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  • From: Fiona Campbell + Russ Grayson <pacedge@magna.com.au>
  • To: Perm Practitioner <permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: OLD MONSANTO HAD A FARM
  • Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 07:53:52 +1200



Bob Phelps wrote:

> The Observer
> 15th Nov 98
>
> OLD MONSANTO HAD A FARM
> By Nick Cohen
>
> To the literal minded, the controversy stirred by the demand by Monsanto
> that it's weird science should be licensed in Britain seems simple enough
> to resolve. No one from bedraggled green activists to the most conservative
> patrons of the Sainsbury's ready shredded salad counter wants genetically
> modified food. The Government should ban it.
>
> I'm sure all readers in the fixing business will be relieved to hear that
> the naive notion that democratic politicians must respond to the will of
> the people has been dismissed for the sentimental tosh that it is. As the
> courts impose draconian penalties on it's critics, as magazines reporting
> the history of the US chemical company are pulped and as Washington and New
> Labour lobbyists turn their discreet charm on a receptive Whitehall,
> Monsanto can gaze with satisfaction on the gap between democratic theory
> and practice.
>
> The company's authoritarian successes may confuse those who remember it's
> feely advertising campaign of the summer. The firm promised to supply
> readers with the addresses of the food industry. It was rare for a firm to
> give free publicity to opponents, Monsanto boasted "but we believe that
> food is so fundamentally important that everyone should know all they want
> to know about it."
>
> One critic is the Ecologist magazine, a small but well researched journal,
> which sent an issue on Monsanto to the printers Penwalls of Liskeard
> Cornwall. The special edition promised to be a fascinating read. The
> magazine produced details of how Monsanto produced Agent Orange, the poison
> Americans carpet bombed on the Vietnamese. Various learned Authors declared
> that despite all the claims of openness - "Food Biotechnology is a matter
> of opinion," Monsanto's Adverts continued "We believe you should hear all
> of them." The company suppressed dissident voices.
>
> When American Farmers marketed their milk saying it was free of bovine
> growth hormone Monsanto produced called rBGH, the company sued them. The
> hormone has been banned in Europe because of possible fears of a link with
> cancer. Politicians in the US state of Vermont were threatened with legal
> action when they insisted that milk with the hormone must be labelled.
>
> British consumers who believe that clear labelling will give the choice of
> not buying genetically modified take note. The Ecologist showed how
> processed food with genetically modified soya beans is being imported from
> the US and Europeans don't have the faintest idea if the beans are mushed
> into their meals.
>
> Supermarket customers are, however, unlikely to learn too much from the
> Ecologist. The printers told Editor Edward Goldsmith, that they had
> destroyed the entire issue because of fears of a libel action. They had
> contacted the open company and been informed that they would be involved in
> any defamation charges and brought against the green journalists.
> Goldsmiths found another printer but with WH Smith and John Menzies,
> Britain's leading newsagents refused to stock the magazine.
>
> Sweeping punishments have been imposed on six members of a direct action
> group with the anarchic name of GenetiX Snowball, who received injunctions
> against trespassing on Monsanto test sites by other members of the group or
> complete strangers. The authorities are reluctant to treat the company with
> comparable severity. Oil seed rape from a Monsanto experimental site in
> Lincolnshire contaminated nearby plants because a buffer zone around the
> rape was too narrow. The department of the Environment has failed to say if
> it will threaten executives with fines and prison sentences for breach of
> regulations.
>
> More striking court cases come from the United States. They showed us that
> you don't have to believe the scientists, who warned that Monsanto's
> pesticide resistant crops will lead to new superweeds and meals that will
> be difficult to stomach, to be worried about genetically modified food.
>
> The company claims that it's crops will fed the starving and lead to a new
> era of cheap food, but they more likely to create exploitative agribusiness
> monopolies. Bacterial and insect genes are spliced into crops to make them
> resistant to one particular herbicide, Roundup, manufactured of course by
> Monsanto naturally (or rather unnaturally). User of the seeds are a
> captive market for the pesticide.
>
> Framers will not even be able to take seed from their crops and replant
> them the next year . Monsanto is developing what is charmingly called
> 'terminator' gene. The terminator is a genetically engineered suicide
> mechanism which makes the next generation of seeds poison themselves.
>
> As Alan Simpson, Labour MP and critic of the Biotechnology Industry, says
> "for the first time in history farmers won't be able to save seed. They
> will be forced to pay an annual 'feudal levy' to Monsanto each time they
> sow a crop.
>
> While they wait for the terminator to arrive Monsanto has developed a novel
> legal concept: seed piracy. It has hired private detectives to investigate
> 475 cases of farmers taking and replanting seeds from their own crops. The
> US courts have fined offenders as much as £20,000 each. Again, British
> farmers should take note: nature is being privatised, patented and ringed
> with copyright lawyers.
>
> Whether the Government is paying attention is another matter. Nick
> Brown, the agriculture Secretary, is felt far less willing to stand up to
> the Industrial farming lobby than his predecessor Jack Cunningham. Monsanto
> meanwhile is finding ways of getting close to New Labour. Bill Clinton
> lobbied Tony Blair twice to allow Monsanto into Britain. David Hill, one of
> the party's senior strategists, has taken a £100,000 a year job with Bell
> Pottinger PR company and calls his old friends on Monsanto's behalf.
>
> By contrast, Simpson's criticism of corporate influence have earned him the
> unbending hatred of the Labour leadership. A hack who recently went to
> number 10 saw a copy of the leftie magazine 'red pepper' featuring an
> article
> by Simpson. He asked one of the Prime Ministers aides what he thought of
> him.
>
> "Simpson's a bastard" came the reply, "suppose people start listening to
> him. It could wreck everything."
>
> mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
>
> NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
> distributed without profit to those who expressed a prior interest in
> receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
>
> mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
>
> Bob Phelps
> Director
> Australian GeneEthics Network
> c/- ACF 340 Gore Street, Fitzroy. 3065 Australia
> Tel: (03) 9416.2222 Fax: (03) 9416.0767 {Int Code (613)}
> email: acfgenet@peg.apc.org
> WWW: http://www.zero.com.au/agen
>
> "Non-cooperation with injustice is a sacred duty."
>
> Mahatma Gandhi
>
> "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for enough good
> people to do nothing"
>
> Edmund Burke
>
> "Knowing is not enough, you must also act"
>
> mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


--
PACIFIC EDGE PERMACULTURE
Russ Grayson and Fiona Campbell
PO Box 446, Kogarah NSW 2217 AUSTRALIA

Phone 02-9588 6931 (IDD-61+2+9588 6931)
Email: pacedge@magna.com.au

Permaculture education, publishing, design.
NSW contact, Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network.
APACE Kastom Garden Program, (village agriculture), South Pacific.
PaD (Permaculture and Development) Project .




  • Re: OLD MONSANTO HAD A FARM, Fiona Campbell + Russ Grayson, 11/19/1998

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