Monsanto's genetically modified corn banned by Germany, France, Austria, Hungary

[Guest guest]

_http://www.ziopedia.org/articles/food/seeds_of_truth/_

(http://www.ziopedia.org/articles/food/seeds_of_truth/)

 

 

Seeds Of Truth

By Sheila Samples

 

May 09, 2009 " _Information Clearing House_

(http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/) " --- I have learned over the past

decade if I want to know

what's really going on in the United States, I have to cruise through the

foreign media to see what's creating a furor or causing a stink. So, while

searching for the status of Spain's on-again, off-again criminal proceedings

against six Bush Administration war criminals, this _headline_

(http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,619347,00.html) in Der

Spiegel

caught my eye -- " Frankenfood Ban is Neither Populism nor Panic-Mongering. "

 

A closer look at the article revealed it wasn't a Norm Coleman ploy to get

folks in Minnesota to quit eating burgers and fries, nor a menu for the

genetically obscene monster in Mary Shelly's _ " Frankenstein, " _

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein) but an announcement by Germany's

Agriculture

Minister Ilse Aigner that Germany is banning the cultivation of MON 810, a

genetically modified (GM) corn produced by US biotech giant Monsanto.

 

The GM Monster

 

It appears that MON 810 is also believed to be the " Frankenstein " of GM

crops by at least five other European countries -- France, Austria, Hungary,

Greece and Luxembourg -- all of whom have banned its use. MON 810 was

approved by the European Union in 1998, and was the only GM crop approved for

cultivation in Germany. Aigner said she had legitimate reasons to believe

that the genetically modified Monsanto seed " presents a danger to the

environment. " The plant produces a toxin that not only destroys the larvae of

the

corn borer moth, but other, beneficial, insects as well.

 

Andreas Thierfelder, spokesman for Monsanto Germany, responded that

Monsanto would decide " as quickly as possible " whether to take legal

proceedings.

She said the " matter was very urgent as the planting season was about to

start. " Just how urgent was evident days later when Monsanto filed a lawsuit

against the German government, claiming that its ban on MON 810 is

arbitrary and contravenes EU rules. Although Monsanto sued France in an effort

to

overturn its ban on genetically modified corn, and _lost_

(http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/business-news/biz-buzz/2008/03/monsanto-loses-\

bid-to-overturn

-french-ban-on-genetically-modified-corn/) that battle in March when

France's highest court ruled that the corn " may " harm the environment and

wildlife, the German government is justifiably edgy, as it must prove

conclusively to the German court that MON 810 damages the environment.

 

But the feeder GM corn is just one tiny blip on the Frankenfood radar.

And, it's not just Europeans who should worry. As _Jim Hightower,_

(http://www.jimhightower.com/jim) former two-time Texas agriculture

commissioner

_warned_ (http://www.utne.com/2004-06-01/frankenfood.aspx) way back in June

2004...

 

 

" For some time, the likes of Monsanto have had their white-smocked

engineers tinkering merrily and dangerously with the very DNA of food,

genetically

modifying the natural composition of things like potatoes so they contain

a pesticide in every one of their cells, or altering rice so it contains a

diarrhea drug in every bite. This is no mere lab experiment, for

unbeknownst to the vast majority of Americans, Monsanto and a handful of other

global

biotech giants have quietly spread the seeds of these genetically altered

Frankenfoods to so many farms over the past decade that about a third of

the foods on U.S. supermarket shelves now contain organisms with tampered DNA

-- everything from baby food and milk to products made with soybean and

corn. Thanks to well-placed campaign donations and powerhouse lobbying, this

infiltration of our food supply has been done with practically no consumer

awareness, since both Bill Clinton's and George W's administrations have

let these foodstuffs be sold in America without so much as a label on them to

tell us that we're buying something that our families might prefer to

avoid. "

 

Kinda ruins the appetite, doesn't it? Not just the fact that Monsanto has

infiltrated the bulk of our food chain, but that it clearly believes it has

the right to do so with or without our knowledge. It has fought oversight,

regulation, labeling and scientific research for years. The arrogance with

which multinational biotech corporations such as Monsanto are disrupting

and modifying life's natural genetic order -- from seeds to food to animals

to humans to the environment -- is creepy. The Almighty must surely be

watching in slack-jawed amazement.

 

The Profit Plan

 

These giants are " chemical " corporations, and one of their goals is to

create seeds that will withstand more (and more and more) of their herbicides.

Monsanto, which gave us the deadly Agent Orange and the toxic weed killer

Roundup, is not alone in its quest to manipulate, or to control the world's

order. Germany's chemical giant Bayer, well known for its popular and

effective Bayer aspirin, and for Alleve and Alka Seltzer, was the first to

introduce heroin as well as mustard gas, and produces a series of neonicotinoids

-- insecticides that attack the central nervous systems of insects, such

as _bees._ (http://www.naturalnews.com/023679.html) Other mega-corporations

dealing in both pharmaceuticals and pesticides, to name a few, are Merck,

Dupont, Dow Chemical, and Syngenta -- but Monsanto has been around for more

than a century, produces 90-percent of genetically modified seed -- and

has many friends in high places. _Many_

(http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=5580 & name=Monsanto) high

places.

 

Last year, Vanity Fair's Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele teamed up

to present a well-researched background _article,_

(http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805?printable=tr\

ue & currentPage=all)

" Monsanto's Harvest of Fear, " wherein they listed some, but not all, of

these friends...

 

(...) Monsanto has long been wired into Washington. Michael R. Taylor was

a staff attorney and executive assistant to the F.D.A. commissioner before

joining a law firm in Washington in 1981, where he worked to secure F.D.A.

approval of Monsanto’s artificial growth hormone before returning to the

F.D.A. as deputy commissioner in 1991. Dr. Michael A. Friedman, formerly the

F.D.A.’s deputy commissioner for operations, joined Monsanto in 1999 as a

senior vice president. Linda J. Fisher was an assistant administrator at the

E.P.A. when she left the agency in 1993. She became a vice president of

Monsanto, from 1995 to 2000, only to return to the E.P.A. as deputy

administrator the next year. William D. Ruckelshaus, former E.P.A.

administrator,

and Mickey Kantor, former U.S. trade representative, each served on Monsanto’

s board after leaving government. Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas was

an attorney in Monsanto’s corporate-law department in the 1970s. He wrote

the Supreme Court opinion in a crucial G.M.-seed patent-rights case in 2001

that benefited Monsanto and all G.M.-seed companies. Donald Rumsfeld never

served on the board or held any office at Monsanto, but Monsanto must

occupy a soft spot in the heart of the former defense secretary. Rumsfeld was

chairman and C.E.O. of the pharmaceutical maker G. D. Searle & Co. when

Monsanto acquired Searle in 1985, after Searle had experienced difficulty in

finding a buyer. Rumsfeld’s stock and options in Searle were valued at $12

million at the time of the sale.

 

Bartlett and Steele go into some detail about the lengths Monsanto will go

to protect its patent rights, not only against GM or GE (genetically

engineered) farmers, but organic farmers as well. They write...

 

Monsanto goes after farmers, farmers’ co-ops, seed dealers -- anyone it

suspects may have infringed its patents of genetically modified seeds. As

interviews and reams of court documents reveal, Monsanto relies on a shadowy

army of private investigators and agents in the American heartland to strike

fear into farm country. They fan out into fields and farm towns, where

they secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops;

infiltrate community meetings; and gather information from informants about

farming activities. Farmers say that some Monsanto agents pretend to be

surveyors. Others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them to

sign

papers giving Monsanto access to their private records.

 

Once you opt to buy Monsanto seeds, you are no longer a farmer, you're a

" grower " -- a serf -- and you must sign a _Technology/Stewardship Agreement_

(http://www.gefreesonoma.org/documents/2005MonsantoAgreement.pdf) wherein

you agree, among many other restrictions, to use Monsanto seed for planting

only a single commercial crop...not to sell or give seeds to any other

person for planting...to pay annual technology fees (in addition to the price

of the seed) due Monsanto...to turn over your records and receipts anytime

Monsanto asks for them. In short, you sign your life -- and your livelihood

-- over when you become a " grower. " And, if you're ever taken to court (and

it's likely you could be), and you lose (and it's likely you will) -- you

will find you agreed to pay Monsanto and its attorney fees and all related

court costs.

 

The End Game

 

This goes way beyond garnering profits for agriculture conglomerates such

as Monsanto. It is about disrupting the natural order of life -- whether

plant or animal. And, for those orchestrating this havoc, it is about

control. As Henry Kissinger once said matter-of-factly, " If you control the oil

you control the country; if you control food, you control the population. "

Kissinger has long been obsessed with two things -- _depopulating_

(http://www.larouchepub.com/other/1995/2249_kissinger_food.html) the world and

establishing a _New World Order._

(http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/henry-kissinger-the-world-mus\

t-forge-a-new-order-or-retreat-to-chaos-145

1416.html)

 

What better way to control the food than to ban seed saving -- what better

weapon is there to use against starving populations than food? The answer

is laid out in detail in F. William Engdahl's November 2007 _critical

book_

(http://www.amazon.com/Seeds-Destruction-Hidden-Genetic-Manipulation/dp/09737147\

27) about genetic manipulation, " Seeds of Destruction. " Engdahl is

no conspiracy theorist. He is a leading researcher as well as an economist

and an associate and regular contributor for the Centre for Research on

Globalization.

 

In his _extensive_

(http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/reviews/3180-reviewing-f-william-engdahls-qsee\

ds-of-destructionq-part-iii.html) three-part

review of " Seeds, " investigative journalist Stephen Lendman reveals " ... the

diabolical story of how Washington and four Anglo-American agribusiness giants

plan world domination by patenting life forms to gain worldwide control of

our food supply and why that prospect is chilling. "

 

Lendman reminds us that Kissinger has been both at the forefront and

behind the scenes since the 1960s when, as Engdahl wrote, " the Rockefellers

were

at the power center of the US establishment (and) Secretary of State Henry

Kissinger (was) their hand-picked protege. " Kissinger was there as Nixon's

Secretary of State in 1973 when the food crisis hit and, as Engdahl said,

he decided US agricultural policy was " too important to be left in the

hands of the Agricultural Department so he took control of it himself. " Even

back then, Kissinger's goal was to go global and seize control of the

agricultural food market. Kissinger's " food diplomacy " was to use food to

" reward

friends and punish enemies. "

 

Lendman writes, " Food is power. When used to cull the population, it's a

weapon of mass destruction. " He says " One way or another, the Rockefeller

Foundation aims to reduce population through human reproduction by spreading

GMO seeds. " And the " world's number one " in patenting seeds is Monsanto. He

explains...

 

Like it or not, they're advancing their agenda, and a 2004 Rockefeller

Foundation report shows it. GM crop production achieved nine consecutive

double digit year increases since 1996. More than eight million farmers in 17

countries now plant them, over 90% in developing nations. Far and away, the

US is the world's leader " with aggressive Government promotion, absence of

labeling, and the domination of US farm production. " Here, " genetically

engineered crops (have) essentially taken over the American food chain. " In

2004, over 85% of soybeans were genetically modified, 45% of corn, and since

animal feed is mainly from these crops " the entire meat production of the

nation (and exports) has been fed on genetically modified animal feed. " What

animals eat, so do humans.

 

According to Engdahl, agribusiness giants, aided by the Rockefeller

Foundation, the US government and the World Trade Organization (WTO) are

progressing relentlessly toward the second pillar of Kissinger's end game --

controlling food to control (and expunge) populations of lesser nations. In

December 2007, Engdahl _sounded the alarm_

(http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va & aid=7529) about yet another

seed venture (adventure?),

" Doomsday Seed Vault in the Arctic, " a steel-reinforced concrete seed bank

built

deep inside a mountain on the remote Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. This

" program " is funded by the Rockefellers, by such seed giants as Syngenta

and Monsanto -- and by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who knows a bit about

monopoly.

 

The Way Out

 

Engdahl says that, since 2007, Monsanto and the US Government together

hold the patent for a commercial seed called " Terminator, " designed to commit

suicide after just one harvest, and farmers will be forced to return to

Monsanto or other seed giants to purchase new seeds each year for crops needed

to feed their populations. He said if they're allowed to continue their

reckless pursuit of power, in a decade or so, the small farmer will be but a

memory and the majority of the world's food producers would be little more

than feudal serfs in bondage to three or four giant seed corporations.

" Those who say 'it can't happen here' should look more closely at current

global events, " he wrote. " The mere existence of that concentration of power in

three or four private US-based agribusiness giants is grounds for legally

banning all GMO crops even were their harvent gains real, which they

manifestly are not. "

 

The good news is that Europe is fighting back against being forced to

plant genetically manipulated seeds for plants and food. Countries like Austria

and Denmark, France -- and now Germany -- are standing up, and standing

together, to ban biotech products. As is always the case, when those who lust

for power and control concoct their grand schemes, they fail to factor in

the human response. Lendman says public opinion throughout Europe is

strongly opposed to GMO foods and ingredients. He writes...

 

Several EU countries, including France, Germany, Austria and Denmark, even

ban some EU-approved biotech products to further cloud the outlook. Polls

show why, with European public opinion strongly opposed to GMO foods and

ingredients, with hostility levels in France as high as 89% and 79% wanting

governments to ban them. This shows European consumers are far ahead of

Americans and much better protected (so far) by their overall exclusion as well

as having labeling requirements for those allowed to be sold. That

provision is crucial as it empowers consumers to use or avoid eating these

foods.

If enough people abstain, food outlets won't carry them.

It's not that Americans don't care that the Rockefeller-Gates-Monsanto

plan to solve world hunger is but a ghastly scheme to cull the population of

its nonproductive bottom-feeders. Thanks to conspiratorial US media, most of

us are either blissfully unaware or are unable to make a sound because, as

Hightower said, our " Congress and the White House (and the media) have

Monsanto checks stuffed in their ears. "

 

The way out is to become informed -- and just say no to having unlabeled,

untested products crammed down our throats. If we do nothing, we will reap

what we sow. We will, as Charles Galton Darwin, grandson of evolutionist

Charles Darwin, _wrote_

(http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=20830) in his 1952 " The

Next Million Years, " be condemned to the status of

workers in a beehive.

 

We must stand up and support Europe's attempt to organize a ban on

genetically modified crops and food. It is the way -- the only way -- out of

this

mess. Lendman, who maintains " the stakes are much too high -- human health

and safety must never be compromised for profit, " suggests that we read

Engdahl's book, which is a " wake-up call " for all of us.

 

I suggest we start by reading Lendman's review of that book, which is a

much louder wake-up call.

 

Sheila Samples _http://sheilastuff.blogspot.com/_

(http://sheilastuff.blogspot.com/) is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian

US Army Public

Information Officer.

 

**************The Average US Credit Score is 692. See Yours in Just 2 Easy

Steps!

(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222376999x1201454299/aol?redir=http://\

www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072 & hmpgID=62 & bcd=M

ay51009AvgfooterNO62)