Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> Much like the Bush Bashing we were treated to for most of the past  
> decade,
> Monsanto is bad enough, but they are not omnipotent and ubiquitous  
> nor are they
> responsibe for every ill in the world.

Here are some of my notes on Monsanto and Novartis:

The food monsters

For centuries, farmers have been saving the best seed from their crops  
to plant the following year. This practice has been sustainable,  
ecological and profitable. It is a practice that will soon end, if  
power has its way.
Using taxpayer funds, the United States Department of Agriculture  
invented with Delta and Pine Land Company—the country’s largest  
producer of cotton seeds—a genetic technology to create seeds that  
will only work for one growing season. If seeds from this year’s crop  
are saved and planted next year, they will not grow. The technology  
was quickly dubbed the Terminator by the Rural Advancement Foundation  
International (RAFI). The Terminator has only been tested on cotton  
and tobacco but its developers believe it will work on all crops.
The process was patented in March of 1998. Such patents are granted to  
protect seed company research and development, much as copyright law  
protects this written material. A 1970 law allows farmers to save  
their seeds and replant them, which seed companies do not like. Hence  
the Terminator technology. Zap the seeds with the Terminator and  
farmers have no choice but to buy new seeds each year.
Unlike copyrighted writings, patented Terminator seeds are intended to  
feed and clothe the world. Concern immediately arose that plants grown  
from Terminator seeds might send their death message through pollen to  
the fields of non-cooperating farmers and natural areas alike,  
potentially destroying the viability of the seeds of all nearby  
competing annuals.
Enter the monster. On May 11th, Monsanto Corporation bought the  
Terminator. The world’s second-largest pesticides purveyor, Monsanto  
has suggested that within a few years all the major staple crops on  
Earth should be genetically engineered. It is the company that makes  
recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), the genetically engineered  
hormone injected into cows to increase milk production. The hormone is  
used extensively in the USA while Europe has put a moratorium on rBGH.  
Believe it or not, until recently, food producers were precluded by  
law to label their products as free of rBGH. Ben & Jerry have finally  
prevailed in court to have the right to label their product as made  
from milk and cream that is rBGH-free.
Monsanto also produces glyphosate, brandname Roundup, the world's  
biggest-selling herbicide. In 1996 Roundup earned Monsanto nearly $1.5  
billion. For the past 20 years Monsanto has been developing new crops  
genetically engineered to resist glyphosate. This allows farmers to  
inundate their fields with Roundup, killing everything that grows  
except the patented crop. The first glyphosate tolerant plant Monsanto  
released was Roundup Ready soybean. It is estimated that between 50  
and 60 per cent of processed foods contain soy. You eat products made  
with Roundup Ready soybeans.
Roundup Ready soybeans sold like crazy and Monsanto used the money to  
buy shares in seed and biotechnology companies worth nearly $2  
billion. Among its purchases are companies which produce the famous  
"Flavr-savr" tomato and those that control 35 percent of the germlines  
of American corn. Monsanto is now experimenting with new rice, corn,  
potato, sugarbeet, rape and cotton varieties.  The new products are so  
attractive to farmers that the company has managed to get them to sign  
away their future rights to the seed they grow, and allow Monsanto to  
inspect their fields whenever it wants.
Monsanto's new crops could not have become commercially viable without  
major legislative change. Despite significant public opposition, in  
July of 1997 Europabio managed to persuade the European Parliament to  
adopt a new directive, allowing companies to patent manipulated plants  
and animals. The European Commission announced that it would force  
Austria, Italy and Luxembourg to repeal their laws banning the import  
of genetically engineered corn.
A Monsanto vice-president is, according to the St Louis Post, a "top  
candidate" to become Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration  
(FDA), which regulates the food industry. Researchers and lawyers from  
Monsanto reportedly already occupy important posts in the FDA. The  
administration has approved some of the company's most controversial  
products, including the artificial sweetener aspartame and the cattle  
growth homone rBGH. Only the New York Attorney General's office has  
taken the company to task, forcing it to withdraw advertisements  
claiming that Roundup is biodegradable and environmentally friendly.
Monsanto has been most successful when appealing to multilateral  
bodies. Last month, the World Trade Organisation confirmed its ruling  
that the European Union can no longer exclude meat and milk from  
cattle treated with bovine growth hormone, despite the protests of  
farmers, retailers and consumers. As Scientific American magazine  
claimed, Monsanto's clinical trials of the drug were incompletely  
analysed, obscuring the fact that it increases the number of infected  
udder cells in cows by about 20 per cent. Biotech firms are now trying  
to persuade the World Trade Organisation to forbid the labelling of  
genetically engineered foods. Any country whose retailers tell  
consumers what they are eating would be subject to punitive sanctions.
Monsanto Co., a powerhouse of genetically engineered crops, announced  
on Monday it will gobble up the international seed products division  
ofCargill International Inc. for $1.4 billion in cash. St. Louis-based  
Monsanto, which is already on a buyout binge,will get testing,  
research, and production facilities in 24 countries in Africa, Asia,  
Europe, and Latin America through the transaction. The deal with  
privately held Cargill, of Minneapolis, Minn., also involves sales and  
distribution facilities in 51 countries, the two companies said."The  
potential for our existing biotechnology traits outside North America  
is roughly double the acreage potential within North America," said  
Hendrik Verfaillie, Monsanto's president. "The Cargill international  
seed businesses give us quicker access to these global markets."
Cargill said it would hold on to its seed operations in North America  
and Cargill Agricultural Merchants in the United Kingdom. The sale of  
Cargill's global seed businesses follows an earlier partnership with  
Monsanto to make and market biotechnology-enhanced products in grain  
processing and animal seed markets. Monsanto and Cargill said they are  
exploring future opportunities to expand their partnership into other  
areas of agriculture and food. Monsanto in May agreed to buy U.S. seed  
companies DeKalb Genetics Corp and Delta and Pine Land Co. for about  
$4.4 billion. Monsanto, analysts said, may be hoping to bulk up before  
it completes a high-profile $33 billion merger with drug giant  
American Home Products Inc., which was announced June 1.
With incredible speed, a handful of companies is taking over global  
development, production, processing and marketing of food. RAFI says  
that 10 companies already control 40 percent of the world seed business.
Among these is the Novartis company.
2-20-98: Novartis adds the 25 new patents to a growing portfolio of  
intellectual property. To date, the company controls more than 50  
patents surrounding agricultural biotechnology, and has applications  
pending on more than 100 additional inventions.

The Novartis worldwide seed operations are part of the Novartis  
Agribusiness division that also includes Novartis Crop Protection and  
Novartis Animal Health. Worldwide, Novartis Seeds contributes 16  
percent of sales in the Agribusiness division. Novartis comprises  
three distinct divisions: Agribusiness, which contributes 30 percent  
to total Novartis sales; Healthcare, which contributes 50 percent; and  
Nutrition, which contributes 20 percent. Novartis operates in over 100


Political power: lobbying, campaign contributions. Legal power:  
Microsoft can go toe-to-toe with the Justice Department. Tobacco  
companies have become vulnerable only because it became obvious that  
they were knowingly killing us with their products and their political  
supplicants.

Corporations have the same rights as people but the vulnerability of  
giants. Empowered by the Supreme Court 19XX decision to be “.......,”  
they live until legally killed. CEOs and directors have become  
autocrats and despots, protected from shareholders by XXX.

They gain their power through sales. If we stop buying Corp A products  
we may have no choice but to buy from Corp B.

They gain power through investors who demand profit first and morality  
last. By investing in mutual funds, investors place an investment  
manager between themselves and the dirty corporation.
countries and is the largest agribusiness in the world.