Grassroots Rising: The People"s Movement Against Monsanto
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Not everyone is either worried or skeptical regarding man-made global warming. Mother Jones on how Monsanto is eagerly banking on it:
Data to help farmers grow crops in a changing climate. Climate Corporation, which Monsanto is acquiring, sells detailed weather and soil information to “help…manage and adapt to climate change.” Monsanto thinks the ag data business will be a $ 20-billion market.
Insurance for when it’s too hot, cold, dry, wet, or otherwise extreme outside. Climate Corporation currently sells both federally subsidized crop insurance and supplemental plans.
Drought-resistant corn. Monsanto lists the effects of climate change-related precipitation changes and droughts as a potential “opportunity.” This year, Monsanto started rolling out a new line of patented, first-of-its-kind genetically engineered corn seeds that are resistant to drought.
Cotton that needs less water to grow. The company is piloting genetically modified cotton that that can grow while using less water and survive drought.
The post How Monsanto Is Planning To Profit From Climate Change appeared first on disinformation.
Natural Society.
Through rampant and unchecked genetic manipulation, multinational biotechnology juggernauts like Monsanto continue to churn out genetically modified creations that threaten the entire planet in a way that we have never before witnessed throughout history. Examining the role of genetic manipulation, even going beyond the affects on human health, it’s easy to see how the very genetic integrity of the environment can be compromised in the blink of an eye — and that’s even more concerning than the potential human health effects.
Here are 5 ways Monsanto continues to threaten life on our planet, and perhaps more importantly, what we can do about it:
A major issue surrounding Monsanto’s out of control augmentation of the food supply (as well as other biotech giants actually genetically modifying animals) has to do with the genetic contamination of plants on a major scale. And while the notion is already disturbing, the reality is that we’ve already seen incidents of large-scale genetic contamination on behalf of Monsanto. Going back to the escape of genetically modified wheat in traditional crop, for example, is a perfect example of genetic contamination in action.
Even Reuters reported on the spread of the GM wheat beyond Monsanto test fields — a contamination event that incited lawsuits from farmers who wanted nothing to do with Monsanto’s GMOs. An event that follows similar reports on the depth of GM contamination, such as the admission that we documented on NaturalSociety regarding the spread of genetically modified flax among the food supply since the 90s. Once again, we see the unexpected pollution of the food supply on behalf of GM contamination — an issue that’s already costing us (and threatening our health).
“GE contamination is already costing the taxpayer,” said Lucy Sharratt of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network. “Contamination is inevitable and these costs will keep recurring.”
Monsanto’s number one enemy? Knowledge: specifically on the subject of what is actually lurking in your food supply. That’s why Monsanto is doing a great job in shoveling millions into the furnace of anti-labeling propaganda in order to keep you in the dark about what’s inside your favorite food brand. Because after all, Monsanto would likely go bankrupt if everyone knew what they were truly eating. Corporations would be forced to respond to public action, removing the GMOs from the products to regain any form of credibility and sales, and as a result Monsanto would be kicked out of the marketplace.
This is why we see Monsanto shelling out millions to fight GMO labeling and the right for consumers to know what they’re feeding themselves and their families.
It is through the manipulation of key political figures that Monsanto is able to manipulate our food supply, and this reality is actually much more devastating than you may think. Because not only does it mean that Monsanto will rail through their new GMOs with limited testing (the USDA is actually giving Monsanto special ‘speedy approval’ now to ram through their latest GMO abominations as I told you back in February of 2012), but it also means that Monsanto goons, who are willing to profit on food supply monopoly while ignoring all legitimate concerns, have a major pull on international trends.
Just look at the fact that taxpayers are now paying for Monsanto’s promotional marketing tools that are spread overseas in order to generate further business for the company. All through the United States State Department. We are now paying for Monsanto as if it were a government agency.
The fact of the matter is that, despite the funding and overall reckless corporate behavior, Monsanto is nothing compared to the power of the consumer at large. As I touched on earlier, even GMO labeling legislation has the ability to take down Monsanto profits dramatically. Even during the campaign we launched earlier this year, the Monsanto Video Revolt, we were able to reduce Monsanto’s stock while spreading the word. What it takes is you joining in the intellectual fight and spreading the word.
Because ultimately, it’s up to us to take back the food supply.
Credits:
This article first appeared on Natural Society.
By Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper
Finally, it seems like we have the attention of some of the members of Congress. As the result of an enormous outcry, the Senate voted down the rider that was recently approved by the House of Representatives. The rider would have continued Big Biotech’s immunity against prosecution resulting from their toxic farming practices and questionable crops.
As of September 30th, the so-called Monsanto Protection Act will be dead. This is a major victory for anti-GMO activists as it is the first time that Congress has decided in favor of the constituents as opposed to companies like Monsanto, Sygenta, Bayer, and Dow.
“That provision will be gone,” said Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), confirming the change to POLITICO. The Center for Food Safety, a Washington-based non-profit, welcomed the decision as “a major victory for the food movement” and “sea change in a political climate that all too often allows corporate earmarks to slide through must-pass legislation.”
“Short-term appropriations bills are not an excuse for Congress to grandfather in bad policy,” said Colin O’Neil, director of government affairs for the Center. (source)
The Monsanto Protection Act was passed last spring as a rider sneakily put into place by Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri (Monsanto’s home base, incidentally.) It was passed by both the House and the Senate (see who voted for it HERE), and then signed into law in a final act of betrayal by President Barack Obama, despite public outcry that the rider made the biotech industry untouchable and not subject to legal action regardless of the damage caused.
The biotech rider “could override any court-mandated caution and could instead allow continued planting. Further, it forces USDA to approve permits for such continued planting immediately, putting industry completely in charge by allowing for a ‘back door approval’ mechanism,” the Center for Food Safety said earlier this month upon news the House was reviving the measure. (source)
As the rider is due to expire at the end of this month, a renewal of the policy was written in and passed by the House last week, slipped into an important bill related to the federal budget, the FY14 Continuing Resolution (CR) spending bill.
Monsanto and its allies have argued that what the company sought was no more than what some federal courts have done themselves in the past: Allow farmers to continue to use GMO seed –under environmental guidelines—while the court review continues.
Monsanto successfully expanded support among farm groups also interested in some such stewardship program. But the language itself was unusually strong in that it directed Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in no uncertain terms about how he should respond in future court cases impacting GMO seeds.
The secretary “shall, notwithstanding any other provision of law… immediately grant” temporary permits to continue using the seed at the request of a farmer or producer wanting such a stewardship program, the provision reads. And while Vilsack has been a big champion of the biotech industry, he was uncomfortable with what he saw as an effort to “pre-empt judicial review.”
“We have all known this rider’s days were numbered,” O’Neil told POLITICO. “But given the recent GMO contamination episodes of wheat and alfalfa in Oregon and Washington it is clear that our nation’s safeguards, in particular those of the federal courts, should not be under attack from policy riders like this.” (source)
This proves that by keeping a close watch on what our members of Congress are doing, and by holding them publicly accountable, we can affect changes. If we keep our momentum going, Big Biotech can be defeated.
Human beings, along with all other life on Earth, have been evolving together for some fifty million years in what is known as the Biosphere aka Planet Earth.
That means food is not only necessary for our life, but part of our genetic make up and raw, ‘organic’ food fits us like a glove or part of an infinitely small jigsaw puzzle, each piece fitting seamlessly at the mitochondrial cellular level.
But sh*t happens and it gets into the food chain, which is where the liver comes in – a giant de-tox factory that throws out the garbage (pity there isn’t one in Washington).
When the liver can’t handle all the crap, you get the Wal-Mart Generation… and people like the ones who run Monsanto want to make this worse… but things are happening to Monsantowhere it hurts, in the wallet – Tom Dennen:
“I was shocked to read a story in Canada’s highly conservative national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, a couple of days ago in which well-known investor and columnist Chris Umiastowski, P.Eng., MBA, warned of the risk in holding Monsanto stock. It was refreshing to read the views of an investor who is not just concerned about the bottom line but also the potential health and environmental risks in such a conservative paper. I knew that this was a victory-of-sorts for all of us who share a concern over the increasingly genetically-modified nature of our food supply.
In his column, “Monsanto: A food stock with a bad aftertaste,” he shares: “it’s just as important to know what stocks to avoid as it is to know which ones to invest in. Most growth trends don’t last forever and you don’t want to be stuck holding the bag when growth disappears or reverses.” Here is an investor who is recognizing the “battle raging between consumers and Monsanto” that could leave fallout for investors left holding the bag when consumers take back their right to know what is contained in the food they eat.
While labelling of GM-foods is not legally required in Canada or in the United States, consumer groups are gradually certifying an increasing number of foods as “GM-Free” as a way to take back a right that regulators are not recognizing that we deserve. Consumers are waging a peaceful revolution against Monsanto and other GM-food suppliers as well as the government agencies that turn a blind eye to the environmental and health ramifications of GM-foods and crops. As an aside: European governments have been more progressive in recognizing the human right to know when our food supply has been tampered with and many countries there consider labeling of GM foods standard practice.
