Life has so many ironical twists. Sometimes I wonder if I am just the puppet of some extremely wicked and trollish entity who likes to tease me into submission. There’s also the possibility that I’m missing out on the cosmic humor the Universe enjoys displaying.
Whichever the underlying reality behind this, the fact remains I ended up working for Monsanto without knowing it.
How funny this happened while working on a project that seeks to restore soil health and local flora into the place I live in. Suddenly, bam! The Universe stabs me in the back. I think the Universe is fucking obsessed with tolerance so it insists on making me live situations I don’t like to force me into accepting them. Jeez, just take it easy will you? You’re gonna end up breaking some humans if you keep it up like this.
Coming back to the actual story, you might ask how the hell I got to working for Monsanto without even knowing it. I was offered to work for two weeks harvesting carrot seeds. It payed decently and the people hiring were family to Evelina, the owner of the house I live in. Also, the job was free of contract and I thought that made it more local in some way.
Since they were country people with joyful positive personalities and interesting stories I thought it would be nice to work with them. And it was.
It wasn’t heavy work, just trim the dry flower from the plant and put it in a sack. The working group was nice, Evelina and two other women; mother and daughter were my chatty and lovely companions. Sometimes the “chiefs” would join in the work and tell some fun stories as well.
It was obvious that these plants were fed with agrochemicals and not grown with any regard for sustainability. But I was ok with it because I thought, “well not all people know of other agricultural techniques and maybe in time I could influence the situation into something I consider positive”.
But that thought was stepped on when I saw a sign that the plants belonged to Bayer. I was curious as to what use they gave the seeds, as well as what were the particular characteristics of this strain. Also I had no idea Bayer was into agriculture but didn’t think much more on the issue.
The work continued to be nice, sometimes the heat of the scorching sun that fills this land got hard to stand, but the conversation and the trance provided by monotonous work helped to deal with it. One day I was asked to participate in the threshing of the seeds and I had to move around big amounts of flowers with those big farming forks. I had fun, and did a lot of exercise, already feel those abs getting tighter.
Everything went fine until today. I had to help unload a cart with seeds and had some time alone with one of the chiefs. I took the chance to ask more about the strain of carrots and what they were growing them for. He then told me that this was all actually work for Monsanto as they had bought Bayer (it was actually the other way around but this is what he said) and rebranded to recover from the damage their public image had suffered.
I was pretty shocked though I disguised it. I’ve learned to never get into direct discussions with people about the ethics of where they make their living as they are counter-productive. The person will take a defensive stance and you will be drained of your energies by frustration. Better to wait for the right moment to offer a good example of other choices.
So I after I was happily working (thing that is rare because I usually hate grindy works) and life throws me that smack in the face. Does it always have to be such a comedian? Anyway, I’m already used to these little jokes and I think they have the purpose to teach.
I’ve thought a lot about what life was trying to teach me through this experience so here’s what I’ve come up with:
- I underestimated the people that hired me thinking that they were “unaware” of the harm they were causing. In time I learned that they had enough knowledge to do things differently but money was more important to them. Lesson: Never underestimate anyone, no matter how humble they seem.
- I’ve always had a battle against monotonous work. This time I tried breathing deeply and focusing on my inner awareness. I ended up enjoying the labors a lot! At least the days that I was ignorant of whom I really worked for were quite good. Lesson: When you have to grind, breathing deeply will turn it into meditation instead of work.
- I realized that I always end up working in not ideal places because I don’t make the best use of my “free time”. When things are chill I tend to relax a bit too much. With the diversity of options for making income, I should already be able to make decent money without unwanted employers. Lesson: There is no such thing as “free time”, every moment is a decision that outlines a new future. Use it wisely.
- The Universe didn’t do this to me, I did it myself. I didn’t really need to make money at this moment and I took a job anyway because I wanted to give myself a little boost to my crypto investments. Lesson: Don’t play the victim, take responsibility for your actions.
I only have like 3 or 4 days left of work so it’s not a big deal I think, not going to save or destroy the Earth by finishing the job. Afterwards, invest in passive income both on Steem and Tron blockchain, and there! One step closer to having a better financial situation without working for those I don’t want to serve.
Now that I think about it, it’s pretty illegal for Monsanto to have people working without a contract. I wonder if I was to take legal action who would get hurt. Probably my direct employers and not the company. Anyone with enough legal knowledge to shine a light on the matter around?
On the bright side, my little soil regeneration project is working out quite nicely. Now that I have something interesting to show I’m regretting the death of my phone a bit as I have no means of taking pictures. Guess I’ll have to take the computer outside and use it’s awful camera. It’s something, right?