Busting Monsanto’s ‘better’ broccoli

[n2doc]

BY ANDY BELLATTI


28 SEP 2011 1:51 PM

Many of us are familiar with Monsanto the seed giant, but who knew the company was making a new ready-to-eat packaged broccoli? The new product is called Beneforté, and it quietly launched last October. This vegetable is not genetically modified (i.e. no pesticides were engineered into its genes), but rather a hybrid of commercial broccoli with a variety native to southern Italy.

Advertised with a "naturally better broccoli" tag line, the selling point pitched at the health conscious is that "it boosts the body's antioxidant enzymes at least 2 times more than other broccoli." Specifically, one serving of Beneforté broccoli "naturally contains 2 - 3 times the phytonutrient glucoraphanin as a serving of other leading broccoli varieties produced under similar growing conditions."

"Similar growing conditions" -- there's an interesting tidbit. For all we know, then, Beneforté's glucopharanin content could pale in comparison to that of organic broccoli. Of course, this obsession with glucoraphanin is a silly and myopic distraction. Broccoli, by virtue of being a vegetable, is healthful and does not need to be improved upon. None of the myriad of chronic health issues affecting millions of Americans are due to "faulty broccoli" with low levels of glucoraphanin.

The biggest irony of this product lies in Monsanto's claim that Beneforté "help maintain your body's defenses against the damage of environmental pollutants and free radicals."

more

http://www.grist.org/industrial-agriculture/2011-09-28-busting-monsantos-better-broccoli

[marmar]

1. I hope Monsanto goes bust in my lifetime.

[ixion]

2. how much of our food supply are we going to let Monsanto destroy

before we stop them?

It's probably already too late, but sooner would be better than later.

[Enthusiast]

3. I suspect Monsanto is trying

to turn broccoli into their private product.

[NickB79]

4. What's the problem with introducing a new broccoli hybrid?

I'm not getting the outrage here. They've just moved beyond hybridizing for increasing yields and disease resistance to now hybridizing for specific proteins such as these enzymes. It's the same thing seed companies have been doing for decades. Even the typical head of broccoli didn't even exist before we started selective plant breeding; google "broccoli raab" to see what broccoli used to look.

"Broccoli, by virtue of being a vegetable, is healthful and does not need to be improved upon."

That's just silly. Virtually all of our fruits and vegetables have been improved upon for millenia for numerous traits.