Subject: Re: [Homestead] Seed Co's Owned by Monsanto
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:24:34 -0700
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.
Re: [Homestead] Seed Co's Owned by Monsanto
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