The Story of Demeter, Goddess of the wheat
“Da Meter,” a Pre-Greek name for “the Mother” or “Mother Earth.”
In my rendition of this Greek Fable, Demeter is angry because hormone-altering pesticides are poisoning our food and water sources, wreaking havoc with our bodies and contributing to global warming. Today the real world terrorists are us.
*Cancer is now the number 2 killer in the U.S. and the number one killer in Japan. I4.5 billion pounds of pesticides are sprayed world-wide each year! The U.S. figure translates to about 4 pounds of pesticides for every man, woman and child in America. Paraphrasing Rachel Carson, can we really spray this much poison chemical and not expect a deadly reaction?
Chemicals such as Benzene, a relative of the weed killer Lindeen, can be found in citrus flavored soda pops, Aspartame ,which had a former life as nerve gas in wWWII, is in most diet drinks and chewing gums. Methylparabens, propylparabens and tons of other chemicals are dumped into cosmetics and frangrances without even having to be listed as ingredients! Amazingly, Monsanto is not required to list the dangerous“proprietary” ingredients that are in its number one selling weed-killer “Roundup!
It will take longer to correct this situation than it did to produce it, and it will take a world wide effort, but the good news is that it can be reversed. We can leave a healthy environment to our great grandchildren, or perhaps our great, great grandchildren. Otherwise, we will have to look for a new planet to live on.
We must not “declare war on Mother Nature” for in the end, we are declaring war on ourselves.
*Information source: Winston, Mark L. Nature Wars Cambridge, Mass. Harvard Univ. Press p,1997