RawForBeauty.com
“Never-Before-Seen-Evidence points to genetically engineered foods as a major contributor to rising disease rates in the US population, especially among children. Gastrointestinal disorders, allergies, inflammatory diseases, and infertility are just some of the problems implicated in humans, pets, livestock, and lab animals that eat genetically modified soybeans and corn.”
”QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us? is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis from Taggart Siegel, director of THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN. Taking us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, this engaging and ultimately uplifting film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva. Together they reveal both the problems and the solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature.”
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Official Film Website: Queen Of The Sun
“Our experience filming honeybees, pollinators and the incredible beings who care for them has led us on a new odyssey to investigate where it all begins: the seed. SEED will be the final film in a trilogy that began with the Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us? and Real Dirt on Farmer John. SEED will investigate the dramatic story of seeds, the basis of life on earth. The film will unveil a David and Goliath battle for the future of our seeds. As many irreplaceable seeds are nearing extinction, SEED follows heroic biodynamic farmers, scientists and seed collectors, who are working tirelessly to preserve agricultural security and seed diversity in an uphill battle against high-tech industrial seed companies and an impending global food crisis.”
“SEED will reveal the awe, wonder and hidden beauty of seeds. We will unearth the resilience and power that all seeds have to sustain, enliven and enrich our humanity. We hope SEED will ignite the imagination of audiences, inspiring them to be part of a new movement to help sustain seed diversity.”
I am not able to find a trailer for SEED that I can embed here so if you’d like to check it out, you can do so Here.
Monsanto has successfully made themselves invincible in each different branch of government.
*As always, foul language warning with Lee Camp’s Moment of Clarity*
After you’ve watched the video, learn more about Monsanto at these links:
http://bit.ly/YOlEHr
http://huff.to/LJGQ0
http://huff.to/ThGOfB
http://bit.ly/ZJLZWO
If you haven’t already watched it, here’s ”The World According To Monsanto” – it is WELL worth the watch time for anyone wanting to know more about Monsanto and their dangerous influence on our world…
Related Content:
GMO Food – Biggest Lie & Scary – What Monsanto Doesn’t Want People to See (secretsofthefed.com)
Monsanto More Powerful Than The U.S. Government (dprogram.net)
US government signs “Monsanto Protection Act” written by Monsanto-sponsored senator (seeker401.wordpress.com)
Surprised? Monsanto Openly Wrote Own Monsanto Protection Act (princevega.com)
New Legislation Would Push Genetically Modified Foods Onto Our Plates (aworldchaos.wordpress.com)
So, folks still think we have two major political parties who are quite different from one another, eh? People think the world would be a much different or better place “If Only…” their candidate and party of choice had won the election of 2012…or 2008…or well, you get the point. Hell, even thought I had found a “purist” party this time around when I jumped on the Libertarian train. Figures that I’d find out only a few short weeks after the election that my beloved Savior Party has been working with the corpo-legislative whores known as The American Legislative Exchange Council…ALEC. There is no place, no party and no politician that the huge agra-giants like Monsanto cannot sink their poisonous roots into…
CLN “The roots of the relationship between Monsanto and the White House go back for decades. Bush senior’s administration was responsible for deeming GMO crops substantially equivalent to non-GMO crops, opening the flood gates for the industry to take over the food supply with little room for the opposition.
Mitt Romney was intimately involved with Monsanto’s transition into biotechnology. During the presidential primaries, Romney named an 11-member agricultural advisory committee that was full of Monsanto connections.”
After promising to label GMO’s during his 2008 campaign, President Obama has opened the doors for the following GM crops during his administration:
Monsanto GMO alfalfa
Monsanto GMO sugar beets
Monsanto GMO BT soybean
Syngenta GMO corn for ethanol
Pioneer GMO soybean
Syngenta GMO BT cotton
Bayer GMO cotton
GMO papaya strain
This is not surprising given the fact that Obama has appointed the following people to regulatory bodies that are supposed to be responsible for the safety of our food (click on the links to see the announcements of Obama’s appointments):
International Business Times – “The “Monsanto Protection Act” is the name opponents of the Farmer Assurance Provision have given to this terrifying piece of policy, and it’s a fitting moniker given its shocking content.
President Barack Obama signed a spending bill, HR 933, into law on Tuesday that includes language that has food and consumer advocates and organic farmers up in arms over their contention that the so-called “Monsanto Protection Act” is a giveaway to corporations that was passed under the cover of darkness.
There’s a lot being said about it, but here are five terrifying facts about the Farmer Assurance Provision — Section 735 of the spending bill — to get you acquainted with the reasons behind the ongoing uproar:
1.) The “Monsanto Protection Act” effectively bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of controversial genetically modified (aka GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) seeds, no matter what health issues may arise concerning GMOs in the future. The advent of genetically modified seeds — which has been driven by the massive Monsanto Company – and their exploding use in farms across America came on fast and has proved a huge boon for Monsanto’s profits.
But many anti-GMO folks argue there have not been enough studies into the potential health risks of this new class of crop. Well, now it appears that even if those studies are completed and they end up revealing severe adverse health effects related to the consumption of genetically modified foods, the courts will have no ability to stop the spread of the seeds and the crops they bear.
2.) The provision’s language was apparently written in collusion with Monsanto. Lawmakers and companies working together to craft legislation is by no means a rare occurrence in this day and age. But the fact that Sen. Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, actually worked with Monsanto on a provision that in effect allows them to keep selling seeds, which can then go on to be planted, even if it is found to be harmful to consumers, is stunning. It’s just another example of corporations bending Congress to their will, and it’s one that could have dire risks for public health in America.
3.) Many members of Congress were apparently unaware that the “Monsanto Protection Act” even existed within the bill they were voting on. HR 933 was a spending bill aimed at averting a government shutdown and ensuring that the federal government would continue to be able to pay its bills. But the Center for Food Safety maintains that many Democrats in Congress were not even aware that the provision was in the legislation:
“In this hidden backroom deal, Sen. [Barbara] Mikulski turned her back on consumer, environmental and farmer protection in favor of corporate welfare for biotech companies such as Monsanto,” Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, said in a statement. “This abuse of power is not the kind of leadership the public has come to expect from Sen. Mikulski or the Democrat Majority in the Senate.”
4.) The President did nothing to stop it, either. On Tuesday, Obama signed HR 933 while the rest of the nation was fixated on gay marriage, as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument concerning California’s Proposition 8. But just because most of the nation and the media were paying attention to gay marriage doesn’t mean that others were not doing their best to express their opposition to the “Monsanto Protection Act.” In fact, more than 250,000 voters signed a petition opposing the provision. And Food Democracy Now protesters even took their fight straight to Obama, protesting in front of the White House against Section 735 of the bill. He signed it anyway.
5.) It sets a terrible precedent. Though it will only remain in effect for six months until the government finds another way to fund its operations, the message it sends is that corporations can get around consumer safety protections if they get Congress on their side. Furthermore, it sets a precedent that suggests that court challenges are a privilege, not a right.” Full Article Here on IBT
Top 10 excuses for Obama signing the Monsanto Protection Act (thesurvivalplaceblog.com)
Obama Signs Monsanto Protection Act Into Law After Promising GMO Labeling in 2007 (naturalsociety.com)
Top 10 excuses for Obama signing the Monsanto Protection Act (jonrappoport.wordpress.com)
FOCUS | Monsanto and the Seeds of Suicide (readersupportednews.org)
Farmers and food safety advocates lead Monsanto backlash (salon.com)
‘Monsanto Protection Act’ slips silently through US Congress (rt.com)
Monsanto Required (Nutrition Optional) (factgammon.wordpress.com)
Obama Betrays Americans Again…with the “Monsanto Protection Act” (thedailysheeple.com)
Monsanto, DuPont bury the lawsuit hatchet, set to make more GMO (EndtheLie.com)
Monsanto is up to no good… AGAIN! (thebubbaeffect.wordpress.com)
(NASDAQ) – Chemicals giant EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. ( DD ), commonly called DuPont, has reached technology
licensing deals with Monsanto Co. ( MON ) on genetically modified seed traits, the two companies said Tuesday. Both the companies also agreed to dismiss their antitrust and patent infringement lawsuits pending against each other in U.S. federal court.
Under the deals reached between the two companies, DuPont will make a total of $1.75 billion in royalty payments to Monsanto for the technology licensing deals, while a $1 billion jury verdict awarded to Monsanto in August 2012 in its patent infringement lawsuit against DuPont will be dismissed. Monsanto is the world’s largest seed company.
The agreements between DuPont and Monsanto include a multi-year, royalty-bearing license for Monsanto’s next-generation soybean technologies in the U.S. and Canada. Through these deals, DuPont’s subsidiary, DuPont Pioneer will be able to offer Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans as early as 2014, and Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Xtend glyphosate and dicamba tolerant soybeans as early as 2015, pending regulatory approvals.
DuPont Pioneer also will receive regulatory data rights for the soybean and corn traits previously licensed from Monsanto, enabling it to create a wide array of stacked trait combinations using traits or genetics from DuPont Pioneer or others. Meanwhile, Monsanto will receive access to certain DuPont Pioneer disease resistance and corn defoliation patents.
As part of the deal, DuPont Pioneer will make four annual fixed royalty payments from 2014 to 2017 totaling $802 million for trait technology, associated data, and soybean lines to support commercial introduction.
Additionally, beginning in 2018, DuPont Pioneer will pay royalties on a per-unit basis of Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield and Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Xtend for the life of the agreement for continued technology access. Annual minimum payments through 2023 will total $950 million…” Full Story Here
Monsanto Up, DuPont Down After Settlement & Deal (blogs.barrons.com)
Deal Sprouts For Monsanto, DuPont (cen.acs.org)
Monsanto, DuPont bury the lawsuit hatchet, set to make more GMO (rt.com)
Not a new article but one that is still very chilling and is something that we should all keep in mind. Pay attention and fight local ordinances and laws that prohibit the collection of rainwater…what may seem slightly trivial now is going to matter more than you can imagine in the not-to-distant future. Texas just sued my home state of NM over water rights; corporations and governments are looking ahead but we the people are the ones with the most to lose and yet, we are the ones who do not yet seem to see the writing on the wall.
What could be more basic than the right to water? Think about it. Think about having every source of water on the planet being privately owned and restricted? Look ahead, look up, wake and see what’s coming. Do what you can in your area to stop water privatization…if you want your kids and grandkids to know what it’s like to swim in a pond, lake or river…or if you want to know they will not literally die of thirst if they cannot afford water…start paying attention and fighting these moves…while there is still time to make a difference.
Excerpts (Natural News 4/18/2012)
“Four dollars for a gallon of gas is ridiculous enough, but $4 for a gallon of water could someday became a reality, that is if oil tycoons like T. Boone Pickens and water bottling companies have their way. Privatization of water in which companies control the public’s water sources and free water is a thing of the past appears to be what Pickens and corporations such as Monsanto, Royal Dutch Shell, and Nestle are banking on to increase their vast fortunes…
…The Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development estimates that half the world’s population will reside in areas with significant water stress by 2030. According to a government report entitled Global Water Security, the demand for water will be 40 percent above sustainable water supplies with needs around 6,900 billion cubic meters due to population growth. By 2025, the world’s population will likely exceed 8 billion people.
Private corporations already own 5 percent of the world’s fresh water. Australia is an excellent example of a country already suffering from multiple water droughts. Farmers are selling water rights to brokers, unaware of the long-term effects.
The United States is by no means immune to these plots. Royal Dutch Shell owns groundwater rights in Colorado and oil tycoon Pickens is buying up all he can in Texas. He owns more water than any other person in the U.S. His plan is to sell the water owns, around 65 billion gallons annually, to Dallas and other major cities affected by droughts. Pickens hopes to profit off of desperation, saying “There are people who will buy the water when they need it. And the people who have the water want to sell it. That’s the blood, guts, and feathers of the thing.” He also owns a massive wind farm in the area and natural gas resources, but has admitted that he is no environmentalist, only an entrepreneur who goes where the money is…
…Lawmakers in most states did not foresee water privatization because water was once plentiful. As such, in some cases the only people who legally have a right to stop water privatization plans are the people who reside on the water property. For Pickens and his land near the Ogallala Aquifer this means that he, his wife and three of his employees are the only people who have a say in his privatization plans, according to EarthFirst.com.
The only way people can fight this despicable process is to refuse to support it. Water districts across the U.S. are refusing to purchase water from private companies. If Pickens, Monsanto and others have no one to sell the water to then they will give up. They are only in it for the money. No buyers means no profit…”
Related articles
Vernon Hugh Bowman, an Indiana farmer, is challenging Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, over genetically modified crops.
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NYTimes Excerpt - ”With his mere 300 acres of soybeans, corn and wheat, Vernon Hugh Bowman said, “I’m not even big enough to be called a farmer.”
Yet the 75-year-old farmer from southwestern Indiana will face off Tuesday against the world’s largest seed company, Monsanto, in a Supreme Court case that could have a huge impact on the future of genetically modified crops, and also affect other fields from medical research to software.
At stake in Mr. Bowman’s case is whether patents on seeds — or other things that can self-replicate — extend beyond the first generation of the products.
It is one of two cases before the Supreme Court related to the patenting of living organisms, a practice that has helped give rise to the biotechnology industry but which critics have long considered immoral. The other case, involving a breast cancer risk test from Myriad Genetics, will determine whether human genes can be patented. It is scheduled to be heard April 15.
Monsanto says that a victory for Mr. Bowman would allow farmers to essentially save seeds from one year’s crop to plant the next year, eviscerating patent protection. In Mr. Bowman’s part of Indiana, it says, a single acre of soybeans can produce enough seeds to plant 26 acres the next year.
Such a ruling would “devastate innovation in biotechnology,” the company wrote in its brief. “Investors are unlikely to make such investments if they cannot prevent purchasers of living organisms containing their invention from using them to produce unlimited copies.” NYTimes
1,500 colonies of honeybees, from a community in Hopelchen, Campeche, died this February 6 from the fumigation of Monsanto’s GMO’s in a nearby area.
Genetically Modified Food (Photo credit: Peter Blanchard)
Yucatan Times – “This has directly impacted more than 50 impoverished families, who recently suffered a poor corn crop due to drought. The community was relying on their sale of organic honey to compensate for the lack of maize. The current honey left by the bees is also lost due to the contamination of pesticides and transgenic pollen.
Alvaro Mena, a mayan farmer from Hopelchen and member of the Network in Defense of Maize, estimated losses at nearly 10 million pesos and is the equivalent of one year’s worth of corn and honey production for the community.
Fumigation has intensified where GM crops have been planted in Mexico. GMO’s are known to be resistant to pesticides and are planted in large monocultures, applying huge amounts of Roundup. It is no accident says Mena: it is the toxic onslaught that comes with GM crops and the threat of allowing millions of acres of GM Maize to be planted.
Mena attended the debate at which officials failed to attend and began with his witness of GMO’s. Thousands showed up to participate in the debate on GM maize on Thursday, February 7, in a packed auditorium of the Faculty of Science, organized by several networks, including #YoSoy132 Environmental Via Campesina Popular Urban Movement, and the Network in Defense of Maize…
…At the debate, the convening organizations, including urban, rural and students expressed their critical views on GMOs from their perspectives. They manifested their intent to stop the planting of GM maize and will continue through all struggles and will do all that they can to not allow the government to impose, against the interests of the vast majority of the population, GM Maize for the benefit of Government and a few multinationals. They agreed to promote further discussions, forums and activities, and strengthen the links between the organizations to avoid GM foods and crops. Also they will promote the widest possible participation in the pre-hearings on Corn and Food Sovereignty of the Permanent Peoples Tribunal, which among other topics will hold a pre-hearing of scientific evidence on GM and failures and corruption of the biosecurity system in the country…” Full Story on Yucatan Times
Related articles
- Philip Angell, Monsanto’s director of corporate communications. “Playing God in the Garden” New York Times Magazine, October 25, 1998.
Excerpts, Common Dreams – “The fight to label genetically modified (gmo) foods is now on in Hawaii and Connecticut signaling that, despite big agriculture’s defeat of California’s Proposition 37 in November, proponents of seed and food sovereignty refuse to back down.
On Thursday, the group GMO Free CT held a press conference at the state’s legislative office to launch a new anti-GMO initiative calling on the Connecticut Legislature to support and pass a bill to label genetically engineered food in the state, the New Haven Register reports.
Calling the use of GMOs in food “a very large, uncontrolled experiment with human health,” William Duesing, Executive Director of the Connecticut branch of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), spoke before the group. “The vast amount of GMO crops are designed as sales tools for specific herbicides. The majority of those sales tools are for Roundup (which) kills most green plants that haven’t been engineered to resist it,” he said.
Food activists in Hawaii won a partial victory this week when the House Committee on Agriculture passed a measure to require labeling on genetically modified food.
Originally, House Bill 174 required any food product that is produced or sold in Hawaii to have a label saying it contains or was made using genetically engineered materials, but Thursday’s committee hearing amended the requirements so it only applies to produce imported from outside Hawaii, Associated Press reports.
Despite this provision, Hawaii is a ripe battleground for new legislation. According to the anti-GMO organization Hawai’i Seed, “Hawai‘i is the genetic engineering experimental capital of the world,” with thousands of acres of arable farmland being used to test seed crops for agriculture giants, including Monsanto.” Full Article on Common Dreams
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via SourceWatch- Monsanto gave $658,207 to federal candidates in the 2010 election cycle through its political action committee (PAC) – 48% to Democrats, 52% to Republicans.
In 2012, Monsanto spent $4.2 million financing “No On 37″, a group supported by other GMO food manufacturers like DuPont, Dow, and Bayer. “No On 37″ opposed California proposition 37, which would require labels on most genetically modified food products.
2012 Monsanto Lobbying Data:
According to the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, the average per-acre cost of soybean and corn seed increased 325% and 259%, respectively, between 1995 and 2011. This is roughly the time period when acreage of GM corn and soy grew from less than 20% to more than 80-90%
Excerpt, The Organic & Non-GMO Report -”The introduction of genetically modified crops has corresponded with increasing monopolization of seed by biotechnology companies and higher seed costs that have led to tragedies in some countries, while pushing out conventional, non-GMO seeds, and reducing farmer seed choices. These impacts are being seen in the United States, Brazil, India, the Philippines, and South Africa, and even Europe.
According to Philip Howard, a researcher at Michigan State University, economists say that when four firms control 40% of a market, it is no longer competitive. According to AgWeb, the “big four” biotech seed companies—Monsanto, DuPont/Pioneer Hi-Bred, Syngenta, and Dow AgroSciences—own 80% of the US corn market and 70% of the soybean business.
Monsanto has become the world’s largest seed company in less than 10 years by capturing markets for corn, soybean, cotton, and vegetable seeds, according to a report by the Farmer to Farmer Campaign. In addition to selling seeds, Monsanto licenses its genetically modified traits to other seed companies. As a result, more than 80% of US corn and more than 90% of soybeans planted each year contain Monsanto’s patented GM traits.
Other factors that have led to industry domination by a few players include purchase of smaller seed companies by larger companies, weak antitrust law enforcement, and Supreme Court decisions that allowed GM crops and other plant materials to be patented, while prohibiting seed saving by farmers…” Full Article Here
For those not already familiar with J. Craig Venter, I added links in bold to the article excerpt below that highlight more of his history. I’ll give you a spoiler…he was a huge part of that wonderfully successful BP Oil Spill ‘clean-up’…he created an e-coli based bacteria that eats iron and it was dumped…or was it sprayed?…all across the Gulf of Mexico….*shudders* It eats iron…how much iron is in the human body..?
Monsanto + Craig Venter…the Ultimate Match Made in Heaven…er, HELL…
UT San Diego - “Monsanto Corp. has acquired part of a La Jolla agricultural biotech in a deal that gives the St. Louis food giant a presence in San Diego for the first time.
Monsanto purchased crop-boosting microbial technology from Agradis, a spinoff of Synthetic Genomics, the companies said Wednesday. Monsanto also made an equity investment in Synthetic Genomics and signed a research agreement with the company. Terms were not disclosed.
The acquisition gives Monsanto access to some of the newest and most sophisticated technologies for improving crop yields and preventing loss from disease. And while genetic technology is fundamental, it’s mostly being used to find naturally occurring beneficial microbes.
Synthetic Genomics was founded in 2005 by gene pioneer J. Craig Venter to solve energy and environmental challenges. As part of the acquisition, seven Agradis employees researching helpful microbes were hired by Monsanto, said Joe Mahler, Synthetic Genomics’ chief financial officer…
…Synthetic Genomics and Plenus are forming a new company with the parts of Agradis not purchased by Monsanto, Mahler said.
The company, AgraCast, controls breeding and genetic improvement technologies for castor and sweet sorghum, along with an antifungal product for fruits and vegetables. Employees with the new company will move out of the Agradis office to a new one nearby, Mahler said.
Oh, gosh, golly, gee-frickin’-whiz!!
Monsanto shareholders voted to do the wrong thing and denied a proposal that would finally force them to admit their GMO crops cause damage and harm to organic farms…who’d have thunk they’d so such a thing?
Monsanto shareholders voted down a proposal Thursday that would have forced the biotech seed giant to report on how its genetically modified products might affect organic farmers.
Only 7 percent of votes cast by shareholders were in favor of the proposal, the Creve Coeur-based company said Thursday.
Monsanto had opposed the proposal, which would have required the company to make a report on the financial impact of the unintentional introduction of GMO seeds into organic farms.
In other matters at the company’s annual meeting Thursday, shareholders re-elected four members to three-year terms on Monsanto’s board of directors. Shareholders approved a proposal to phase out the current three-year, staggered terms of directors in favor of annual election of directors. They will serve one-year terms, beginning next year.
CREVE COEUR, MO – On Thursday, January 31, 2013, the Monsanto Company officers and shareholders will vote on a shareholder proposal to create a study of “material financial risks or operational impacts” associated with its chemical products and patented genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Activists in favor of the measure will demonstrate outside the meeting to raise awareness that the public does not currently have the right to witness what will be the only democratic vote of accountability on Monsanto’s leadership because the company bans cameras inside their Annual Shareholder Meeting.
WHO: Anti-GMO Food Activists, Adam Eidinger, Monsanto Shareholder
WHAT: Protest at Monsanto Annual Shareholder Meeting
WHERE: Monsanto Global Headquarters, Creve Coeur, MO, East Campus Entrance on Olive Blvd.
WHEN: Thursday, January 31, 2013, Noon to 3:30PM
“Monsanto pledges transparency, but provides very little,” says Adam Eidinger, an organic food activist and Monsanto shareholder who organized a march from NY to Washington, DC on behalf of honest food labeling in 2011. For the second year in a row, Eidinger will present a shareholder resolution on behalf of Napa, California-based Harrington Investments (HII) with help from the Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA).
“Companies like Starbucks, Walmart, The Washington Post, Oracle, Apple and Coca-Cola among many others provide the public and media access to their shareholder meetings in one form or another, but Monsanto, a company who’s patented genetically engineered products are in most people’s food, meets in secret,” says Eidinger.
What the biotech industry doesn’t want you to know – how industry manipulation and political collusion, not sound science, allow dangerous genetically engineered food into your daily diet. Company research is rigged, alarming evidence of health dangers is covered up, and intense political pressure applied…
Scientists were offered bribes or threatened. Evidence was stolen. Data was omitted or distorted.
Government employees who complained were harassed, stripped of responsibilities, or fired.
Laboratory rats fed a GM crop developed stomach lesions and seven of the forty died within two weeks.
The crop was approved without further tests.
The only independent in-depth feeding study ever conducted showed evidence of alarming health dangers.
When the scientist tried to alert the public, he lost his job and was silenced with threats of a lawsuit.
ConAgra: Genetically Modified Foods You Love (g1a2d0035c1) (Photo credit: watchingfrogsboil)
Do these GM foods impact the behavior of our children? You decide…
Watch Full Length GMO Trilogy Documentary Here
DuPont…perpetrate a fraud..? *Gasp*…Unthinkable! Unimaginable…Or Notsomuch…
Excerpt Bloomberg Business – A DuPont Co. (DD) shareholder sued company directors and Chief Executive Officer Ellen Kullman, claiming mismanagement of the seed business led to a $1 billion judgment that threatens to wipe out the company’s cash.
In a complaint filed Jan. 16 in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, shareholder Robert Zomolosky asked a judge to force Kullman and the board to pay any damages stemming from DuPont’s loss of a patent lawsuit involving Monsanto Co. (MON)’s weed killer, Roundup. The jury award, the third-biggest last year, could grow to $3 billion depending on future legal rulings, according to the lawsuit.
The patent case grew out of the company’s effort to compete with Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crop business, which held 90 percent of the market for soybean and cotton seeds as of 2008, according to the lawsuit. Because DuPont’s research wasn’t producing results, company managers used Monsanto’s technology to try to create seeds that could resist Roundup, a key requirement for farmers, Zomolosky claims.
The Wilmington-based company plans to appeal the jury’s verdict, according to the complaint, and has asked the judge to overturn the award.
During that patent lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Richard Webber ruled that DuPont “knowingly perpetrated a fraud against the court,” by lying in court and to investors about its right to use Monsanto’s seed technology.
The Monsanto plant in Nitro produced herbicides, rubber products and other chemicals. The plant’s production of the defoliant Agent Orange created dioxin as a toxic chemical byproduct.
Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, endometriosis, infertility and suppressed immune functions. It builds up in tissue over time, so even small exposures can accumulate to dangerous levels.
The Exponent Telegram - A judge gave final approval Friday to a settlement between chemical manufacturer Monsanto Co. and thousands of West Virginia residents over pollution claims.
A $93 million settlement was reached last February with residents who said Monsanto polluted their community by burning waste from production of the defoliant Agent Orange.
St. Louis-based Monsanto had agreed to pay up to $84 million for medical monitoring and $9 million to clean up 4,500 homes. Monsanto also agreed to pay legal fees.
The litigation began with a lawsuit by plant workers in the mid-1980s. Cases involving current and former residents were consolidated into a class-action lawsuit in 2008.
Swope dismissed objections to the settlement, calling it an “all or nothing” approval. Some class members had argued the settlement wasn’t fair and reasonable.
“Monsanto Co. will waive two years of payment on Roundup Ready soybeans for Brazilian farmers who agree to waive legal claims against the seed company in an effort to resolve a patent dispute, the company announced today.
Monsanto will waive two years of payment on Roundup Ready soybeans for Brazilian farmers who agree to waive legal claims against the seed company.
The new policy, which company officials said has the backing of a Brazilian farmers’ organization, seeks to end a conflict between farmers, who claim the patent on Roundup Ready soybeans ended in 2010, and Monsanto officials, who say the patent extends to 2014.
Participating farmers will be released from payment of technology royalty fees for first-generation Roundup Ready soybeans for the next two years in exchange for waiving legal claims for payments made during the last two years. Farmers who do not participate will still pay royalties to cover the first-generation Roundup Ready soybeans.”
Full Story on St. Louis Biz Talk
From Organic Consumers Association – “Irradiated fruits and vegetables benefit the packer and grocer, not the farmer or consumer. The consumer receives an inferior product that appears fresh, but has depleted vitamins and enzymes.
The FDA has proposed a new rule under the 2010 Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), one aimed at preventing foodborne illnesses. One of the ways for producers of fruits and vegetables to avoid having to comply with the new rule would be to irradiate their products.
The FDA would have us believe that irradiation is perfectly safe. Yet research has revealed a wide range of problems in animals that ate irradiated food, including premature death, a rare form of cancer, reproductive dysfunction, chromosomal abnormalities, liver damage, low weight gain and vitamin deficiencies.”
I am doubtful that the Monsanto managers over at the FDA will much care but if you’d like to let ‘em know how you feel anyways, you can do so by clicking the link below.
Take action today! Tell the FDA: Don’t irradiate my veggies!
Because it increases the shelf life of food and is used in large, centralized facilities, irradiation encourages globalization and consolidation of the food production, distribution and retailing industries. These trends have already forced multitudes of family farmers and ranchers out of business, reduced the diversity of products in the marketplace, disrupted local economies in developing nations, and put American farmers and ranchers at a great economic disadvantage.
They’ll want to know if farmers are replanting soybean seeds a second year, in violation of a contract they sign when they purchase bags of soybean seeds for planting.
If necessary, plant samples will undergo a form of agricultural forensics through DNA laboratory analysis.
“The investigations will be random, and the investigators will sit down with the farmers and help them comply,” said Randy Schlatter, manager of intellectual property for DuPont Pioneer.
Generations of farmers have saved seeds from one harvest to the next, in part to avoid buying new seed. But since the dawn of the biotechnology age in the late 1990s, seed companies have enforced their intellectual property rights.
Courts have generally backed the companies, but the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in October to consider how far the planting restrictions can go.
Monsanto, Pioneer’s rival in the seed business, has sued some farmers over violations of its Roundup Ready genetic trait used in soybeans.
Schlatter hopes matters won’t go that far with DuPont Pioneer customers. “We respect the growers, and want to keep them as friends and customers,” he said.
Monsanto has sued to protect its Roundup Ready trait, which is widely licensed to DuPont Pioneer and other seed companies. The seed’s DNA genetics have been modified to enable the soybean plant to thrive after Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide has been applied.
But the patent for Roundup Ready expires next year.
DuPont Pioneer and other seed companies are thus left on their own to enforce other biotechnology or breeding patents that may be in a single soybean plant.
“Monsanto’s been the bad guy for a long time, and now Pioneer has to step up,” said soybean farmer Roy Bardole of Rippey…”
Agricultural products giant Monsanto reported Tuesday that its profit nearly tripled in the first fiscal quarter as sales of its biotech corn seeds expanded in Latin America.
The company raised its earnings guidance for the year, briefly lifting its shares to its highest level in more than four years.
The company’s sales grew 21 percent to $2.9 billion in the quarter, with most of increase coming from the company’s corn seed business.
The St. Louis company earned $339 million, or 63 cents per share in the three months ended November 30. That compares to earnings of $126 million, or 23 cents per share, in last year’s quarter.
Monsanto’s results easily trumped analyst predictions of 36 cents per share on sales of $2.6 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.
The company’s first fiscal period is usually not very profitable, as farming operations slow during the fall months in the U.S. and Europe. But increased sales in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and other Latin American countries helped drive earnings from September through November.
Check out the eighteen projects from Monsanto’s R & D that are moving forward in 2013
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