Low Flying Crows

Crows have developed a reputation as ‘thieves’ who steal a farmer’s seeds and crops after they’ve been planted. Maybe so, … but I don’t think crows could ever be as devastating to farmers as Monsanto/Bayer. I first heard about the Monsanto company creating problems for farmers when I traveled to play music for folks in the Mid-west. LOW FLYING CROWS Low flying crows Em Sail in on a wind Cmaj7 As cold as a city Asus4 As cold as their grin Em Skimming over our fields Em Sowing seeds full of tears Cmaj7 For their hybrids won’t yield D Even one seed next year Em Cho: Low flying crows C Want your eyes to stay closed D Make sure everyone knows Em Watch for low flying crows! Em-D Watch for low flying crows! Em-D Watch for low flying crows! Em-B7-Em With their corporate seal They darken our sky For the profits to rise Our old seeds must die When our heirlooms are gone Then the crows who we feed Crow all night long For we must buy their seed! Cho: Low flying crows Want your eyes to stay closed Make sure everyone knows Watch for low flying crows! Watch for low flying crows! Watch for low flying crows! Instrumental Break Now we stand as one! A They’ve been blocking the sun C Back to shadows they go D When all of us know, Em-D-Em Watch for low flying crows! Em-D-Em Watch for low flying crows! Em-D-Em Watch for low flying crows! Em-B7-Em Written by Peter Alsop, ©Copyright 2010, Moose School Music (BMI) On ‘Disciples of PerFection’ https://www.peteralsop.com Monsanto genetically modified seeds to resist certain kinds of toxic chemicals. The great idea was to sell these crop seeds to farmers, and when their crops started to grow, the farmers could spray them with Monsanto’s ‘Roundup’ or ‘Dicamba’ or some other kind of toxic plant killer, and these crops would have a built-in immunity. All the other plants or bugs in the area however, … would be killed. Farmers wouldn’t have to weed their crops! Great sales pitch! The crop plants could then use the minerals, water and sunlight resources, without having to compete with any other plants or insect pests around them. Seemed like a good idea, but the problem with spreading toxins around where we grow our food, is that Monsanto couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that toxins would NOT be the absorbed by the plants or the humans who work in the fields, or who live nearby or who consume these crops! And when the wind carried some of these seeds accidentally into neighboring fields, Monsanto’s lawyers would sue those neighboring farmers for copyright infringement and the theft and of their modified plants, because Monsanto had copyrighted the DNA of their genetically modified seeds! The farmers who had legally purchased and used the GMO seeds and toxins on their property, in order to grow corn or soy crops, eventually discovered that those modified plants were hybrids that did not produce new seed that could be planted for the next season’s crops. With their lands tainted from the toxins they had already spread, the farmers had to buy more seeds from Monsanto year after year, ending the age-old cycle and practice of collecting seeds from the previous year’s crop to seed the fields for the new year. Monsanto effectively had a monopoly, so, … of course they raised the price of their seeds. This system also created health problems. The main active ingredient of Roundup is isopropylamine salt of glyphosate. There is a graph, easily accessible online, that shows the remarkable, almost exact correlation between the rise in childhood autism and the manufacture, sale and usage of Monsanto’s Round Up (glyphosate) on corn and soy crops from 1994 to 2010. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the prevalence of childhood autism continues to rise here in America. Although we do not yet know the actual cause of autism, more and more research points to the connection between autism risk and exposure to the herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s common weed killer ‘Roundup’. Scientists, as yet unable to prove that that glyphosate causes autism, point out that the exact similarity in the aforementioned graph implies a strong connection. On March 21, 2025, after a three‑week trial in Cobb County, Georgia, the court awarded John Barnes, 65 million dollars in compensatory damages, plus 2 billion dollars in punitive damages when the jury concluded Barnes’ NHL(non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) cancer was caused by glyphosate exposure and that Monsanto (now part of Bayer) withheld or failed to disclose known risks about ‘Roundup’. Expert testimony linked glyphosate to NHL; Monsanto argued no credible scientific proof and cited regulatory safety assessments. Many victims, including farm workers, landscape professionals, golf course green-keepers, and private homeowners have already come forward now to file claims against Monsanto after having been exposed to glyphosate. Glyphosate has made its way into our food supply, as about 90% of all corn and soy, as well as a significant amount of wheat, are treated with this toxic chemical. The presence of high amounts of glyphosate in the urine samples of the severely affected children in the current study, who had been eating nonorganic food, calls into question the wisdom of distributing GMO foods dependent on glyphosate usage throughout the world. Please Restack or share this post with your friends and family. We can try to change these unhealthy profit-based systems by boycotting and writing letters to these irresponsible corporations. We need to pressure them to base their decisions on caring about our health, not simply on making a profit. It’s common to feel small and overwhelmed when we challenge the callousness of huge corporations like Bayer and Monsanto, but then I remember what the Dalai Lama said, … “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito!” Peter Alsop’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. If you’re not a Subscriber please click the Subscribe button. It’s free! You can always reach me at [email protected], and you don’t have to be a ‘paid’ subscriber to get my posts. All my posts are always public! Everyone gets ‘em, … some folks send in money to support my work, which I greatly appreciate, but in either case, I’m glad you’re here! (If you run into a request to pay something from Substack, … you can just ‘click on’ past it!) I’d also appreciate it if you would take a minute to ‘spread the word’ and share my Substack posts with your friends, family or anyone who you think might like to hear some of the information I pass on through my songs and stories. Feel free to check out any of my past posts that you haven’t seen yet, and please ‘Re-stack’ them if you think others might like to discover my work. They’re all here! Thanks for your support! Bye for now! Peter Check out my audio podcasts here: Peter Alsop’s SONGS TO CHEW And you can find my CDs, DVDs & Songbooks at: Bandcamp.com. I’d love to hear from you! Please send comments or ask questions! LIKE COMMENT RESTACK Get full access to Peter Alsop’s Substack at peteralsop.substack.com/subscribe