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Aug 2, 2011
270,000 Farmers Sue Monsanto

A not-for-profit legal services organization, The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), has filed suit against Monsanto challenging the company’s patents on genetically modified seed.

Led by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, PUBPAT represents scores of family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations with over 270,000 members, including thousands of certified organic family farmers.

The case, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto, was filed earlier this year in federal district court in Manhattan and assigned to Judge Naomi Buchwald.

Because Monsanto has sued US and Canadian farmers in the pastwhen their patented genetic material has inadvertently contaminated their crops, the organic plaintiffs decided to sue Monsanto preemptively to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should their crops ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed.

“This case asks whether Monsanto has the right to sue organic farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto’s transgenic seed or pollen should land on their property,” said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director. “It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of our clients.”

Monsanto has unprecedented control of the corn and soybean market. Their Roundup Ready corn is now planted on nearly 80 percent of the farmland acreage in the U.S., and Monsanto’s soybeans, with their Roundup Ready gene, is in 93 percent of U.S. soybean seeds.

Once Monsanto unleashes these GM seeds into the environment they contaminate organic seeds for the same crop; that explains why organic canola has became virtually impossible to grow. Monsanto has now released GM seeds for corn, soybeans, cotton, sugar beets and alfalfa, and is developing genetically modified seed for many other crops.

“Monsanto’s threats and abuse of family farmers stops here. Monsanto’s genetic contamination of organic seed and organic crops ends now,” stated Jim Gerritsen, a family farmer in Maine who raises organic seed and is President of lead plaintiff Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association. “Americans have the right to choice in the marketplace – to decide what kind of food they will feed their families.”

As Ravicher, who is also a Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, points out, it’s in Monsanto’s financial interest to eliminate organic seed so that they can have a total monopoly over our food supply.

Rose Marie Burroughs of California Cloverleaf Farms said, “The devastation caused by GMO contamination is an ecological catastrophe to our world equal to the fall out of nuclear radiation.

“Nature, farming and health are all being affected by GMO contamination. We must protect our world by protecting our most precious, sacred resource of seed sovereignty. People must have the right to the resources of the earth for our sustenance. We must have the freedom to farm that causes no harm to the environment or to other people. We must protect the environment, farmers’ livelihood, public health and people’s right to non GMO food contamination.”

Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for plaintiff The Cornucopia Institute sums this entire issue up best:

“We need the court system to offset this power and protect individual farmers from corporate tyranny. Farmers have saved seeds since the beginning of agriculture by our species.

“It is outrageous that one corporate entity, through the trespass of what they refer to as their ‘technology,’ can intimidate and run roughshod over family farmers in this country. It should be the responsibility of Monsanto, and farmers licensing their technology, to ensure that genetically engineered DNA does not trespass onto neighboring farmland.

“It is outrageous, that through no fault of their own, farmers are being intimidated into not saving seed for fear that they will be doggedly pursued through the court system and potentially bankrupted.”

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July 18, 2011

Anonymous Targets Monsanto

Anonymous stands with the farmers and food organizations denouncing the practices of Monsanto We applaud the bravery of the organizations and citizens who are standing up to Monsanto, and we stand united with you against this oppressive corporate abuse. Monsanto is contaminating the world with chemicals and genetically modified food crops for profit while claiming to feed the hungry and protect the environment. Anonymous is everyone, Anyone who can not stand for injustice and decides to do something about it, We are all over the Earth and here to stay.

News Link:

Farmer suicides in India – Here

Birth defects caused by Monsanto chemicals – Here

Monsanto hired mercenary Blackwater to infiltrate anti-GMO groups – Here

Monsanto fined $1.5m for bribery In Indonesia – Here

Monsanto Accused of Attempt to Bribe Health Canada for rBGH (Posilac) Approval – Here

Destruction of soil, air quality, groundwater contamination, deforestation – Here

Corporate food giant Monsanto uses patents to bully small farmers and strangle competition – Here

This Post comes from http://www.ufo-blogger.com/2011/07/anonymous-warns-gmo-manufacturer.html

Further research finds articles by mainstream media, such as

Anonymous released personal information and documents stolen from agricultural chemical and biotechnology company Monsanto as the Senate discusses a committee to address cyber-security issues.
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The hacking group Anonymous has struck again, this time releasing documents it said it stole from the network of giant biotechnology and agricultural seed company Monsanto in retribution for alleged corporate misconduct.

The hacking collective posted information it stole last month on 2,500 Monsanto employees and associates, the group announced July 13. Anonymous also launched a distributed denial-of-service attack on Monsanto’s international Websites, forcing the company to shut down the sites for approximately three days.

The group claimed it spent two months attacking the Monsanto network to access hundreds of pages of documents that it contends reveal “Monsanto’s corrupt, unethical, and downright evil business practices.”

In the process, the group accessed three mail servers and released sensitive personal information, including full names, addresses, phone numbers “and exactly where they work,” Anonymous wrote on text-sharing site Pastebin. The list also included contact details for media outlets as well as other agricultural companies.

The group also promised to post a wiki providing all the information, including articles and emails, “in a more centralized and stable environment,” similar to what it did with HB Gary Federal emails on the AnonLeaks site earlier this year.

“Monsanto experienced a disruption to our Websites which appeared to be organized by a cyber-group,” said Tom Escher, the company’s director of corporate affairs, in an email to msnbc.com.

These types of activist attacks are not limited to the private sector as government agency Websites like the Central Intelligence Agency, private-public partnership sites affiliated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton have been hit recently, Sen. John McCain (R-Airs.) wrote July 14 in a letter to the Senate leadership. He called these kinds of attacks threats to national security.

McCain wrote, “to renew [his] request that the Senate create a temporary Select Committee on Cyber-Security and Electronic Intelligence Leaks.” The committee could also develop a comprehensive cyber-security legislation based on disparate proposals currently in the Senate, he said.

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Anonymous hacks Monsanto computers; posts employee info

By Suzanne Choney

Hacking group Anonymous has posted information on 2,500 Monsanto employees and associates, and claimed credit for “crippling all three of their mail servers as well as taking down their main websites world-wide.”

Monsanto, a U.S.-based global biotech seed company, Wednesday acknowledged the breach, saying it happened last month.

“Monsanto experienced a disruption to our websites which appeared to be organized by a cyber-group,” said Tom Helscher, the company’s director of corporate affairs, in an email to msnbc.com. “In addition, this group also recently published publicly available information on approximately 2,500 individuals involved in the broader global agriculture industry.”

But, Helscher said contrary to initial reports, “only 10 percent of this publicly available information (was) related to Monsanto’s current and former employees. The list also included contact details for media outlets as well as other agricultural companies.

“Information on these attacks has been turned over to the appropriate authorities. We remain vigilant in protecting our information systems,” he said.

Earlier this week, Anonymous posted online 90,000 military email addresses and passwords obtained from military consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, which Tuesday acknowledged the breach. The company said it is “conducting a full review of the nature and extent of the attack. At this time, we do not believe that the attack extended beyond data pertaining to a learning management system for a government agency.”

Anonymous cited Monsanto’s business practices as “corrupt, unethical and downright evil.” The hacking group also said in a press release it plans to go after companies Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Canadian Oil Sands, Imperial Oil, the Royal Bank of Scotland “and many others” involved in development of Alberta’s oil sands.

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July 18, 2011

(NAGPUR ) – We have reported in the past an alarming suicide rate among farmers in India that is connected to the failure of American GMO (genetically modified organism) cotton seeds.

Monsanto, the U.S. company responsible for Agent Orange, a cancer-causing chemical sprayed on the jungles of Vietnam, is now in the GMO food and seed business.

Monsanto stands accused of having an international monopoly of the notorious bio-engineered Bt cotton seeds.

Advocates for the agricultural industry say they never dreamed of the tragedy to come, when a 2005 decision was announced to allow the seeds in India.

Now an agrarian crisis has hit Maharashtra itself thanks to the Monsanto program.

Farmers are buying 11 packets of 450 gm per hectare as per the company’s guide for the recommended “population method” but the sudden demand and ill-managed Indian sub agents have brought the company big trouble as 50% of the Bt cotton seeds failed to germinate even after it’s second sowing.

Now cries are being heard in other part of India too.

The Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti farmers advocacy group has approached the local state Govt. of Maharashtra to arrange a high level probe of all complaints received from farmers of west Vidarbha where more than 10,000 cotton farmers have committed suicide since June 2005 after the introduction of the killer Bt cotton seeds in this region.

Around Rs.10,000 crore has been pumped in by Indian and state Govt. to bailout cotton farmers from the agrarian crisis which is likely to get worse if corrective action are not taken immediately, Kishore Tiwari of Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti said today.

The Monsanto Bt cotton seed crisis heated up in early June when all Bt cotton seeds ordered by Maharashtra dealers sold out it to the adjourning Andhra farmers and there was no seed available to cater to the local market.

Monsanto sub-agents had failed to respond to a state govt. request, and then suddenly Bt cotton seeds were freely available in the market by the third week of June.

A source supply was immediately discovered and Yavatmal police raided the house of Nerendra Indurkar in the very small village of Munjala and reportedly caught him red handed packing local cotton seed in the pockets of branded Bt cotton.

Police have sealed the advanced imported pocket packing machines and thousands of packets of Bt cotton seeds being sold on the premium.

However the alleged culprit, Nerendra Indurkar, was allowed to go without any interrogation.

Officials of the American Bt cotton seeds giant in India were called and facts were shared but they denied any link with this bogus Bt cotton seed supply racket.

Monsanto officials beaten up by Cotton farmers as Bt.cotton seed failed

When news of a Monsanto senior official’s arrival from Mumbai reached the nearby village of Munjala, cotton farmers of the village Karanji, about 140 K.m. from Nagpur located the Monsanto official and took him to their field where a complete failure of ‘Paras Sudarshan’ Bt cotton seed was shown to him.

When the Monsanto representative failed to admit the lapse, he was severely beaten up by the farmers.

It was reported that even a local agriculture officer did not come to his rescue.

This, from accounts in daily papers in Vidarbha and the Marathwada region of Maharashtra where more than 4 million hectares under Bt cotton cultivation are reporting the flood of bogus seed supplied local agents of American cotton seed MNC giant Monsanto.

At this point, although the situation was reported, the administration has failed to take any action of this serious issue.

So, Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prathiraj Chavan to order a judicial enquiry into the supply racket of bogus BT. cotton seed in Maharashtra, and also to start criminal action against the culprit, Tiwari added.

Exactly where Monsanto’s trail across the globe that has left so many dead and dying begins is not known, nor is the future this model agency of the American military industrial complex known.

The company has never accounted for its role in the deaths of so many Vietnamese and American and Australian Vietnam Veterans who have fought so hard for so government accountability in return.

Agent Orange doesn’t just affect the person who comes into contact with it, it goes on to affect their children, and their children’s children. I suspect there are a great number of people who cracked a smile when they read this account of a Monsanto official being beaten up in an Indian farm field. Violence is never a good answer, but particularly in light of the horrific, staggering suicide rate, it is understandable why some might embrace it as a last resort.

“Monsanto’s (Bt Cotton) field trials in Karnataka (India) will be reduced to ashes in a few days. These actions will start a movement of direct action by farmers against biotechnology, which will not stop until all the corporate killers like Monsanto, Novartis, Pioneer etc. leave the country. We know that stopping biotechnology in India will not be of much help to us if it continues in other countries, (but) if we play our cards right at the global level and coordinate our work, these actions can also pose a major challenge to the survival of these corporations in the stock markets. Who wants to invest in a mountain of ashes, in offices that are constantly being squatted (and if necessary even destroyed) by activists?” — Prof. Nanjundaswamy < swamy.krrs@a world.net>, President, Karnataka State Farmers Association, November, 1998

As reported in Monsanto Under Attack: Setbacks from Brazil, to Canada, to the U.K. things have not been going so well for the gene engineers at Monsanto. In fact lately their situation seems to have degenerated from bad to worse. Besides slipping stock prices and persistence rumors of an unfriendly takeover by Dupont or another corporate giant, the Biomasters of Biotech have suffered from a rash of recent reversals including:

• Destruction of several heretofore secret test plots of Monsanto’s Bt “Bollguard” Cotton in India. On Nov. 28 and again on Dec. 2 contingents of Indian farmers in the Karnataka region, chanting “Cremate Monsanto” and “Stop Genetic Engineering,” uprooted and burned Bt cotton fields in front of a bank of TV cameras and news reporters. Once again Indian national and provincial governments came under fire for secretly collaborating with Monsanto and other agri-chemical transnationals. In the wake of the controversy, government officials in New Delhi were forced to reiterate that “Terminator Technology” seeds–patented by the USDA and Monsanto–will not be allowed into the country. NGOs (non-government organizations) including the Karnataka State Farmers Association have called on Monsanto to get out of India, and for the government to ban field tests and imports of genetically engineered seeds and crops. On Dec. 3 the Andhra Pradesh provincial government was forced to ask Monsanto to halt all field trials of Bt “Bollgard” cotton going on in seven districts in the state.

• Informed sources in Thailand and South Korea report that government advisors and officials have begun discussions and deliberations to require mandatory labeling and safety-testing of genetically engineered foods and crops, despite anticipated objections from the U.S. Embassy. On November 6 the influential Thailand Biotech Centre admitted that “genetically engineered foods and agricultural products may pose a health hazard.” Dr. Suthat Sriwathanapong, of the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Technology, said that to “protect consumers against this possible health risk,” the Thai Food and Drug Administration should issue a more comprehensive rule to regulate genetically engineered drugs and products.

• The Consumers Union of Japan and other NGOs continue to call for mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods and crops. With several million petition signatures already in their hands, Japanese government officials are finding it increasingly difficult to ignore the demands of consumers. In a national survey in 1997, 91% of Japanese consumers stated their desire for “safety information” on GE (genetically engineered) foods. Despite Japanese consumers concerns, US trade officials have repeatedly warned Tokyo that mandatory labeling of GMOs is unacceptable, and could lead to a US/Japan trade war.

• The Southeast Asia Regional Institute for Community Education <searice.c@philoline.com.ph> and 12 other environmental NGOs organized a militant mass demonstration outside of Monsanto’s corporate offices, near Manila, on Dec. 8 under the slogans of “Stop the Terminator Seeds” and “Put a Face on the Enemy.” The genetic engineering controversy has recently been covered prominently in a number of major Phillipines newspapers, and two senators have introduced government resolutions to hold hearings and investigations on field trials and imports of GE foods and crops into the country.

• In New Zealand, a major controversy has developed over revelations that a U.S. government official threatened serious economic reprisals if the country went forward with a law on mandatory labeling. Former associate Health Minister Neil Kirton revealed in an interview in the national press that the United States Ambassador, Josiah Beeman, visited him twice in February and March and “bullied” him over the testing and labeling of genetically modified food. Kirton was later fired and replaced by another government official who was willing to go along with the U.S. “no labeling” position. Polls in New Zealand and Australia show that consumers overwhelming support mandatory labeling. In one 1993 poll in Australia, a full 89% of citizens said they wanted labeling and would reject foods that were unlabeled. A recent nation-wide survey conducted by Central Queensland University researchers found strong resistance to genetically altered food among Australian consumers, particularly women.

• In mid-November the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) of Asia and the Pacific launched a Safe Food Campaign at the Asia Pacific People’s Assembly in Kuala Lumpur. PAN is collaborating with its network partners in the region to carry out this campaign. “Growing concern over these ‘miracle’ foods and the lack of information has prompted coordinated action over this issue”, said Jennifer Mourin, the Campaign coordinator. Indian activist Dr. Vandana Shiva, speaking in Kuala Lumpur, described Monsanto, the biggest player in the ag biotech industry, as a “global terrorist,” forcing “hazardous food” on countries, using “tremendous pressure and misleading promotional campaigns” to prevent people from choosing “the food they want,” and refusing to segregate and label genetically engineered foods and crops.

• In Mexico City, national parliamentary representatives of the Green Party have begun work on federal legislation that would require mandatory labeling and safety-testing of GE foods and crops. The Greens expect to receive support from other opposition political parties as well.

• In Brazil, one of the nation’s largest supermarket chains, Carrefour, has come out against the commercialization of Monsanto’s herbicide-resistant “Roundup Ready” soybeans. Brazil is the second largest producer of soy in the world, second only to the United States. At this time, Brazilian soybean growers are benefiting from the higher prices that many buyers in the U.S. and Europe are willing to pay for non-genetically engineered crops. A lawsuit filed earlier this year by the Brazilian Institute for Consumer Defense (IDEC) <idec@uol.com.br> has temporarily halted the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture’s approval of Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” soybeans. Brazilian NGOs including Greenpeace are gearing up to make their presence felt at the final session of the Convention on Biodiversity’s Biosafety Protocol negotiations in mid-February in Cartagena, Colombia–where citizen groups and developing nations will try to push through a legally binding international treaty to regulate genetically engineered organisms.

• At a November international conference of IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) <ifoam@t-online.de>, at Mar del Plata, Argentina, delegates from more than 60 countries, representing the world’s leading organic farming organizations, called for governments and regulatory agencies throughout the world to immediately ban the use of genetic engineering in agriculture and food production because of threats to human health, the environment, and farmers rights.

• In Europe the controversy over gene foods continues unabated. Consumer studies by Monsanto’s American polling firm recently leaked to Greenpeace International showed that public opinion in Great Britain and Germany has turned even more strongly against GE foods in recent months. According to the poll, conducted by Stanley Greenberg, “the broad climate is extremely inhospitable to biotechnology acceptance. Over the past year, the situation has deteriorated steadily and is perhaps even accelerating, with the latest survey showing an ongoing collapse of public support for biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) foods.” The report goes on to state that even the “media elites are strongly hostile to biotechnology and Monsanto. They think the Government is being too lax and believe they must expose the dangers…”

• In Ireland a major row has developed after a national television network, RTE, ran a program entitled “Safe Harvest,” critical of genetic engineering. Monsanto and the Irish biotechnology industry immediately complained that the program was “unfair and inaccurate,” and demanded a retraction. Although threats by Monsanto will undoubtedly force Irish TV to grant “equal time” to biotech proponents on a later program, the incident has once more served to discredit Monsanto, already notorious in Europe for their strong-arm tactics in trying to suppress dissent.

• In October SPAR and all of Austria’s major supermarket chains declared that they will not sell GE-derived products and intend to take them off their shelves. Meanwhile Greece has decided to ban the import of GE rapeseed (canola). In addition the Scientific Committee on Plants of the European Commission ruled against the release of a GE potato containing antibiotic-resistance marker genes.

• On Oct. 12 the European Parliament’s Environment Committee called on the EU Commission to impose a moratorium on new GMO releases across the continent. Shortly thereafter the UK government announced a de-facto three-year moratorium on insect-resistant plants (e.g. Bt crops) and a de-facto one year moratorium on herbicide-resistant plants. The British government has apparently come to an agreement with the biotech industry in the UK that they will not apply for authorisation of Bt or herbicide-resistant plants during this time period.

• In late-October Greenpeace Germany released an internal memo issued by the Raiffeisen Co-operative in Baden Württenberg. Raiffeisen, one of the EU’s biggest grain merchants, announced that they will refuse to accept deliveries of genetically modified maize from farmers. Grain handlers, animal feed dealers, and cooking oil suppliers all over Europe are coming under increasing pressure from supermarkets, consumer groups, and food producers to supply them with guaranteed “GMO-free” ingredients.

• In a speech delivered at a sugar industry trade meeting in the U.K. experts warned that the forthcoming export of non-segregated (GE mixed with non-GE) sugar from the U.S. by Cargill and other commodity traders will likely set off a major controversy. “Current regulations in the sugar trade Associations make no mention of genetically modified quality,” said Jonathan Drake, of Cargill’s Geneva-based sugar trading office. In a speech prepared for an International Sugar Organization seminar, Drake warned that “Whether it [American sugar] will be freely accepted at destination is still unknown and perhaps dependent on labelling restrictions. EU officials may be quick to impose some restrictions in the wake of all the food scares in Europe.”

• Hungarian protesters took to the streets on November 18, in front of the Ministry of Agriculture to pressure government authorities drafting final implementation legislation for Hungary’s genetic engineering law (coming into force January 1, 1999). Chanting “Ne Kukoricazz a Kukicoret!” (“Don’t Cream the Corn!), Environmental activists from five NGOs (including ELTE Nature Conservation Club and Energy Club) inflated a 6-meter high helium balloon of a corncob with bar-code, in front of the Ministry of Agriculture. Protesters are demanding a complete moratorium on the growth, use, and importation of genetically-modified plants, animals, and foodstuffs in Hungary.

• In the United States there are recent reports among agronomists of problems with Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” Cotton in Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arizona. In addition informed sources in Arizona report that Bt cotton is failing to repel pink bollworms, a major cotton pest. Lagging sales of Monsanto’s Bt corn seeds in the Midwest have already forced the company to slash prices by 30%.
  
  
• In the U.S., according to the April 1998 journal, Cotton Grower, Bt-cotton growers in Arkansas had less than a banner year last season. A University of Arkansas study of several Bt and non-Bt cotton fields showed that on average Bt cotton yielded fewer pounds and lower income per acre. One farm showed a remarkable difference in yield–Bt cotton produced 168 fewer pounds per acre than the non-Bt variety. Bt cotton, on the farms studied, yielded an average of 24 fewer pounds per acre. Also, the new varieties required more growth regulator to synchronize plant development and had to be picked twice. Non-Bt cotton is typically picked only once.

• Also in Arkansas, on Nov. 24, seven farmers filed legal complaints against Monsanto, claiming that they were sold soybean seed with low germination rates. The complaints, filed with the Arkansas State Plant Board, involve several seed varieties that utilize Monsanto’s Roundup Ready gene technology.

• In Maine on Nov. 20, pressure from the Green Party and other citizens groups caused Monsanto to withdraw its application to register and grow its genetically engineered corn in the state.

• Beginning October 31, more than 140 restaurants nationwide joined Greenpeace USA in calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require labels on genetically engineered foods. These restaurants will distribute information on the dangers of transgenic foods, including a postcard that customers can send to the FDA to support a lawsuit calling for labeling.

• “As a chef who is concerned about food quality, I want to be able to serve my customers the purest foods I can find,” said Peter Hoffman, chef of the New York restaurant Savoy and board member of the national organization Chefs Collaborative 2000. “This means locally grown food from farmers I trust, not untested foods which may harm my customers.” Chefs Collaborative is a non-profit membership organization of 1500 chefs across America who are dedicated to the ethic of sustainable cuisine.

• On Nov. 26 activists calling themselves the “California Croppers” destroyed a test plot of Novartis Bt corn on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. In a communique the Croppers warned Novartis and other biotech companies that further GE test plots were likely to come under attack. The Biotic Baking Brigade also struck again on November 23, throwing pies at a University of California official and an executive from Novartis.

• On November 18, the industry journal Chemical Week reported that cash-strapped Monsanto is trying to sell its controversial chemical sweetener, NutraSweet. Although the artificial sweetener has generated enormous profits for Searle, Monsanto’s drug subsidiary, over the years, it has also generated thousands of complaints from consumers who claim that NutraSweet has damaged their health. Chemical Week also cited Wall Street analysts who report that Monsanto is also trying to sell its even more controversial genetically engineered animal drug, the recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone. So far there are no companies willing to buy rBGH.
  
  
• In yet another public relations setback for Monsanto (and Rupert Murdock’s Fox Television network), fired Florida investigative reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson were presented a prestigious Ethics Award from the U.S. Society of Professional Journalists for their investigative reporting on Monsanto’s Bovine Growth Hormone. Akre and Wilson were fired by the Fox network last year after Monsanto claimed the two had produced a bias report on the controversial animal drug. On December 16, Wilson and Akre will be receiving the Joe Callaway Award from the Shafeek Nader Trust for “civic courage” in Washington, D.C.

• In addition to receiving continuing adverse publicity in the U.S. from harassing and prosecuting 480 farmers for the “crime” of saving seeds Monsanto now faces an a potentially even more explosive situation in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. According to a Saskatchewan newspaper, the Western Producer, Monsanto has filed legal charges against a Saskatchewan farmer, Percy Schmeiser, for growing Roundup Ready canola without a license. But Schmeiser claims he’s innocent and that Monsanto is the guilty party. He says that his farm has been contaminated by genetic material which has drifted from the fields of adjoining farmers who are growing genetically engineered canola. “It’s in the ditches and the roadsides; it’s in the shelter belts; it’s in the gardens; it’s all over,” said Schmeiser. If Schmeiser ends up facing Monsanto in court, he says he going to be putting the company’s genetically altered crops and patents on trial.

• And finally in Canada, the government announced on December 4 that it will not be giving approval to Monsanto’s rBGH – at least for the foreseeable future. In an enormous controversy that will simply not go away, federal Health Canada officials have been exposed in the national media for conspiring with Monsanto to get the drug approved, despite objections by the government’s own scientists–who warn that the drug has not been proven safe–and strenuous objections by farmers and consumer groups. Previous reports in the media have pointed out that Monsanto offered two million dollars to government health officials in exchange for speedy approval of rBGH, while shortly thereafter dissident scientists files’ were burglarized and documents damaging to Monsanto were stolen. Several years ago Monsanto threatened to pull all investments out of Canada if rBGH were not approved, and has threatened the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for airing stories critical of the company’s strong-arm tactics.

July 18, 2011

Environmental activists broke into an Australian government research farm Thursday and destroyed an experimental crop of genetically-modified wheat protesting against what they said were safety issues.

Armed with weed trimmers, three Greenpeace activists scaled a fence at the Canberra facility in the early hours of the morning and razed the crop, which had been modified to lower its glycemic index and increase fibre.

The government science agency running the trials, CSIRO, confirmed there had been “a break-in overnight at their crop trial site” and it was assessing the damage.

“The police, and the government’s gene technology regulatory authority … have been informed and are inspecting the site,” a CSIRO spokesman told AFP.

“CSIRO is currently assessing the damage to the trial crops and considering next steps.”

Greenpeace said the activists, three women, wore hazardous materials suits to keep them from carrying GM organisms out of the site, and were motivated by concerns about the trial’s safety.

“The government has said they would commercialise GM wheat by 2015 in Australia, that would make us the first country in the world to approve GM wheat to be commercially grown,” said campaigner Laura Kelly.

“But the polling shows Australians don’t want to eat it.”

Kelly said GM wheat had been proven to contaminate other crops and there was no evidence it was safe to eat, with major exporters including the European Union, Russia and Canada rejecting the crop.

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Please help take ANY action against Monsanto!!!!!
Tell everyone!

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-world-according-to-monsanto/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLzELDt3d2I

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Also see:
Monsanto Under Attack:
Setbacks from Brazil, to Canada, to the U.K.
Ronnie Cummins
Little Marais, Minnesota

For additional in-depth information on these news items and further info on how Monsanto is “Under Attack,” link to http://www.purefood.org , http://www.icta.org .

Ronnie Cummins is National Director of the Pure Food Campaign (PFC), a non-profit, public interest organization dedicated to building a healthy, safe, and sustainable system of food production and consumption in the U.S. and the world. The PFC’s primary strategy is to help build a national and international consumer/farmer/labor/progressive retailer boycott of genetically engineered and chemically contaminated foods and crops. To subscribe to the monthly electronic newsletter, Food Bytes, send an email message to: < majordomo@mr.net > with the simple message: subscribe pure-food-action

July 11, 2011

The video below is twenty minutes of your time that will have been well spent, I promise. A special hat tip to GreenWarrior of FireDogLake for adding the link in my post of 6/8/’11 on this topic “If You Are Human, And Eat Food; You Probably Ought To Read This. here: CLICK HERE

Despite emphatic warnings by well credentialed experts, and overwhelmingly vehement opposition by the majority of the farming community the USDA and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and therefore President Obama’s administration have “fully deregulated genetically engineered alfalfa ” which is our predominant feed crop for livestock. The implications of this decision are huge. It is predicted by Dr. Huber in the video below that within only five years there will no longer exist any alfalfa that is not genetically engineered. This is a decision from which there may be no way to turn back, irreversible. “Big AG” has won again. But what they have won, besides obscene relatively short term profits, is questionable to say the very least. As documented by Sarah Parsons at Change.org here:

CLICK HERE – usda-approves-genetically-engineered-alfalfanow

and also here: CLICK HERE – alfalfas-approval-usda-deregulates-genetically-modified-sugar-beets

If Monsanto’s genetically engineered alfalfa (glyphosate resistant) sprayed with Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide prove to be as conducive to the spread of this new pathogenic life form discussed in my above cited post, as is Monsanto’s GMO corn and soy, we are all in trouble. We may then have enabled this new organism to flourish and spread beyond our ability to recall.

Perhaps its very existence already delineates a point too far?

Dr. Huber Explains Science Behind New Organism and Threat from Monsanto’s Roundup, GMOs to Disease and Infertility from Food Democracy Now! on Vimeo.

It has also been claimed that Anonymous Dosed Monsanto’s website

As described by Dr. Huber in the above video, in the livestock herds studied to date, infertility rates of 15% have been observed and combined spontaneous abortion+still birth rates as high as 35% are evident in livestock exposed to and infected by this new virus/fungus by Monsanto’s roundup ready corn and soy crops. If you are a farmer or rancher, and 50% of your herd is unable to reproduce, very shortly you will no longer have a herd.

If all of this so far weren’t enough, the USDA and Secretary Vilsack, and President Obama, have also partially deregulated Monsanto’s genetically engineered sugar beets. The sugar beet crop provides as much as half of our sugar here in the U.S. and will of course give this nasty little critter that has been unleashed yet another frontier in which to flourish and spread.

As a corollary aside to this discussion, Monsanto’s Corporate “ethics” are being looked askance at in other parts of the world as well. Sonali Kolhatkar reporting for Alternet here: “>Click Here

tells us that in India “the vast majority of the world’s second most populated country still farms for a living……… and nearly 150,000 farmers have committed suicide in the past ten years.”

That’s 15,000 farmers per/year folks. Committing suicide. After having gotten involved with Monsanto.

If all you’ve heard me rant about in these last two posts on this topic sounds alarmist, try not to forget that these are the good people who gave us “agent orange”.

Better living through chemistry indeed.

A good reference point made by countries BANNING GMO and Monsanto.

Prince Charles has called GMO Foods the “biggest environmental disaster of all time,” while agriculture industrialists like Monsanto swear they’re safe for human consumption and a boon for the environment. Genetically modified foods are nothing if not controversial, and that controversy spans the globe. From Ireland and the European Union to Africa and Japan, and all the way back to the U.S., various bans, laws, and labels can make GMOs difficult to keep up with. Here’s a roundup of the world in GMOs.

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