thinly disguised as “science” to reassure us. Remarkable faith in specialists, in others, in governments.

If the issue seems complex, keep this in mind: most of the money and effort devoted to promoting GM crops comes from large, monolithic, transnational corporations like Monsanto. Other than reduced yield, the side effects of GM crops are just beginning to be discovered. Who knows what other consequences are already affecting humans and the global ecology, perhaps irreversibly?

For example, bees.

Time to plant a garden.