An Organized Worldwide Battle Against GMO's Is Underway

Global area of biotech crops 1996 - 2008

Even as a broad coalition of farmers, health groups, and organic food manufacturers wage war against biotech companies and organize to demand GMO-labeling of foods in a California, UK environmentalists have banned together against the use of genetically modified (GM) crops under the banner "Take the Flour Back" to organize direct action against GM wheat.

Volunteers and staff from the California Right to Know Campaign are submitting nearly 1 million signed petitions from registered voters across the state to county officials (click here to help raise money for the campaign) to place Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act on the Ballot for November 6.

When California voters pass this ballot initiative, the Label Genetically Engineered Food Act will also not allow the common practice of mislabeling genetically engineered foods as "natural" or "all natural." California has the eighth largest economy in the world, so passing a labeling law for genetically engineered foods in California will have the same powerful impact as passing a federal law.

The UK's Take the Flour Back campaign has planned a day of "decontamination" for May 27th to rid a Rothamsted field of the GM wheat planted by scientists at Rothamsted Research. 

While the scientists say their wheat has the potential to curb pesticide use by repelling aphids, Take the Flour Back correctly insists there is no market for GM wheat anywhere in the world. Lucy Harrap from Take the Flour Back told the BBC:  "So far, the evidence doesn't indicate that GM fields need less pesticide - in fact they tend to need more."

Wheat is wind-pollinated. In Canada similar experiments have leaked into the food-chain costing farmers millions in lost exports.

"This experiment is tax-payer funded, but Rothamsted hope to sell any patent it generates to an agro-chemical company. La Via Campesina, the world’s largest organization of peasant farmers, believe GM is increasing world hunger. They have called for support resisting GM crops, and the control over agriculture that biotech gives to corporations."

Around the world, people are resisting GM and corporate control of food [source]

France
Numbering over 500 members, the ‘Voluntary Reapers’, or ‘Faucheurs Volontaires’ are a self-organised group of French activists who decontaminate GM field trials set up by biotech corporations. They argue that direct action is necessary to defend land and food from private interests backed by public authorities.

Spain
National demonstrations against GM in Spain drew 8000 people in Zaragoza in 2009, and 15,000 in Madrid in 2010. The ‘Field Liberation’ movement take direct action to defend their food from contamination, by pulling up GM crops.

India
Bt cotton is the only GM crop approved in India. Bt cottonseeds are modified with the toxin Cry to control the bollworm pest. Bollworm have developed resistance to Bt cotton, so a new version, ‘Bollgard II’, has been created, containing 2 additional toxic genes. As pests become more tolerant to insect-resistant GM crops, more toxins have to be developed, adding increasing amounts of toxins to the food supply.

Bt cotton has been linked to a wave of smallholder farmer suicides in India. Over the last 20 years, India’s agriculture has been opened up to the global market, increasing costs and trapping many farmers in debt. As agriculture in India has become more focused on producing cash crops, multinational corporations have increased their control. Big agribusinesses like Monsanto market expensive biotechnology as a solution to farmers struggling to compete in the global market.

Between 1995 and 2010, more than a quarter of a million farmers have committed suicide in India. Debt and poverty is driving many farmers to suicide, some of whom have swallowed the poisonous pesticides used to spray their Bt cotton crops. The highest rates of suicide are in areas producing the most cotton.

Over 50,000 farmers took their own lives in Maharashtra between 1995 and 2010. Maharashtra was the richest state during that period. Monsanto argue that their Bt cotton produces higher yields as it is insect-resistant, and that therefore farmers will need to use less insecticide.

Yet a survey carried out in Vidharba by Navdanya (a network of seed keepers and organic producers from 16 states in India) found that pesticide use had increased 13-fold since Bt cotton was first introduced. Expensive Bt cotton seeds and pesticides have displaced cheaper local seeds.

This has driven up costs for farmers. And Monsanto have dramatically exaggerated the potential yields of GM cotton – Navyanda states that Monsanto’s claims of yields reaching 1500kg is false, as the average yield is only 400-500kg per acre. Poor harvests and the high costs of pesticides and GM seeds push subsistence farmers into ever-increasing debt. The majority of suicides are committed by farmers growing cash crops and not crops for food.

However, people have been resisting GM and corporate control of agriculture across India. The Karnataka farmers’ movement adopted the slogan “Cremate Monsanto” and pledged to burn all GM trial sites in the south of India. In 2006, farmers’ unions burnt trial plots of GM rice in two northern India states. In 2005, 3000 women made a bonfire of hybrid and GM seed, saying the GM seeds had pushed them into a cycle of poverty and debt.

Brazil
Since 1984, the landless farmers movement in Brazil has been occupying unused land to highlight issues around access to land, and to promote food sovereignty and agro-ecology. The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (MST) now has over 1.5 million members.

Big agribusiness has been engaged in violent landgrabs to displace small farmers from their land. In October 2007, the MST leader Valmir Mota d’Oliveira was murdered during an occupation of a GM field trial in the state of Paraná. MST had been occupying the site to stop Syngenta illegally testing GM crops there. Around 40 private armed guards employed by NF Segurança, a private security company hired by Syngenta, attacked the camp.

La Via Campesina Brazil have been taking direct action by pulling up GM crops. In Sao Paulo in 2008, 300 women decontaminated plant nurseries containing Monsanto GM maize. (16) In 2007, MST and La Via Campesina destroyed GM corn and soya seedlings at a Syngenta farm in Ceara, demanding that the company leave Brazil.

La Via Campesina is an international movement bringing together millions of peasants, small and medium-sized farmers, landless people, women farmers, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world. La Via Campesina “defends small-scale sustainable agriculture as a way to promote social justice and dignity…[and] strongly opposes corporate driven agriculture and transnational companies that are destroying people and nature.”

 “Peasant farmers and indigenous peoples are rediscovering and revaluing the conservation and exchange of native seeds, which can increase the genetic biodiversity that underpins our world food systems. By prioritising agro-ecology we can help tackle hunger and poverty in a changing climate. Challenging the dominance of the seed industry is central to protecting peasant seeds. The seed industry is profiting from the use of genetic engineering and pesticides, which are being used to push farmers into dependence on corporate-owned seeds.”

Haiti
In June 2010, over 10,000 people in Haiti took to the streets in opposition to Monsanto, demanding food sovereignty and local control over native seeds.

Argentina
GM soya was introduced into Argentina in 1996 without parliamentary debate. Many small and family farmers have been pushed off their land to make way for GM soya plantations, ruining their livelihoods and pushing them into poverty.  Many communities have resisted these evictions, for example the Gurani community in Capoma, N.Argentina in 2008.

In 2008, the ‘Rural and Urban Women for Food Sovereignty’ held a protest lasting two days on a railway line used to transport GM soya.

Mali
In November 2008, a sit-in outside the national assembly in Mali called on politicians to vote against a new ‘biosafety’ law. The National Coordination of Peasant Organisations (CNOP), who represent over a million people, said the law would make small farmers dependent on seeds from western agribusiness.

“All arguments used by seed multinationals and their allies – GMOs will help fight hunger in Africa, decrease the use of pesticides, and save water- are easily demolished by existing analysis and research. And what is clear is that the underlying private economic interest of multinational seed corporations is driving the push for promoting genetic engineering in Africa.”

Please Get Involved in "The Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act"

 Passing this law in California is the first critical step toward requiring GMO labeling in every state. 

Volunteers and staff from the California Right to Know Campaign are submitting nearly 1 million signed petitions from registered voters across the state of California to county officials, to place Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act on the Ballot for November 6.

    Starting May 1, and extending through May 26, a broad coalition of farmers, health groups, and organic food manufacturers, will attempt to raise one million dollars (i.e. "The Money Bomb"). Donations can be made online, via regular snail mail, and over the phone. All donations will support state GMO-labeling campaigns and their defense from biotech bully lawsuits.

The Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act

    This Act will require food manufacturers to identify genetically engineered ingredients on the labels of foods sold in California.

    When California voters pass this ballot initiative, the Label Genetically Engineered Food Act will also not allow the common practice of mislabeling genetically engineered foods as "natural" or "all natural." It's imperative to understand why this initiative is so important and how it can affect all Americans, regardless of where you live.

    California has the eighth largest economy in the world, so passing a labeling law for genetically engineered foods in California can have the same impact as passing a federal law.

    Large food companies are unlikely to accept having dual labeling; one for California and another for the rest of the country. It would be an expensive logistical nightmare, not to mention a massive PR problem.

    To avoid the dual labeling, many would likely opt to not include using any genetically engineered ingredients in their product, especially if the new label would be the equivalent of a skull and crossbones. Those who opt not to replace GE ingredients from the get-go will likely find themselves unable to sell their products, as a majority of consumers reportedly will not buy foods once they know they're genetically engineered. Unable to sell their products, such companies will eventually be forced to stop contaminating our food with genetically engineered ingredients, or risk going out of business.

    This is what happened in Europe and over 40 countries around the world. It can happen in the U.S. This is why we can't leave California to battle the biotech giants on their own. They need your help! Donating funds to this campaign may be the best money you'll spend all year to safeguard your health, and the health of your children.

    Do you know which foods are genetically engineered when you go grocery shopping for your family? Wouldn't you want to know? Genetically engineered foods have been on the market since 1996. It's time they tell us what's in the food we're eating on a daily basis. Making a generous donation to this campaign is the best chance every American has at this point to make that happen!

The Proverbial David versus Goliath

    Naturally, the biotech industry is not about to let this pass without a fight. Monsanto, the Farm Bureau, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, along with corporate agribusiness, are all raising millions of dollars to spread their propaganda in an effort to defeat the California Ballot Initiative, just like they did a decade ago in Oregon. At that time, a cabal of corporate giants, including Monsanto and DuPont, calling themselves The Coalition Against the Costly Labeling Law, outspent the pro-labeling group 30-1, and successfully defeated the labeling initiative by scaring voters into believing that labeling genetically engineered foods was unnecessary and would raise food prices.

    They did it again in Washington state last month, where campaign contributions to three of the eight politicians on the Senate Agriculture Committee—Democrat Brian Hatfield, and Republicans Jim Honeyford and Mark Schoesler—guaranteed the bill's demise in committee. Right now, the biotech industry is also working to defeat similar GE labeling bills in Vermont, Hawaii, Connecticut, and other states. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, Monsanto spent $8 million on their lobbying efforts in 2010 alone, and gave more than $400,000 in political contributions. Monsanto also spent $120 million on advertising, to convince consumers that genetically engineered foods are safe – despite the overwhelming scientific evidence showing otherwise.

    Let's send them a message, loud and clear: We have the right to know what they put into our food!

    You can do so by making a donation right now. The money will be used to counter the industry propaganda so that we can win this ballot.

We're Dropping the Money Bomb!

    About twenty years ago, the FDA decided to deny consumers the right to know whether their food was genetically altered or not. This shameful regulation was spearheaded by Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto lawyer who transferred into the offices of the FDA. Taylor is not the only ex-Monsanto employee that ended up in a position of power within the US federal government and its regulatory agencies, and this is precisely why previous efforts to get genetically engineered foods labeled have been blocked.

    Not so this time!

    Ballot Initiatives like the one in California is one way for citizens to take back control from compromised politicians and government officials and bypass them entirely. To sweeten the deal further, a group of "Right to Know" public interest organizations and organic companies have pledged to match the first million dollars raised in this nationwide "Drop the Money Bomb on Monsanto Campaign."

    So click here, and help us raise 1 million dollars to win this historic campaign! These "Right to Know" groups include:

        The Organic Consumers Association
        Mercola.com
        Food Democracy Now
        Nature's Path
        Lundberg Family Farms
        Eden Foods, and
        The Organic Consumers Fund
        Institute For Responsible Technology

USDA Confirms Case of Mad Cow in California

A case of mad cow disease in a dairy cow in central California has been confirmed by the USDA. The cow was discovered at a rendering facility run by Baker Commodities in Hanford, California when the company selected the cow for random sampling.

The infected cow was the fourth ever to be discovered in the United States. Bruce Akey, director of the New York State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Cornell University, acted swiftly to characterize this event as merely "just a random mutation that happens every once in a great while".

No one seems to know when the disease was discovered or exactly where the cow was raised, only that the cow was at a rendering plant in central California when the case was discovered.

ABC News reports this is the fourth case of mad cow disease in the U.S. cattle supply since December 2003. "The first U.S. BSE case was in 2003, found in a Washington state dairy cow that had been slaughtered. The second case was found in June 2005 in a cow in Texas, and the third was found in a cow in Alabama in 2006."

If infected from eating meat contaminated with BSE, the disease manifests in humans as a progressive neurological or psychiatric disorder with symptoms that include dementia, seizure, unusual sensory symptoms, dizziness, or progressive unusual mood changes. The illness usually lasts 14 months, and the disease is always fatal. 

Allegedly, no humans have been infected with mad cow disease in the United States, but only because the disease may have never been diagnosed. 

According to ABC News, as of last year, "221 cases of probable vCJD had been reported. This includes 172 in the United Kingdom, 25 in France, five in Spain, four in Ireland and three in the United States, with a smattering of cases in other countries around the world."

The public is being told patients that were diagnosed in the United States were infected while they were residing in the UK or living abroad in Saudi Arabia. A massive outbreak of mad cow disease in the United Kingdom peaked in 1993 and was blamed for the deaths of 180,000 cattle and more than 150 people.