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[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

USDA Recommends "Coexistence" with Monsanto: We Say Hell No! by Ronnie
Cummins - Sent using Google Toolbar
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22240.cfm

USDA Recommends "Coexistence" with Monsanto: We Say Hell No! by Ronnie Cummins

By Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association, Dec 22, 2010
Straight to the Source

"If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well
put a skull and crossbones on it." - Norman Braksick, president of
Asgrow Seed Co., a subsidiary of Monsanto, quoted in the Kansas City
Star, March 7, 1994

"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 FDA's job." - Phil Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate
communications, quoted in the New York Times, October 25, 1998

After 16 years of non-stop biotech bullying and force-feeding
Genetically Engineered or Modified (GE or GM) crops to farm animals
and "Frankenfoods" to unwitting consumers, Monsanto has a big problem,
or rather several big problems. A growing number of published
scientific studies indicate that GE foods pose serious human health
threats.  The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM)
recently stated that "Several animal studies indicate serious health
risks associated with GM food," including infertility, immune
problems, accelerated aging, faulty insulin regulation, and changes in
major organs and the gastrointestinal system. The AAEM advises
consumers to avoid GM foods. Before the FDA arbitrarily decided to
allow Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) into food products in
1994, FDA scientists had repeatedly warned that GM foods can set off
serious, hard-to-detect side effects, including allergies, toxins, new
diseases, and nutritional problems. They urged long-term safety
studies, but were ignored. http://www.responsibletechnology.org

Federal judges are finally starting to acknowledge what organic
farmers and consumers have said all along: uncontrollable and
unpredictable GMO crops such as alfalfa and sugar beets spread their
mutant genes onto organic farms and into non-GMO varieties and plant
relatives, and should be halted.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22173.cfm

An appeals court recently ruled that consumers have the right to know
whether the dairy products they are purchasing are derived from cows
injected with Monsanto's (now Elanco's) controversial recombinant
Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), linked to serious animal health problems
and increased cancer risk for humans.

Monsanto's Roundup, the agro-toxic companion herbicide for millions of
acres of GM soybeans, corn, cotton, alfalfa, canola, and sugar beets,
is losing market share. Its overuse has spawned a new generation of
superweeds that can only be killed with super-toxic herbicides such as
2,4, D and paraquat. Moreover, patented "Roundup Ready" crops require
massive amounts of climate destabilizing nitrate fertilizer.
Compounding Monsanto's damage to the environment and climate, rampant
Roundup use is literally killing the soil, destroying essential soil
microorganisms, degrading the living soil's ability to capture and
sequester CO2, and spreading deadly plant diseases.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_21039.cfm

In just one year, Monsanto has moved from being Forbes' "Company of
the Year" to the Worst Stock of the Year. The Biotech Bully of St.
Louis has become one of the most hated corporations on Earth.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.cfm

Monsanto and their agro-toxic allies are now turning to Obama's
pro-biotech USDA for assistance. They want the organic community to
stop suing them and boycotting their products. They want food
activists and the OCA to mute our criticisms and stop tarnishing the
image of their brands, their seeds, and companies. They want us to
resign ourselves to the fact that one-third of U.S. croplands, and
one-tenth of global cultivated acreage, are already contaminated with
GMOs. That's why Monsanto recently hired the notorious mercenary firm,
Blackwater, to spy on us. That's why Monsanto has teamed up with the
Gates Foundation to bribe government officials and scientists and
spread GMOs throughout Africa and the developing world.  That's why
the biotech bullies and the Farm Bureau have joined hands with the
Obama Administration to preach their new doctrine of "coexistence."

"Coexistence" or Cooptation?

The Agriculture Department is dutifully drafting a comprehensive
"coexistence policy" that supposedly will diffuse tensions between
conventional (chemical but non-GMO), biotech, and organic farmers.
Earlier this week industry and Administration officials met in
Washington, D.C. to talk about coexistence. Even though the Organic
Consumers Association tried to get into the meeting, we were told we
weren't welcome. The powers that be claim that the OCA doesn't meet
their criteria of being "stakeholders." The unifying theme in these
closed-door meetings is apparently that Monsanto and the other biotech
companies will set aside a "compensation" fund to reimburse organic
farmers whose crops or fields get contaminated. That way we'll all be
happy. Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, Dow, and Dupont will continue
planting their hazardous crops and force-feeding animals and consumers
with GMOs. Organic farmers and companies willing to cooperate will get
a little compensation or "hush money." But of course our response to
Monsanto and the USDA's plan, as you might have guessed, is hell no!

There can be no such thing as "coexistence" with a reckless and
monopolistic industry that harms human health, destroys biodiversity,
damages the environment, tortures and poisons animals, destabilizes
the climate, and economically devastates the world's 1.5 billion
seed-saving small farmers.  Enough talk of coexistence. We need a new
regime that empowers consumers, small farmers, and the organic
community. We need a new set of rules, based on "truth-in-labeling"
and the "precautionary principle" - consumer and farmer-friendly
regulations that are basically already in place in the European Union
- so that "we the people" can regain control over Monsanto, indentured
politicians, and the presently out-of-control technology of genetic
engineering.

Truth-in-Labeling: Monsanto and the Biotech Industry's Greatest Fear

In practical terms coexistence between GMOs and organics in the
European Union, the largest agricultural market in the world, is a
non-issue. Why? Because there are almost no GMO crops under
cultivation, nor consumer food products on supermarket shelves, in the
EU, period. And why is this? There are almost no GMOs in Europe,
because under EU law, as demanded by consumers, all foods containing
GMOs or GMO ingredients must be labeled. Consumers have the freedom to
choose or not to consume GMOs, while farmers, food processors, and
retailers have (at least legally) the right to lace foods with GMOs,
as long as they are labeled. Of course consumers, for the most part,
do not want to consume GM Frankenfoods. European farmers and food
companies, even junk food purveyors like McDonald's and Wal-Mart,
understand quite well the axiom expressed by the Monsanto executive at
the beginning of this article: "If you put a label on genetically
engineered food you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it."

The biotech industry and Food Inc. are acutely aware of the fact that
North American consumers, like their European counterparts, are wary
and suspicious of GMO foods. Even without a PhD, consumers understand
you don't want to be part of an involuntary food safety experiment.
You don't want your food safety or environmental sustainability
decisions to be made by profit-at-any-cost chemical companies like
Monsanto, Dow, or Dupont-the same people who brought you toxic
pesticides, Agent Orange, PCBs, and now global warming. Industry
leaders are acutely aware of the fact that every single industry or
government poll over the last 16 years has shown that 85-95% of
American consumers want mandatory labels on GMO foods. Why? So that we
can avoid buying them. GMO foods have absolutely no benefits for
consumers or the environment, only hazards. This is why Monsanto and
their friends in the Bush, Clinton, and Obama administrations have
prevented consumer GMO truth-in-labeling laws from getting a public
discussion in Congress, much less allowing such legislation to be put
up for a vote. Obama (and Hilary Clinton) campaign operatives in 2008
claimed that Obama supported mandatory labels for GMOs, but we haven't
heard a word from the White House on this topic since Inauguration
Day.

Although Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat, Ohio) introduces a
bill in every Congress calling for mandatory labeling and safety
testing for GMOs, don't hold your breath for Congress to take a stand
for truth-in-labeling and consumers' right to know what's in their
food. Especially since the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the
so-called "Citizens United" case gave big corporations and
billionaires the right to spend unlimited amounts of money (and remain
anonymous, as they do so) to buy elections, our chances of passing
federal GMO labeling laws against the wishes of Monsanto and Food Inc.
are all but non-existent.

Therefore we need to shift our focus and go local. We've got to
concentrate our forces where our leverage and power lie, in the
marketplace, at the retail level; pressuring retail food stores to
voluntarily label their products; while on the legislative front we
must organize a broad coalition to pass mandatory GMO (and CAFO)
labeling laws, at the city, county, and state levels.

Millions Against Monsanto: Launching a Nationwide Truth-in-Labeling
Campaign, Starting with Local City Council Ordinances or Ballot
Initiatives

Early in 2011 the Organic Consumers Association, joined by our
consumer, farmer, environmental, and labor allies, plans to launch a
nationwide campaign to stop Monsanto and the Biotech Bullies from
force-feeding unlabeled GMOs to animals and humans. Utilizing
scientific data, legal precedent, and consumer power the OCA and our
local coalitions will educate and mobilize at the grassroots level to
pressure retailers to implement "truth-in-labeling" practices; while
simultaneously organizing a critical mass to pass mandatory local and
state truth-in-labeling ordinances or ballot initiatives similar to
labeling laws already in effect for country of origin, irradiated
food, allergens, and carcinogens. If local government bodies refuse to
take action, wherever possible we will gather petition signatures and
place these truth-in-labeling initiatives directly on the ballot in
2011 or 2012. Stay tuned for details, but please send an email to:
information@organicconsumers.org if you're interesting in helping
organize a truth-in-labeling campaign in your local community.
Millions Against Monsanto. Power to the people!