“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.” - Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director and Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.
The news that more than 270,000 organic farmers are taking on Monsanto in a lawsuit filed on March 30 will hopefully put an end to the bulling tactics of the corporate agriculture giant. The farmers are fighting for the right to keep a portion of the world food supply organic and also protecting themselves from the absurd accusations of stealing genetically modified seeds that drift on to their crop fields.
The farmers led by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association should receive our full support, as they seek to protect not just themselves but us from a future where our only choice would be Monsanto’s unhealthy GM foods. Monsanto have repeatedly shown that they put profit before health and morels. Everyone should have the choice to choose natural and healthy foods over Monsanto’s GM alternatives. That’s a choice that corporations like Monsanto are trying to take away from us in order to gain a monopoly of the market.
In my opinion no seeds should ever be patented, as this is a dangerous path to go down as many farmers are now finding to their cost. Hundreds of farmers have found themselves facing lawsuits after being accused of unlawfully using the very seeds they’re trying to avoid. With Monsanto going as far as to trespass onto the farmers lands to find proof of contamination from seeds blown over from a neighboring farm.
With patented seeds infiltrating the environment so fully, organic itself is at risk. The wide use of Monsanto’s Genuity® Roundup Ready® canola seed has already turned heirloom canola oil into an extinct species. If this lawsuit fails it will lead to more becoming extinct like organic corn, soybeans, along with a host of other crops.
Having already acquired more than 20 of the nation’s biggest seed producers and sellers over the last decade Monsanto are are getting close to achieving their goal of replacing everything Organic with their GM alternatives giving them complete control over the food we eat and grow. Farmers would have no choice but to deal with Monsanto in order to grow crops. This would mean them being obliged to buy bio-engineered seeds every year at prices set by Monsanto. As some have already found out to their cost, to disobey is to be blacklisted forever.
Monsanto’s practices not only do great damage to our health but also the environment and the livelihood of farmers. Most people are happy to buy GM food over Organic, ignorant of the health problems that they are bringing onto themselves and their family. A future controlled by the likes of Monsanto will be an unhealthy one. Healthy food that we have enjoyed for centuries will be a thing of the past. I urge everyone who reads this article to look into the dark history of Monsanto and the dangers to health of their GM foods. The only way we can secure our future is to boycott GM foods and Monsanto products and stand with the organic farmers who are fighting not just for their futures but also ours.
Some quotes concerning Monsanto
‘People will have Roundup Ready soya whether they like it or not.’
- Ann Foster, spokesperson for Monsanto in Britain, 1999
‘What you are seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it’s really a consolidation of the entire food chain.’
- Robert Fraley, co-president of Monsanto’s agricultural sector 1996
‘Monsanto was accused of fraud in assessing the risks of dioxin, a by-product of Agent Orange manufacture. Regarding this William Sanjour, Policy Analyst at the EPA wrote ‘This kind of cold-blooded analysis is bad enough when the product is used by the general public, but it is insufferable when used on our own armed forces who were exposed in combat…. The issue wasn’t false science, but allegedly using false science to cover-up a callous hard-hearted decision to continue poisoning our GIs and their children because it was cheaper to do so’. ‘
‘Rats fed on a diet rich in genetically modified corn developed abnormalities to internal organs and changes to their blood, raising fears that human health could be affected by eating GM food. The Independent on Sunday can today reveal details of secret research carried out by Monsanto, the GM food giant, which shows that rats fed the modified corn had smaller kidneys and variations in the composition of their blood. According to the confidential 1,139-page report, these health problems were absent from another batch of rodents fed non-GM food as part of the research project.’
- The Independent, May 22, 2005
‘Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the F.D.A.’s job.’
- Phil Angell, Monsanto’s director of corporate communications, New York Times Magzine, October 25, 1998
‘The hope of the industry is that over time the market is so flooded [with GMOs] that there’s nothing you can do about it. You just sort of surrender.’
- Don Westfall, biotech industry consultant and vice-president of Promar International, in the Toronto Star, January 9. 2001
‘While he was being paid by Monsanto, Sir Richard wrote to a royal Australian commission investigating the potential cancer-causing properties of Agent Orange, made by Monsanto and used by the U.S. in the Vietnam war. Sir Richard said there was no evidence that the chemical caused cancer.’ The renowned cancer scientist was paid by Monsanto for 20 years
Don’t let the future belong to the likes of Monsanto, choose health and freedom over food slavery. David Noble 2012
More at EndtheLie.com - http://EndtheLie.com/2011/07/28/270000-organic-farmers-fight-back-against-monsanto-in-an-attempt-to-put-an-end-to-the-bulling-and-dirty-tricks-of-the-corporate-agriculture-giant/#ixzz1TPayB2lP
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