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
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