Food Democracy

1. Which biotech corporation was involved in research on uranium for the Manhattan Project and operated a nuclear facility for the US government until the late 1980s? ANSWER: Monsanto

2. Name two biotech corporations that were once part of the German chemical firm at the financial core of the Nazi regime and which supplied Zyklon-B during the extermination phase of the Holocaust? ANSWER: Bayer and BASF

3. Which biotech firm other than Monsanto was a major supplier of Agent Orange, as well as manufacturing napalm? ANSWER: Dow

4. In relation to which Alabama town, where the undertaker who lived across the street from the Monsanto plant said he always thought he was burying too many children, was the company found guilty of conduct “so outrageous in character and extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency so as to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in civilized society”? ANSWER: Anniston Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a well kept secret that over 70 percent of the foods in grocery stores in the U.S. and Canada contain genetically engineered ingredients. Most are not safety tested and none are labelled. How is this happening? According to a disclosure report, agricultural technology company Monsanto Co. spent nearly $1.3 million in the first quarter to lobby on farm bill provisions, biotechnology and other issues.The company also lobbied the federal government on organic standards, patent reform, theft of agricultural seeds, endangered species, timber and greenhouse gas emissions legislation, international trade, ethanol production, and other matters.

Monsanto’s second-quarter earnings doubled on corn demand and pricing, which has surged due to strong global food demand, the ethanol industry and a weak dollar. Read the rest of this entry »

The Swiss Federal Council (government) has voted to extend the country’s moratorium on genetically modified (GM) plants for a further three years beyond the current expiration date of November 2010, Dow Jones reports.

The extension is to allow time for a national research programme into the benefits and risks of GM crops to be completed and the results assessed. Questions over the biological safety of GM plants and the coexistence of GM, conventional and organic crops are being addressed.

The Council imposed a moratorium on the commercial cultivation of GM crops in 2005, on the basis that there was no demand for them in Switzerland at the time and that big gaps remained in scientific knowledge about the risks of this technology.

Shortly after that, the research programme was launched, and this is expected to reach a conclusion around the middle of 2012. However, the Council said last week that it must be allowed to take its course without political pressure.

According to the Council, the moratorium has not caused any obvious problems, either for the farming industry, researchers, or international relations. In fact, it claimed, Swiss farmers have benefited from being able to market their produce on international markets as GM-free.

http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/id102-50901/gm_crops_banned_in_switzerland_until_2012.html

The head chef of one of Melbourne’s best-known restaurants has called on consumers to boycott establishments that don’t commit to being GM-free.

“I know it sounds scary … but unless a massive amount of people go against (GM), nothing is going to be done to stop it,” Geraud Fabre, head chef of the famous France-Soir restaurant, says.

“I don’t say it to get more customers, but I reckon … if people close their restaurants because there are no customers … it would make the Government realise they shouldn’t (allow genetically modified crops in Australia).”

Fabre is one of a number of top chefs nationally who have signed an anti-GM chefs’ charter designed to pressure state and federal governments to prevent the introduction of genetically engineered crops into Australia.

The GM-Free Chefs’ Charter, calls for strict labelling of GM foods. The chefs who sign up to it believe GM foods pose a risk to their clientele and the nation as a whole, it says. Read the rest of this entry »

MAdGE (Mothers Against Genetic Engineering) took its opposition to genetically modified food to the streets on May 21, to coincide with a May 21-22 GM crops summit in Melbourne.

MAdGE was formed in 2007 when the Victorian ALP government announced it was reviewing the moratorium on GM food. Premier John Brumby’s government lifted the moratorium on February 28.

MAdGE organiser Fran Murrell slammed the limitations of the government review: “The panel … was only required to look at the economic aspects of lifting the ban. There was no obligation to examine the health effects of GM crops or their effect on the environment.

She added: “Data from the US Department of Agriculture shows 15 times more pesticide is sprayed on US crops since the introduction of GM crops … Farmers have reported that pigs fed GM corn had fertility problems and gave birth to bags of water. We need this dangerous technology out of our food until full tests are done.” Read the rest of this entry »

An international conference agreed Friday to hold producers or handlers of genetically engineered organisms liable for damage their products cause to native plants or animals when transported across borders.

The agreement, concluding a five-day, 147-nation conference in Bonn, Germany, will be refined into an accord that will have the force of law for its signatories _ a process expected to take two years, said the German government representative, Ursula Heinen.

The agreement would not be legally binding on the United States, however, since Washington has not ratified the 1992 Biodiversity Convention and is not a party to the convention’s Cartagena Protocol on the safety of biotech products, which came into force in 2003, conference spokesman David Ainsworth said. Read the rest of this entry »

The French parliament has thrown out a bill that would have allowed farmers to grow genetically modified crops. Lawmakers narrowly rejected the bill Tuesday 136 to 135.

Protesters against the bill, some wearing hats shaped like corn cobs, cheered when the results were announced.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon says he plans to submit a new bill to parliament. In February, France imposed a temporary ban on genetically modified corn approved for sale by the European Union. The corn is produced by the U.S. company Monsanto.

Genetically modified crops have had their DNA engineered to make them resistant to disease and pests. Surveys show many French oppose such foods, saying their safety is still not assured.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-05-13-voa76.cfm

Henry Kissinger is quoted as saying, “If you control the oil you control the country; if you control food, you control the population.”

In March Monsanto agreed to acquire Netherlands-based De Ruiter Seeds Group BV, which produces seeds for the greenhouse market, for $862.7 million plus debt. Monsanto did not disclose the amount of the debt included in the purchase price.

De Ruiter Seeds, which had global sales of about $170.6 million, works with crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, peppers and rootstock.

The move comes three years after Monsanto began aggressively moving into the vegetable seed arena with the $1.4 billion purchase in 2005 of California-based Seminis, which gave Monsanto control over more than 30 percent of the North American vegetable seed market, as well as more than 20 percent of the world’s tomato seed market and more than 30 percent of the global hot pepper seed market. Read the rest of this entry »

The French documentary titled “The World According to Monsanto – A documentary that Americans won’t ever see,” is evidently living up to its name. When we first posted a link, the video was widely available on Google and a variety of web video sources. A couple of weeks later, it mysteriously disappeared. From everywhere!

Barbara Peterson at OpEdNews says:

“If Google Video has removed this documentary in acquiescence to the U.S. government or Monsanto, then that is testimony to the power and corruption behind the massive corporate movement to wage war on the environment and all living things in the pursuit of profit and power, the people be damned.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Monsanto Company said Tuesday it has entered an exclusive partnership with rival Bayer CropScience to develop a new treatment for corn seeds.

The deal is part of St. Louis-based Monsanto’s broader effort to capture more of the global corn seed market. The firms did not release financial terms of their deal.

Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company is a big player in U.S. commodity crops like soybeans and cotton, and Chief Executive Hugh Grant told investors last week that increasing corn seed sales is a key part of Monsanto’s plan to double its annual operating profit by 2012. Read the rest of this entry »