All those Facebook memes featuring Willy Wonka and The Most Interesting Man in the World warning that genetically modified crops will kill us all have done little to help the anti-GMO cause. Most recently, activists have been fighting to force food companies to affix warning labels to products that contain GMOs. Whether they win or lose won’t matter much, because Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, is an unstoppable Leviathan, and GMOs are here to stay. Facebook上所有主打威利o旺卡(电影《查理和巧克力工厂》里好莱坞影星约翰尼o德普饰演的一个角色——译注)和电影《世界上最有趣的人》、警告世人转基因作物会害死大家的“迷因”(meme,一些风格独特的图像或影片,搭配上被社群接受的标语或口号,在病毒式传播下,产生许多变形和二次创作的产物——译注)其实都对反转基因运动帮助甚微。最近,不少激进分子努力要让食品公司为含有转基因生物成分的产品贴上警示标签。不过他们成功与否都关系不大,因为全球最大的种子企业孟山都公司(Monsanto)是无人可挡的业界巨头,而正是这家公司一直在致力于推广转基因作物。 The beside-the-pointness of the labeling movement is made starkly plain by a glance at Monsanto’s financials. The company on Wednesday reported a drop in earnings of nearly 6% in the third quarter, but its stock soared by more than 5%. The company also announced it will buy back $10 billion worth of shares over the next two years, and, more to the point, declared that it expects to at least double its profits by 2019, thanks almost entirely to its seeds and genomics businesses. |