Better Living Through Chemistry?

Earlier today while I was on Facebook (yes, I have an account there, and I'm semi-addicted to checking it regularly, for a few games and for status updates/comments from various friends and acquaintances) I was reading a short rant posted by one of my casual friends.  This rant was about those who bemoan the evils of Chemicals in our everyday lives, and pointed out that "chemicals" (in the form of the basic elements) are the very basis of life, and everything in it, from the air we breath to our very bodies and what we put in and on our bodies. 

While I cannot and do not disagree with her premise that "chemicals" are the building blocks of everything in life - good, bad, and indifferent - I do disagree with her premise that there is no cause for folks to be wary of "Chemicals" in our air, our food, our homes, and the items that we come into contact with on a daily basis.  Not all "chemicals" were produced by nature.  Not all "chemicals" are harmless, or necessary for life, or a good thing. 

Many of the "Chemicals" that people worry about these days aren't simple elements gone amok.  Oh no.  That wouldn't cause much in the way of alarm.  No, what we worry about - and preach against - are the lab produced petroleum based "chemicals" which nature never intended and genetically manipulated abominations, which the human body doesn't cope with nearly as well as the BigPharmas and Monsanto would like us to believe we can.  Our bodies are not designed to eat, or bath in, the converted remains of dinosaurs.

While I will no doubt begin to sound like a raving conspiracy theorist, some of the points made by those loons are valid, and (should) lead to deeper thought.  I'm one of those whom my friend's rant was likely aimed against.  Then again, it is in my own best (business) interests if people eschew buying certain Types of products that are heavily laden with lab produced petroleum byproducts.  After all, I run a small hobby business within the Indi Cosmestics/Bath & Body industry, making all natural soap, lotion, etc.  People who are leary of those lab produced chemicals are much more likely to look for someone that produces the same product withOUT those lab chemicals, using only chemicals that are found normally occurring in nature.

How many of the government officials these days who are employed at the FDA (that would be the Federal Food and Drug Administration - the regulatory body which oversees things like pharmaceutical companies, food production and sales from basic farming through restaurants and grocery stores, mandates health codes and standards of cleanliness for same, oversees research into new drugs and other chemicals both for direct human use and to do everything from controling pest populations to fertilizing those GMO seeds which are specifically created in the lab to be sterile so you can't save seed for the next planting but have to purchase new seed each year, regulates packaging and labeling of consumables, and determines whether chemicals and drugs are safe for use by humans whether by direct or indirect consumption or absorption) have been on the payroll of either Monsanto, one of it's competitors, or one of the major pharmaceutical companies over the years?  Oh yeah - that would be ALL OF THEM that are in an actual position of Power within the FDA, making the rules that the rest of them work by to enforce "FDA Standards" on companies and the general population of the US.

Can we say "massive conflict of interest" boys and girls?  I knew we could.  That's the wolf paying the salary of the sheepdog that's supposed to be protecting the flock, so the dog looks the other way when the wolf and his pack come to make a call.

So what does that really Mean for Us - the consuming public - John and Jane Q, the taxpaying consumer base who are rapidly enriching the companies which make all these never-seen-in-nature-possible-only- in-the-lab-supposedly-safe chemicals and GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and bankrolling the government which is supposed to be "by, of, and for" those same people and look out for those peoples' best interests?  What it means is that we're getting screwed - anally raped, really - by both the companies and by our government regulatory bodies who are supposed to watchdog those companies - and they aren't even bothering to lube up, wear a condom, or kiss us first.

It means that instead of looking out for the best interests of the taxpaying consumer - that would be Us - the government regulatory agency is busy looking out for the interests of the former employers of all it's agents, to our detriment.  It means that drugs and other potentially harmful chemicals and GMOs are getting rubber stamped by those same agents, whether research has actually proven it's effectiveness and safeness for human use.  It means that a lot of the drugs that are coming onto the market today haven't been sufficiently tested, and like a whole slew of their predecessors, they'll get pulled from the shelves within the next 5 years as the result of massive class action lawsuits when those supposedly safe drugs turn out to be killing you more effectively than the disease process they were supposedly designed to treat, via particularly nasty side effects.  And in the meantime, the big pharmaceutical companies get richer and richer, the government agencies get more and more corrupt, and we the taxpaying consumer get sicker and sicker and told that we can't use anything to make us healthy that doesn't come from those same companies.