News

Monsanto addresses food dumping campaign

The political director of the Organic Consumers Association and other activists claim they were arrested at a Chicago Whole Foods Market during their protest of unlabeled Genetically Modified foods Wednesday.

The association’s campaign “Millions Against Monsanto” involved dumping what the group said were GMO foods – in front of the Whole Foods Market in Lincoln Park.

Monsanto’s Mimi Ricketts tells Brownfield this is clearly a swipe at biotech.

“They’re using Monsanto’s name but I think, overall, they’re attacking biotechnology,” says Ricketts, “You know, we know that before any commodity biotech crops are approved to plant, testing and government reviews will establish that they are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.”

Similar activist protests are going on across the country.

“You know, the organizers of these rallies, they’re working hard to confuse and misinform consumers that there’s something wrong with these products,” says Ricketts.

A Whole Foods spokesperson tells the Chicagoist.com that the company had nothing to do with the arrests and that they welcome more awareness about GMOs. Whole Foods founded the “Non-GMO Product Verified” program in 2009. Although most of their suppliers are organic, they encourage others that are not to also go through the program.

  • I thought it was the GM industry who were trying to confuse and misinform consumers. They said that Bt toxin was destroyed in the stomach, this has been revealed to be a lie: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1388888/GM-food-toxins-blood-93-unborn-babies.html

    Many other claims were also shown to be untrue, such as reduced consumption of agrochemicals and the possibility of the creation of drought-resistant crops through genetic modification, on which the GM industry still hasn’t delivered, despite having started work over 30 years ago and securing billions of dollars for research:
    http://www.simplygreen.co.za/articles/articles/greenwashing-genetically-modified-crops.html

    Meanwhile, organic crops can double food production in a country in about 10 years, according to UN special rapporteur Olivier de Schutter, in contrast to the GM industry’s claims about their products increasing yields, which have never really materialized: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/08/eco-farming-double-food-output

    So, who’s really lying ? It seems to me the GM industry’s claims are being proven wrong at every turn, but they have a chronic problem of being at best unrealistic, at worst willfully deceptive.

  • If this is true:
    “They’re using Monsanto’s name but I think, overall, they’re attacking biotechnology,” says Ricketts, “You know, we know that before any commodity biotech crops are approved to plant, testing and government reviews will establish that they are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.”

    If there truly is no difference, how can genetically modified seeds be patented? How can there be a test to detect the genes? This makes no sense.

  • If there is no difference between GMO and non-GMO foods, then, Monsanto, do tell me why on Earth you are fighting so hard against mandatory labelling of GMO food? Are we not “smart enough” to make our own choice?

  • Confused? Misinformed? Not in the least. We who oppose GMO foods would just like healthy food that tastes better. Oh, and we should have the right to know what we’re eating.

  • “testing and government reviews will establish that they are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.”

    Is this similar to testing that was done for BPA, thalidomide, and the thousands of other chemicals newly synthesized every year in this country?

    If biotechnology was environmentally friendly, supportive of small-scale agriculture, and truly had no impact on human health then I might be in favor. The first two points are clearly not true, and the third is debatable.

    Label all GMO.

  • “…testing and government reviews will establish that they are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.”

    Then why is Monsanto patenting them??? Why are they suing unsuspecting farmers whose crops are cross-pollinated by NATURE??

    Who’s misleading and confusing whom??

    **4-letter word edited out of this post before approving – Cyndi

  • If there’s nothing to be “confused” about, then label the products plainly, so that I can have a choice about what I put inside of MY body.

  • Since I live in the United States, I live in a democracy. This means that I should have the right to both grow and purchase foods that are untainted by GMO$. Now, I also live in an ecosystem which means that there is constant movement and migration of all forms of life. So, tell me, how can I be guaranteed my rights in this issue if these GMO$ are impacting both the foods I grow and the foods I eat? I see a problem! I also see a problem that a percentage of the taxes I pay to the government of this democracy also supports interests that are in direct conflict with my rights. Subsidies for crops that are fully genetically modified and that are contaminating the ecosystem in which I live. Until we address these key pieces of the puzzle and take charge as educated and informed consumers and citizens, companies like Monsanto will always be enabled to insert their bottom line interests into our democracy. Consumers Stand UP!

  • Health before wealth. No more uninformed or mis-informed consumers of agri-biz at ANY level! Do you really think we don’t know why all our farm families are dying of cancer and weird neurological disorders? Or why so many of our children have health problems that have nothing to do with their genes?

  • You have to be simple to be confused and I assure you I’m not either! I know what I want in my fridge, on my plate and in my body! At no point in time will it ever be something created in a lab, completely removed from nature and from the hands of a mad scientist who has a god complex!

  • The purpose of the patent system is to introduce useful technology to the public by allowing the inventor a monopoly for a period of years. The patents Monsanto has seem to be useful only to Monsanto and degrade the food supply as a side effect. The goal of these demonstrators is to get labeling so that consumers can choose whether to consume GMO or not. Similar labeling allows me to avoid saccharine, aspartame, high fructose corn syrup and other things which although regularly available, are not healthy for me in the quantities currently used in many processed foods. We have not even touched on the creation of super pests and super weeds from the spread of these patented seeds.

  • If Monsanto is as credible as it claims; if Monsanto is in business to help the greater good; if Monsanto didn’t hide behind corporate veils and its subsidiaries; if Monsanto didn’t tamper w/ Mother Nature and sterilize seed, buy up every seed company it can extort, or sue farmers for ridiculous intellectual property claims (honestly, who owns the earth?) or literally destroy the farmer economically; if Monsanto didn’t go to India and poison the farmers and their crops; if Monsanto can keep senators and lawmakers in their pockets. . .

    Do you see the pattern here? Who trusts Monsanto? The company is a monstrosity in terms of ‘its actions speak louder than its bullshit.’ People are attacking biotechnology? Seriously? If those who are involved in biotechnology possessed an ounce of human compassion, they’d be intelligent. Biotechnology is yet another veil for despots to hide under.

    If millions are against Monsanto, good; I only hope more millions join us.

  • Monsanto is trying to confuse and misinform the public by NOT telling us what is in our food. If it is nothing to worry about then LABEL it. Let the consumers make their own choices. Don’t choose for us by lying to us about what we are eating.

    Treat people with respect. Don’t railroad farmers and tell consumers the truth.

  • GMO foods ARE different. They’re genetically altered and sprayed repeatedly with toxic chemicals (or engineered with the pesticides inside the produce). I don’t understand the statement that they “… are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.” Exactly who is trying to mislead people? Seriously? Just label them and let US decide what WE want to put into OUR bodies.

  • Monsanto is at the forefront of corporate efforts to profit from the destruction of nature. Like the suits against tobacco for harm from second hand smoke, Monsanto should be held accountable for damage to the genome of crops and weeds done by the release of pollen contaminated by GM Toxins. Infants and breast milk are now contaminated as well by GM toxins. This is a sin and a crime and should be treated accordingly. Monsanto needs to face legal sanctions for harm already done.

  • “You know, we know that before any commodity biotech crops are approved to plant, testing and government reviews will establish that they are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.”

    If there is no differece in composition, then why do you try so hard to hide it? Why do you prosecute farmers when their seeds cross contaminate with your precious GMO seeds? If there’s no difference, there’s no issue there, right?

    Let’s take a look at Michael Taylor. The man who bounces between careers at the USDA and FDA and…..Monsanto? What’s that? Yep, one of the people in charge of protecting the US food supply has also worked for Monsanto in between his USDA and FDA job hopping. It’s not like this man is doing freelance work writing articles for these government agencies and Monsanto. He’s a full fledged, high powered, highly compensated executive. How is that not a conflict of interest?

    Of course, we all know you won’t address the critical questions that we have. You have a whole portion of your website devoted to skirting around the issues.

    If anyone is trying to confuse someone, it’s Monsanto. The same company that made Agent Orange a household name are now supplying our food. We all know how Agent Orange turned out.

  • Technology is not the problem… the problem is when people use it to further their own agendas, that said, the swipe monsanto has taken is a personal one.

  • I as a consumer and future mother want to know what I’m buying, where it was grown and how. Studies continue to prove that GM foods are NOT better than other crops and in some cases are worse! If there’s no difference, then why are you bothering to make GM foods? Doesn’t that cost more? Are you getting Federal funding to come up with these GM foods that are no different from traditionally produced foods? Are tax payers paying you to do the same thing in a more expensive way? If there’s no difference then way is Monsanto as a company so hell bent on making sure that Legislation requiring them to label GM foods doesn’t pass? Why did a CEO for Monsanto say it would be the same as putting a skull and cross bones on the label? I have a right to know what I am putting into my body, that’s why there are ingredient labels. And that’s the end of it in my opinion.

  • Give consumers a choice. If Monsanto claims that GMO foods are not unhealthy, they should not oppose labeling them. The OCA is protecting consumers. Monsanto is merely protecting its bottom line.

  • The way I see it… Biotech, esp. Monsanto started it. The activists are merely exercising their right to self-defence. Let us all be really clear about who is the aggressor in this situation.

  • I am sometimes one of those rally organizers and there is no need for me to misguide or misinform anyone. The Monsanto record speaks the truth for me, in volumes!

    It is an attack against both, a slap in the face of Monsanto and a kick in the ass end of biotech!

    DDT, Agent Orange, PCBs, now GMOs? Yeah, history just keeps repeating itself when your name is Monsanto.

  • As my eight year old son said, Monsanto is goin down! Even 8 year olds know better than to ingest poison. It is time for the truth. If The BIotech industry beleives in it’s product, then they should proudly label it. Label your product and stand behind it.

  • Obama better hop the fence on this one, back to the right side. May cost him his re election in 2012. Get rid of Villsacks and the company he consorts with. We are not lab rats to be tested on.

  • Monsanto needs to let the market decide. Mark all the food that has GMO’s in the ingredients. Oh, and let organic farmers treat the blowing pollen from your patented “crop organisms” as the biological contaminant that it is – and have legal recourse to stop it. Too much to ask for Monsanto’s bottom line? Maybe Monsanto should switch to a more socially responsible product line.

  • The best argument so far as I see it, apart from all the other wonderful views that pertain to this topic and the concerns expressed, is that we have the inherent right to know what we are eating and to purchase from trustworthy and reliable sources, or to grow our own, without worries that our foods will no longer be the natural variety, but instead transferring are genes that were developed in a laboratory, for personal profit of a few.

  • As many others have already pointed out, the statement that GM products “are no different in their composition…” is false on its face. It is precisely those differences that require testing and approval by the FDA and USDA, that is why the products are patented, and that is how it is marketed to farmers.

    Don’t insult our intelligence.

  • The hidden agenda of Monsanto and the other biotech companies is to secure the total control of the entire food production industry and therefore secure permanent and guaranteed profits every single day of every single year for ever more.
    After all food is like air and water……..we cannot live without them.
    As for attacking Monsanto? Well I have never come across a company that so blatantly lies about the commodities that it produces to the extent that even when they pollute peoples lives with waste chemicals they still deny that its their problem. Take Brocifin Quarry in Wales, UK. They used it as a dump for PCB’s, Dioxins and a whole host of other highly dangerous chemical by products during the 60′ and 70′. Worth remembering that they don’t just specialise in killing foliage in foreign lands.

    GMO’s should be banned permanently and anyone experimenting with them should be sent to another planet in the far reaches of deep space. Preferably a rock without any atmosphere.

  • Monsanto is one of the largest and most predatorial bio-tach companies in the world! Aside from certain banks, this company continues to destroy peoples lives, hide behind marketing schemes and push small farmers into destitution. It is time Monsanto gets a clue. Its time that the people of the world get a clue about monsanto. I have been petition everyone I know not to use Round up! Action such as this needs to happen more often around the nation.

  • How dare people push GMOs down our throats! I Mean theres no room for good old Organics when the Genetic Freaks are about! Hows that FAIR! We get NO CHOICE! Hunger is still, if not more prominent with these wonderful freaks that were meant to end world hunger! So theres that theory squashed! The Natural Environment that sustains us all is soooo under threat from these freaks! Hows that fair!!!
    Hows it fair or building community when one neighbour has to sue another that he quite likes because GE Canola ruins his Organic crops and livelyhood and he cant afford to try to sue Monsato. Hows that Fair! People should have the choice to eat NATURAL! But they Dont! and thats Just so unfair! When there are so many risks! why would you go there?

  • to Mimi Ricketts: no, it is not a swipe at bio-tech companies in general. It is a direct attempt of the informed masses to get the uninformed masses to understand that Monsanto, specifically, is an enemy of the earth, of farmers, and of consumers. I am proud to be one of the Millions Against Monsanto!! And Whole Foods deserves the demonstration on their front step because they talk out of one side of their mouths that they are ensuring that they don’t sell any foods with GMO’s and that “most of their products are organic”. No, less than 1/3 of the products they carry are Organic, and many many of their products are made by companies which started out small with all-natural, high quality ingredients, and were then bought out by the giant food corporations, and quietly changed the formulations to include cheap, disgusting GMOs. Why would they do this? For the same reason that Monsanto is evil: profits before people! profits before safety! profits before truth! one day, money will be less important than safe, clean water, soil, air and food.

  • Just because Dan Quayle was bought off in the 80’s to ‘legislate’ that GMO’s ‘are substantially equivalent’ to non-GMO REAL food doesn’t make it true. It was a bloody lie then and it’s a bloody lie now. If GMO’s are so wonderful and ‘equivalent’, then LABEL THEM.

  • More people committed suicide, starved, and died in India from the complete loss of livelihood from failed Monsanto crops and their predatory loans than in any recent war or wars combined. This can be equated to mass genocide of subsistence farmers.

  • I agree with this comment 100%

    “If there’s nothing to be “confused” about, then label the products plainly, so that I can have a choice about what I put inside of MY body.”

  • Dear Monsanto,

    Your days are numbered. We are fed up with your dangerous and undemocratic moves to control our food supply, to take control of the very seeds our farmers have carefully saved and bred for generations, and to force your invisible ingredients into the mouths of consumers for “benefits” that serve no-one but you.

    Your track record for poisoning humans and wildlife is stacked high against you, and the time is coming when it will all come crashing down.

    All GMOs should be labeled, immediately. Why do the USA and Canada insist on keeping GMO ingredients a dark secret when the majority of the world has the courtesy to give their citizens a choice?

    Your corporation is an abomination against humanity and against all life. May you reap EXACTLY what you have sewn.

    No love from me,
    Henny

  • I seem to recall Monsanto and other groups stating that they don’t want to label foods GMO due to the fact they don’t want to “confuse people” with labeling. We are all just really dumb and should just take what we’re given right?

  • “You know, we know that before any commodity biotech crops are approved to plant, testing and government reviews will establish that they are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.”

    -Then why the need for patents? And why is Mansanto suing innocent farmers whose crops are cross pollinated NATURALLY, beyond their control, with said patented seeds?

    -And, why such an aversion to labeling products for what they are? If there truly is NO DIFFERENCE, then label them for what they are, and stand behind your product.

    “You know, the organizers of these rallies, they’re working hard to confuse and misinform consumers that there’s something wrong with these products,” says Ricketts.

    -The only way we are being ‘misinformed’ is because Monsanto refuses to properly label GM foods! Again, if you are so sure that the products are the same, then just put the label on there. That’s all we are asking, for our RIGHT TO AN INFORMED CHOICE. Isn’t that the idea behind the free market??

  • Monsanto, your actions speak louder than words and we are not ignorant. The masses may still buy your products, but at least label them so those who care about such things aren’t unknowingly subjected to ingesting your frankenfood.

  • if there is no true difference as Monsanto states then there should be no problem in labeling the foods GMO. They should take pride in their product and label it. If they won’t do so, one has to assume there is a reason for their secrecy and yes, be quite suspicious!

    Anyone interested in this issue should look into this documentary. It is the investigation of chemicals/heavy metals being sprayed over areas causing organic crops to die off – at the same time that biotech is growing new strains of GMO crops which are resistant to the same chemicals/metals. Very disturbing.

    http://www.infowars.com/chemtrails-what-in-the-world-are-they-spraying/

  • It’s encouraging to see that so many are on board against the travesty of GMO’s that are created just so that Monsanto can sell more Roundup. We all have traces of glysophate in our bodies now, even breastfed babies. How can this be a good thing? And then there is the damage being done both to wildlife (butterflies and other pollinating insects) and other native plants. I can’t think of a single reason why we should continue to have these modified crops on our planet. The only thing that seems to matter is Monsanto’s profits and longterm control over our food system.

  • Agent Orange and DDT were once thought of as safe too. After the effects of those, why on earth should anyone trust you handling their food?

    Just curious, would you give your children GM food?

  • Monsanto and Ms Rickett’s should be ashamed of themselves!!!!!!!! It is our GOD given right to have clean organic food for ourselves and our children! This country was founded on home grown food and good values. Monsanto and the other corporations out there have put greed before people and enough is enough! Your company, Monsanto is poisoning and killing Americans every day. How do you all sleep at night? You know your research and you are hiding the truth from the public for profit. SHAME ON YOU!! SHAME ON YOU!!!!! WE WILL NOT STOP THIS FIGHT AND WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THERE IS JUSTICE AND CLEAN FOOD FOR ALL!!!!

  • Really, I can’t understand why Monsanto is so worried. They believe in their GMO products, don’t they? If GMO plants are the same as non-GMO, then what difference does it make to label them? And a good point was made that if they are exactly the same, then how can these seeds be patented, and how can you tell them apart from normal seeds? Seems to me you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say your product is different and invented and therefore patented, and that it’s just the same as the natural plant. Honestly, Monsanto, do you have to be so disingenuous?

    Could it be that if people know whether the foods they buy are genetically modified, that maybe they won’t want to buy those products anymore, given that their entire essence is permeated with herbicides and pesticides (either within the seed or sprayed on the plant), to say nothing of the fact that that they contaminate non-GMO and organic plants?

    I’ve already changed my diet. I don’t eat non-organic corn, soy or beet sugar, or any other food that could be genetically modified. I don’t buy processed food anymore. I belong to a CSA and buy all my meat locally from farmers who raise their livestock humanely and feed them what they are born to eat. Why shouldn’t every person in America have the same options?

    And how long are we going to wait –for all the topsoil in Iowa to wash down the Mississippi? — before we change the way agriculture is done in this country?

    Finally, I am delighted that Monsanto has decided to attack the people who want to know what they are eating — there are more and more of us every day, and you won’t be able to stop us. Remember high fructose corn syrup? This is just the beginning. Every time you attack you just give us more publicity.

  • Some years ago genetically engineered Trytophan killed 37 people and made another 1500 permanently disabled. The government decided to take tryptophan off the market in response. Little or nothing came out in the press about how a toxin created by the GE bacterium used to make the product was the cause. Folks, we are the experiment. This is the largest human experiment ever conducted. Our government is in cahoots with Monsanto and this industry. Public outcry is the only thing that will cause a change. Vote for representative who oppose GMO’s.

  • How can we trust someone who says, “We know that before any commodity biotech crops are approved to plant, testing and government reviews will establish that they are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.” This is complete BS, as evidenced by the recent GMO sugar beet debacle. Monsanto and the USDA will lie, cheat, and steal to make another buck, at the public’s expense.

    Monsanto’s Mimi Ricketts insults my intelligence and the intelligence of everyone who thinks before they eat.

  • I guess the people involved in these demonstrations are just plain bad people. Why are they picking on bio-tech. We’re just trying to make a living. Old fashioned farmers like the ones you see in Norman Rockwell paintings and Monsanto commercials. You can see we’re good people. Real Americans. These demonstrators are malcontents with nothing better to do with their lives. Well, we won’t have to put up with them for long because as you can see everybody important is on our side… otherwise they wouldn’t be important, would they.

  • Monsanto again tries to control the narrative. FAIL. It’s beyond PR now.

    Consumers have a right to chose. Consumers don’t want biotech. Consumers don’t want Monsanto.

    There’s too much consolidation in the ag sector(s). This allows a few players to unfairly influence and even control the market. USDJ – it’s time break up this game.

  • For so many reasons GMOs are awful. One reason not oft mentioned is based on religious grounds. If anything is sacred, it is the life found on this planet of which we are a part and which sustains us. For the first time in billions of years, genes from one organism such as a spider, are getting rammed into another organism far removed on the tree of life, such as a tomato. For the first time in the history of life on earth a freakish and largely haphazard transference of genes is occurring between disparate life forms. It’s absolutely appalling.

  • Are any GMO supporters going to respond to the comments here? Are there any that aren’t directly benefiting from Monsanto in some way?

  • Just how stupid do you think we are? GMOs are dangerous. We have a right to choose what we eat. LABEL GMOs. If Kraft and Kelloggs can make non-GMO versions of their products to sell in European countries where labeling is mandatory, then Americans deserve the same rights too. Since when did we become second class?

  • I’m not misinformed, Monsanto, you just haven’t made your case to those of us who ask questions about the source of our foods and the effect of the production of those foods on our biosphere. I prefer non-GMO foods; I think history — and my health — will support this decision. I feel GMO products should be labeled as such, though I assume any product without a non-GMO label is, in fact, GMO. But, I think the greater harm that you do is the infiltration of your GMO seeds into non-GMO fields. I think you’ll eventually see an implosion of the cyle of pesticide and fungicide use. But, when you and your famers eventually fail, it’s possible that you’ll have left the rest of us with very few uncontaminated seeds with which to start over.

  • There is a reason Monsanto is THE most hated company in the world. They are the company responsible for PCBs, Agent Orange, and GMOs.

  • Monsanto needs to wake up and realize people will not stand for their lies all in the name of their profit margin. If GM foods are so darn “safe”, why do they not even allow independent testing? Well duh, because they KNOW they will fail tests, and have!

    As a member of most every organization promoting natural health (I’m a nutritionist), I’ve yet to find ONE that supports GM foods – not one. I attended a webinar training session with Jeffrey Smith (Responsible Technology.org) and speak every chance I get against consuming any genetically modified foods. This is grass roots alright – consumers have power, vote with their wallets – it is just a matter of telling them the truth, which they won’t hear from the government or Monsanto. Power to the people!

  • I’m neither misinformed nor confused, thankyouverymuch. I do not choose to eat GMOs, nor will I serve them to my family. Stop this farce immediately and label the products that contain GMOs. Let the market, i.e. the consumer, decide.

  • Working hard to misinform and confuse? Isn’t that being a bit hypocritical? I thought the idea was to inform by keeping consumers aware of what they put in their bodies, and in the bodies of their families. Why would Monsanto be worried about product labeling if all of its claims of the superiority of GMOs were true?

    If you aren’t proud enough of your product to label it as it is, then it’s quite possible you are doing something wrong. And it is obvious that Monsanto is getting worried about these movements, since they can no longer ignore them and refute their actions with more hostility and rashly composed arguments.

  • I don’t want to eat what they offer. I want to continue to enjoy food sovereignty deciding what I put in my body. Not some engineered food that takes over local populations.

  • When testing of GMO crops is done by the company producing them, and government approvals are made by former biotech company employees pressured by a politician whose campaign received huge donations from the biotech industry, don’t expect anyone who is paying attention to believe the results are unbiased. When a company hides behind a patent and refuses to allow independent testing on the safety of its product and sues farmers who can’t control which way the wind blows, don’t expect anyone to believe the line in this article about who is trying to confuse and misinform who.

  • GM food equivalent to non-biotech food? How did that happen? With a wink and a handshake between Monsanto and Bush. Government research and testing?

    Bush: How do you know that GM food is safe and equivalent?

    Monsanto: Because we said so!

    Bush: Okay. So declared!

    This was the research that some of the folks on this list are referring to?

    ALL independent research on GM foods says different. Even scientists who did some of the biotech research to support it have become whistle blowers on the fraud of the research or its mis-reporting.

    Watch the documentary “The World According to Monsanto.” It can be found online. Read Jeffery Smith’s studies and writings if you want to see what GM food is doing to the world, our health and the environment. I was particularly moved by the information about the devestating effects on cows fed GM food. Or the study on fertility where Monsanto loaded the study with already pregnant cows which totally skewed the numbers. That is called scientific FRAUD folks. And what about the rats that lose their ability to produce viablie offspring by the 3rd generation. Or the liver damage and cancers and stunted growth and shortened lives.

    Over and over independent studies confirm these facts: GM food is a killer to humanity, biodiversity and the environment.

    Monsanto has money to buy Congress and the mass media. Folks, we have numbers and need to garther our forces. We will be stronger than Biotech’s money.

  • Monsanto’s cronies work at the testing and government review offices. They push the products through the testing phases. What about the safety of the land? The runoff from all the pesticides and herbicides laid down on the round up ready crops? What about water safety down the drainage basin? I agree with Fran Lueders – if Monsanto labels in Europe, they can label in the Americas. Then consumers can see what is really in their food: Franken-food.

  • Monsanto says that GMO’s are safe. Why are they lobbying so hard against labeling? The European Union requires labeling as do many other countries. Why are they insisting that they are fundamentally the same while at the same time patenting the seeds and prosecuting farmers who don’t want the seed but have had it blow into their fields? The European Union again has laws against this they claim it is the responsibility of the company to pay for damages caused to organic farmers when their crop is affected by GMO seeds being carried into it. The fundamental difference lies in the fact that Monsanto buys politicians in America to protect the interest of Monsanto not the interests of the people that they are representing. We need to make political campaign contributions illegal in the U.S. just like they are in the European Union. Monsanto and political leaders in America have been telling lies for long enough this needs to stop.

  • #1. If the GMO food is just fine, why not label it?
    #2. Monsanto, you can’t play God and get away with it. You bring destruction upon the Earth and, inextricably, yourselves.

  • Gee, If Monstersanto products were so good for us, we’d want them labeled so we could make sure we were buying them. No need to buy up the politicians and all the “other” companies. No need to bully and destroy family farms if your products were so “GOOD” for us. GAME OVER! We are on to you Monsanto! We also waking up to “chem trails, profitable “terrorist wars”, fluoride in our water and all the other evil things that are being done for power, control and money. Monsanto and the elite big corporate government are the terrorists of our planet.

  • Monsanto’s Mimi Ricketts tells Brownfield this is clearly a swipe at biotech.

    “They’re using Monsanto’s name but I think, overall, they’re attacking biotechnology,” says Ricketts, “You know, we know that before any commodity biotech crops are approved to plant, testing and government reviews will establish that they are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.”

    I RATHER THINK THAT BIOTECH IS TAKING A SWIPE AT HUMANITY AS A WHOLE SINCE THEY DON’T THINK WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE WHAT WE EAT!!!!!

  • “You know, we know that before any commodity biotech crops are approved to plant, testing and government reviews will establish that they are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.”

    If my memory serves me, the government needed some place to pawn the leftover toxic chemicals from the wars so they found a place for them in US agriculture. This same government now stands behind the safety of GMO seeds AND Monsanto. To top it off the ex-governor of Iowa (an agricultural state that works in partnership with Monsanto and whose citizens have a high rate of cancer due to the runoff of chemicals sprayed in the fields) is now the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. I don’t think the government can be trusted to be nonpartisan in their reviews.

  • Every single article I’ve read regarding a positive spin on Monsanto is blatantly one-sided and does nothing to address scientific evidence against GMO. No one can trust a company until they tell it like it is, and the honest truth is that the mounting evidence against the safety of these products isn’t the whole reason we cringe. Practices, not simply biotechnology, amass the opposition- although such phrasing is making a shot at discrediting consumers as uninformed and manipulated. The ridiculous harm done to the environment is independently enough a reason to demand reform.

  • I join the ranks of all of you who will not have the wool pulled over their eyes regarding this issue. It is our right to safeguard our food supply, our own health and that of our family’s, as well as the delicate biosphere upon which we live. If I must be arresting for taking this stand, so be it! If I must be persecuted for this belief, so be it!

    We are already being unwittingly experimented upon by this fascist dictatorial corporation. Those who have been harmed by their products are victims are victims of Monsanto’s inhumanity. Those who have lost their livelihoods or their very lives have done so because this evil, monstrous corporation views human beings as biological refuse. Does Monsanto believe that the population of the entire world are prisoners in their concentration camp? Because that is exactly how they treat humanity. We are nothing in their eyes. When, tell me, did we lose our human rights?

    I call for insurrection! I call for revolution! Nothing less will do. If we continue to play passive and submissive we will perish! THIS IS WAR!

  • The fact that Monsanto is afraid of labelling speaks for itself. Consumers, wake up and take action, by refusing to buy GMO foods, before it is too late.

  • Just reading all these comments is bringing me tears of joy — joy that there are so many intelligent, informed citizens who see the economic villain Monsanto in all its various evils…Monsanto is like a diabolical character in a super-hero cartoon, yet we are the super-heroes and will will bring Monsanto down! Keep the comments coming, babes!

  • I just want the RIGHT to know what’s in my food!! Including something as simple as an soybean or corn..I shouldnt have to worry whether it was genetically modified.. It’s my body.. It upsets me that Mansanto AND our government feels that it’s ultimately up to them! They forget who gives them their jobs… Our tax dollars!! If WE, as Americans want our food labeled, it’s their responsibility to give us that.. I guarantee there are no Americans (other then the ones that receive big money from Monsanto to do their jobs) would complain about the label! And the havoc Monsanto is wrecking on our ecosystem and that of innocent farmers trying to maintain their livelihoods is a WHOLE other story!

    Selling rice to POOR farmers in other countries that would require them to ALSO purchase the pesticides that maintain the crop only to find next season that the seeds from those crops can’t even be re-seeded and they need to purchase NEW seed is ANOTHER story..

    Monsanto isn’t just the most hated company in the world, they are the freaking devil!!

  • There’s not much else to say, but I’m going to have to agree with everyone here… Just label the products. It’s people’s right to choose.
    Why would you hide them anyway? Or is there a reason…?
    If Monsanto wants to dominate the food market, I strongly suggest they start producing something other than GMO’s. It’s not even just the fact that they refuse to let people know what they are eating… it’s also that while they are producing thoses attrocities, they are destroying biodiversity of our planet. There is more than 1 kind of corn, and one kind of tomato… and so on… what they are doing is dangerous for our future.
    Everything about this corporation is wrong.

  • I hope that the European Union will NEVER give way to Monsanto. And if the Monsanto executives and board of directors think that eating GMO foods are safe over time, they are in for a rude awakening.
    Monsanto’s modified agrobacterium (one of the bacteria used in GMOs) has been found in humans -those who are suffering from Morgellons disease/disorder. Coincidence? I don’t believe so. Perhaps Monsanto thinks that their initial biology is working to feed the world, but once the biology takes its own course in nature, strange things begin to happen and they are aware of it. We in the United States are not going to be test trialed for clearly, what is a destructive and obsessive will to control our entire food supply, as well as the farms that produce food. Millions against Monsanto is a viable and well informed movement – much more informed than Monsanto has cared to be with the general public.

  • I love how she claims “You know, we know that before any commodity biotech crops are approved to plant, testing and government reviews will establish that they are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.” EXCEPT we know that that is not the case. The FDA and the USDA have both stated that it was up to the the biotech company to prove the safety which of course is asinine. And now that doctors in Canada are testing pregnant women’s blood and find bt in it it is clear the the biotech companies didn’t do a very good job on their testing and informing those two agencies.

  • Millions against Monsanto isn’t against biotechnology, we’re against Monsanto. I am against privatization of food and using it to make money. Engineering seeds to be resistant to a chemical that can only be manufactured by the company that makes said seed and then prosecuting small farmers who can’t keep the seeds off their land because yes, the wind does blow is inherently twisted and evil.

    We demand to know what we are eating to make informed decisions. I choose not to support the corporation of Monsanto and I can’t do that effectively if I don’t know what products contain their plants.
    Monsanto is the one misinforming through their lack of transparency. The Organics Consumers Association is merely lifting the veil and I hope they continue to work hard to present the facts about what is happening to our food source and the people growing it.

    Corporations are about the bottom line, period. It’s time to make them accountable.

  • Monsanto is destroying the Earth and Humans at the same time! Their crops poison the soil, microbes, insects, animals, water, air and humans! What else can you say? We need to get them OUT of the Government, The White House and the Food Market! Say NO to Round Up and YES to Dandelions!

  • Consumers should be permitted to make informed decisions, and to do this requires full disclosure of food contents and origins. And though I prefer not to ingest GM foods for the sake of my health, my primary reasons for opposing them are the detrimental effects to our ecosystem. We’re losing variety, and monocultural crops are a risk I don’t think we should take. The general industrialized agriculture Monsanto promotes is depriving the land of nutrients and topsoil. We’re essentially pouring chemicals into our water resources. I hope the end of big agriculture and their lobbying (buying out) of politicians in the US is coming…

  • Monsanto should be terrified of the grassroots movement against GMO’s, because there is nothing they can do to stop it. Labeling will eventually prevail, organic marketshare will continue to grow and more and more people are being educated as to what our food really contains. Facts are facts, and no amount of PR spin or money that you throw at marketing will change that.

  • If by “misinform and confuse” you mean, “provide clear and simple information about products”, then yes. Mimi Ricketts, you’ve had weeks–months… years, really–to prepare a response. And this is the best you’ve got? I guess Monsanto’s best PR people are pretty busy in Washington courting the real customers.

  • LABEL GMO FOODS…it’s very simple. We’re not idiots, and we’re not misinformed….and we ARE NOT falling for your underhanded tactics. We have a right to know what is in our food. Label it. Refusal to label it only makes those who are against GMOs look more right to the ones who waver on the fence about it. What are you really gaining from not labeling? Nothing. More people are waking up. It’s time Monsanto does too.

  • “…they are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.”

    So what makes them GMOs then?! Riddle me that!

  • The use of GMO’s is a global crisis for native plants and life. Tell me why India’s farmers suffer. Left in Monsanto’s hands, much like our current governments, we would all surely parish. Let the people be heard and there be power to those people.

  • If it’s true that GMO’s are no different in composition, nutrition, or safety, then why are you afraid to label them as GMO? If there were truth behind your products, you would not be afraid to let the consumer know what he is buying. If there were truth behind your products, you would not need to spend millions on lobbies, strong-arm the opposition, or force farmers to plant your seed. The world is waking up. You should too, Monsanto.

  • It is time for people to rise up against Monsanto for many reasons especially the type of food we allowed to grow in this decade that will poison our children. Monsanto claims to have a patent on seeds, only God has a patent on natural seeds. Just because they added pesticides to the seed kernel does not make it patented only their Round Up the deadly chemical is patentable. Send a message to your government representative and the corrupt USDA that GMO will not be tolerated or consumed by you and your family. Russia has already banned most US food imports and they have higher standards of food quality than the US. Obviously this will affect the US economy, when countries refuse to import GMO food, meat that is tainted with antibiotics, hormones and now they recently found MRSA in US meat. We must join together and fight this corporate take over of our food supply, now- before it is too late.

  • WOW! Thank you, Michael, Chris, Cathy, tanya, Jennifer, Linda, Kyle, Gina, Shekinah013, Susan, Wayne, Rita, Fran & Dustin for your well-stated rebuttals. I second them, thumbs-up them & ditto each & every one of them, and tip o’ the hat to each of you.

  • OK Monsanto, why is cancer on the rise worldide? Why is diabetes and mental illness on the rise? How can you even say and expect people to beleive that there is no difference if you are manipulating food? Does this even make sense? NO! Afraid to label? I bet!!! Lies don’t hold up to scrutiny! And we are smarter than you think! I hope that you eat your GMO’s everyday.

  • Just received information that BT from biotech foods in turning up in the gut and the bloodstream of women. Further, it is being transferred to the fetus and is in their systems.

    This totally puts the lie to Monaanto’s claim that the BT breaks down in the stomach and is harmless..

    There is nothing harmless about anything that the Biotech industry does.

  • It’s interesting that an attempt to get honest labeling of GMO foods is considered an attack on the biotech industry. Could that possibly be because that industry can not make a convincing case that their foods are as harmless as they claim?

  • I have to thank the GOM folks. Since I have stopped eating processed foods, most meats, store bought vegies that I know some are GOMs, and growing my own, buy my grains from Bob’s Red Mill, who says he does not use GMOs, I find my health has improved 100%, my gry bill is lower, and so is my weight. Monsanto-Go fly a kite!!! Geneva J age 74

  • OPENING SENTENCE: “The political director of the Organic Consumers Association and other activists claim they were arrested at a Chicago Whole Foods Market during their protest of unlabeled Genetically Modified foods Wednesday.”

    “….says Ricketts, “You know, we know that before any commodity biotech crops are approved to plant, testing and government reviews will establish that they are no different in composition, nutrition or safety than their non-GM counterparts.” ”

    Let’s break this down shall we?
    1) The opening sentence is laughable – how does being fingerprinted and processed become merely a “claim” to arrest? Just need that clarified for me.

    2) testing and government reviews WILL establish…. As in they’ve not yet been performed. However, it is critical to note that Monsanto has shills and former payrollees heading the USDA, the FDA, USAID, and even has two judges in the Supreme Court (Thomas and Kagan. Thomas was a longtime Monsanto lawyer). Further, the testing will not be done by an independent panel, but rather by Monsanto paid scientists as per the agreement made by the USDA and Monsanto. (Monsanto was awarded the honor of policing itself and creating its’ own Environmental Impact Reports – this was approved at the beginning of 2011 by the USDA headed by Tom Vilsak.) Whose job is it to do EISs? Oh yeah, the USDA.

    B) No difference in composition – already an untruth. It has been noted in studies and even admitted in Monsantos own reports that the GENETICALLY MODIFIED seeds are bastardized with bacteria, viruses, etc. to combat pesticides and weeds among other things. Then there is the fact that these GE seeds have been modified to NOT REPRODUCE seed, to in fact, become sterile. Causing farmers to have to buy new seed each season. (Well, that, and the fact that these farmers sign a contract saying they won’t save any seed, which has been common practice for millennium). Therefore, the composition of these GE seeds is SIGNIFICANTLY different from traditional seeds. What part of modified infers “no difference in composition?”

    C) No difference in nutrition – I have not read enough about this to dispute the nutritional values. YET. But, I’m sure the info is being collected.

    D) No difference in safety – History has caused me to be skeptical on this claim. If I remember right, lab animals have had adverse effects to GMOs, including organ damage and death.

    Finally, why is it that the U.S. is not banning GEs like many other countries around the world? Could it be so simple as to be attributed to the fact that Monsanto is a U.S. company and enjoys the benefits of a corrupt government? Did you all know that Barack Obama installed most of those Monsanto shills to the USDA, the FDA, and USAID? Why would the champion of CHANGE, engage in dirty politics? As much as I like the guy – he’s a big part of the problem. I won’t be voting for him again in 2012. And I thought the Republicans were reprehensible for their deregulation junk and no taxes crap.

    Hmmmm. …who to vote for in 2012?

  • Confuse and misinform consumers? Well, Monsanto, if you want to prevent confused and misinformed consumers, label the products that include GMO’s. No more confusion. Of course, no more profit for you. Speaking of profit….how is that patent review going? Think those University folks are going to get to make you end your patent on GMO since they did it first?

  • Someone tell me if the seeds I buy for a small home garden are GMO seeds…….if they are, is Monsantos name on them or do they hide behind a nice name…..?

  • These comments say it all . . . the (informed) public is good and fed-up with the shenanigans of agri-business and their head demon, Monsanto. How easy it is to get something approved when you can afford a powerful lobby. I grew up around traditional farming, and those farmers were in general a trusting group when “informed” by a so-called representative of agricultural interests. Now they’re not so sure. Between waging continual battles against resistant franken-weeds and contemplating the atrocity of seed-patenting, most farmers not representing mega-agrarian interests are becoming enlightened.

    One could debate the issue of whether GM foods actually harm the body. But one would think that the policy would be to make certain first? And not assume things were OK until people started dropping dead? So there’s that . . .

    But the fact that this gynormous corporate monstrosity is actually angling to re-engineer the entire planet’s food supply, in the process eliminating ANY ORIGINAL, nature-designed growing things, is an abomination to the human spirit, and other natural beings. Monsanto cannot even prove that their products work, since they seem to create more problems than they “help.” And there IS good research to show that organic and natural-style agriculture is more successful in many ways. The only conclusion can be that powerful self-serving interests are co-opting the interests and well-being of the rest of us.

    Monsanto is on record as stating that it’s only a matter of time until they essentially destroy the organic industry. It’s a silent but diabolical war they’re waging. If they are successful, judging by the anger in the many comments here, their karma will be heavy indeed.

  • Monsanto’s own executive has stated in public that labeling GMOs is tantamount to putting a Skull and Crossbones (i.e. poison) on the food label. GMOs carry both unknown and known health risks, they destroy nearby untainted crops, and ultimately create pesticide-resistant superbugs in much the same way as over-use of antibiotics has compromised universal heath and welfare. Plus Monsanto knows that nobody wants this stuff. Why are they running our government? That’s another question entirely in this, Monsanto Nation… As to the food dumping, of course they are pissed–they want us to go away–the problems, the humans…

  • It seems like Monsanto must own Brownfileld Ag News. It seems they also own our government. Do they own Whole Food yet?

    • I’ll put the Brownfield Ag News team of ag journalists up against any others in their dedication to balance and truth in telling a story!

  • By enforcing GMO on the population without testing its safety and effectiveness and broadly publishing the results to the public, then by allowing an unproven technology to persist and knowingly infusing crops with GMO seeds, resulting in destruction of human and animal health, Monsanto and those who support it, including politicians and the FDA, are guilty of crimes against humanity and the animal kingdom it affects. Rather than forcing them to just label, legislation should be introduced to abolish the entire GM program and an investigatory hearing should be brought upon Monsanta for their crimes and make them pay the farmers that they’ve bought out by threats and coercion so that they can return to natural crop reproduction. But make no mistake, Monsanto knows what its doing and the effects they are creating; their apparent blinders are transparent while they go forward with tunnel vision and at the end of the tunnel is money for them and the criminals they pay to support them.

  • I have a degree in plant molecular biology from a prestigious university and have worked a bit in the field. I am not confused and misinformed. I have children that are highly sensitized to many foods, organisms (mold, plants) and chemicals. I would be just plain stupid to let my children eat chemical-ridden GMO products with genes from who knows where. No documentation necessary. This is deadly to my family.

  • If GMO’s are perfectly safe then why lobby so hard against labeling them? Why try to disallow consumers the option of informed choice? That just doesn’t make sense, and Monsanto’s actions contradict their words. To me, the actions speak louder.

  • Working hard to misinform and confuse = MONSANTO!
    If GMO’s are so safe then START LABELING them as GMO FOODS instead of hiding them!

  • The people who are informed are fighting back. The people who are eating this stuff “all unknowing” are silent because they don’t even know we are at war for the right to feed our families good food. I’ve been reading through the comments and pretty much everything I wanted to say has been said. I don’t know how Monsanto’s employees can sleep at night or look in the mirror. I thought there weren’t any companies lower than the tobacco companies. I was so wrong. I’ve read “My City Was Gone”, and I’ve read about the nearly 600 dead in the Texas City chemical plant explosion back in the 1940’s that should have been in our history books. That a chemical company is now bent on being the only seed company out there, is just flat out repulsive.

    I’ve only known about this GMO laced food situation for 13 months now and as we have purged any known GE foods from our diet we have experienced a feeling of coming out of a fog. I think more clearly and I’ve been steadily losing weight, my husband has now lost 20 pounds, I’ve lost 30, my kids lost 5 initially and now they are both slender and healthy. Look around you anyone who doesn’t work for Monsanto. When you go to the grocery store look at what people look like and then look in their cart. It is predictable either way. If there are GMO laced foods in the cart, you’ll find an overweight sickly person. Organic and Non-GMO laced foods in the cart, you’ll see someone vibrant and healthy. The exceptions are those like me on the road to recovery, vibrant but still working on getting the excess weight off. I wondered why my weight kept creeping up no matter what I did. Hmmmmmmmmm. The mystery is solved. No wonder I had so many aversions to foods when I was pregnant with my kids. There are going to be an awful lot of angry moms when this finally becomes common knowledge. Main stream media is going to look like a bunch of fools if they don’t start covering this in a big way. Oops too late on that one. Now it will be a matter of damage control. I wonder how they are going to explain away truning a blind eye to protests all over the USA?

    Ricketts, what do you have to say about the thousands of Bt Cotton farmers in India who have committed suicide? Look into it people. Monsanto sold them a bill of goods and it isn’t working for them. THOUSANDS. My heart weeps for those people. What is happening with our Cotton farmers? Who knows? All I know is cotton shirts aren’t what they used to be. I got my first 100% Organic cotton shirt and it is absolutely cuddly. The difference is HUGE.

    Remember people, we vote 3 times a day with our forks, knives and spoons.

  • Natural plants do not kill butterflies (as do genetically mangled corn plants) and do not kill animals that graze on the stalks after harvest (as do genetically mangled cotton plants).

    Are the people who work for Monsanto stupid? or have they been promised immunity serum by the Malthusians who run the corporation? or what?

  • Monsanto, when GMO’s are not fit for my dog, how on earth can you claim they will not hurt us? My dog has a skin condition that would break out a month after clearing from the last break out. I have been told to change his diet to strictly non-GMO foods, and now that I have, he is beginning to heal from the first 3 years of his life when he was eating your pathetic excuse for dog food!!!! AND YOU WANT CHILDREN TO EAT THIS?!

  • I will be campaining for mandatory labelling, I have been calling and emailing food companies about gmo ingredients, questioning restaurant staff before ordering and refuse to buy anything that is not labelled until I check. I have written to congressmen, senators and the white house. I am speaking out against Monsanto and the other companies that are trying to control the world’s seeds (and therefore the entire food supply) with my wallet. The truth will prevail….

  • Truly, I have no beef (no pun) with GMO’s in principal, or as a standalone issue. I think the word ‘organic’ has been distorted a bit, and the process of certifying food product as such, though a brilliant concept, has become only a bureaucratic process and a hurdle for producers.
    Having had to re-write and implement production SOP’s for ‘organic’ production in a factory environment, I know that it requires more hoop-jumping and paperwork than actual changes in either product or procedures. perfectly natural unprocessed materials may remain uncertified simply because producers do not pay fees or go out of their way to please certification boards, while identical or even heavily processed product equivalents gain certification simply because their producers can afford to garner the organic certifications.
    mind you, the dangers of gmo’s are as yet unknowns. but many completely unmodified organic products carry risks as well, and many more, safe as houses, merely lack certification.
    Where Monsanto becomes an intolerable and offensive organization to me is their treatment of independent growers, their attempt to monopolize agriculture, and eliminate the competitive effectiveness of small businesses in the market.
    Once upon a time soy products were poised to provide cheap and nutritious alternatives in the market, taking pressure off beef and poultry, reducing demand for the ever expanding meat industry, which as it grew, was becoming a chief factor in deforestation, affecting climate change, and impacting local populations around the globe.
    Monsanto, all by itself, has seen to it that soy is not in competition with beef, nor any other product, establishing a niche where this abundant product is an expensive, somewhat exclusive commodity, common as an ingredient, but practically unobtainable for those seeking a protein-rich dietary supplement.
    Hell, even yoo-hoo’s are a ridiculously expensive alternative to chocolate milk.
    and i likes me some yoo hoo.

  • I am in agreement that Monsanto is using their political clout, former Monsanto persons appointed by our government to agencies who are responsible for approving their products. It is in the interest of all of us to fight this demand on labeling. It is also our right to have a say in what we eat and breathe and wear on our persons. With the GM products and the non-labeling this right has been taken away. Other countries yes have protected their population form such things as GM foods as well as other products. I believe that this country’s politicians use their reasoning that their decisions are for the good of the people. Well let’s let the people decide what is good for them.

  • The testing and government review process is faulty and incomplete. Monsanto has too close are relationship with the agencies’ people.

    Patented GMO seed is unfair to farmers for many reasons, including when

    1) the only seed available is GMO – a market monopoly is illegal

    2) farmers are sued in court by Monstanto when Monsanto’s genes trespass into farmers fields.

  • Monsanto’s products create super-weeds that are a disaster for ALL farmers!

    Monsanto makes a profit through planned obsolescence – because of RR resistant super-weeds, they get to sell new herbicides to solve the problem they created.. The cycle repeats itself with the next problem.

    Farmers are SUFFERING with increased management challenges and increased costs. Farmers pay for it and consumers pay for it – Monsanto makes another buck at the expense of public good.

  • mary z- try to be sure you buy seeds from small companies whose sources are from heirloom varieties. there are many many sources of non-gm veggie seeds. if you want a list, go to Organic Consumers Association. their forums are down right now, but there will be links to suppliers.. or, believe it or not, google is you best friend at this point. happy hunting!

  • MONSANTO IS TOO BIG and dominates too much of the value chain. They make RR and other chemicals and they make RR ready seed through their subsidiaries.

    They have too much power.

    Suggest a good read in a respected publication Investigation, it’s on the web at VanityFair dot com. Here’s the lead

    “Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear” by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele. May 2008
    “Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.”

  • I just don’t understand how people can eat GMOs. Honestly, I just can’t. I don’t understand how you can be okay with eating food that is sprayed with poison. Pesticides kill bugs that are eating the plant, and herbicides kill weeds. Conventional foods are covered in both. I know you’ll say “but I wash them first,” but the pesticides and herbicides get sprayed on the ground around the plant as well as the plant, so they’re in the soil and the water the plant absorbs. So they’re in the leaves and the fruit of the plant that you’re eating. With GMOs, the pesticide and herbicide are in the genes of the plant so the plant itself kills the bug when they bite into it, and the farmer can spray weed killer that kills the weeds but not the crop. The poison is in the food.

    When someone says they don’t worry about eating organic, I always think of this scene from the Simpsons where spiders fall on Homer’s face and he sprays his face with a bottle labeled “spider poison.” Upon hurting his eyes and face he screams “WHAT? Spider poison is people poison?” Yes, bug and weed poison is people poison, and you’re eating it every day.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUtFHl0r28Q

  • I think it is safe to say that smart Americans need information to make informed choices.

    GM foods should be labeled.

    To lobby against the labeling of GM foods is simply Undemocratic.

  • With regard to Monsanto Employees:

    It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. -Upton Sinclair

  • I am a chef who is working very hard to inform my fellow Americans of what they are putting into their bodies. A great example of how Monsanto and the USDA dominate agriculture in the US would be the patent of mon87460. Technically right now is the time we can comment on the approval of this corn hybrid. Nobody knows about this window of time, and the company who is producing cant possibly predict the repercussions of their patents on nature.
    MONSANTO = CANCER

  • The day when truly independent testing can prove to me that Monsanto poisons and poisoned seeds have nothing to do with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in bee colonies I just might listen to their spin.
    When they can prove to me me that recent reports of intra-uterine transfer of GMO material are based on some statistical blip or aberation I just might believe they have my interests, those of the environment and those of my children at heart.
    Shame on them.

  • If these GMO foods are so safe, then why are they not labeled?

    If they’re so safe, why are studies showing many harmful effects from them?

    If they’re so safe and are not going to contaminate non-GMO crops, then why are we finding GM plants “in the wild”?

    If they’re so safe, why is Bt being found in the bloodstream of pregnant women?

    How can Monsanto and any other company that creates GMO’s think they are somehow immune to the effects of what they’re doing? They don’t live in a bubble…or do they?

  • In recent weeks, Dr. Huber wrote to Vilsack, the head of the USDA, with grave concerns based on independent research in regards to GMO’s. What he observed alarmed him, as a concerned scientist, and he consequently appealed to Vilsack to halt the release of GM crops and future crops such as alfalfa, for scheduled planting this spring. He discovered the GM crops to result in alarming numbers of livestock abortions, sterility, or worse. About a decade ago, while in India, I read in the local papers of farmers finding their grazing animals dead, after eating Bt cotton. This continues to this day, with little concern from bio-tech industry, as if such realities were a fly in their ointment, or a slight distraction from Monsanto and Syngenta’s huge profit-making experiment using us humans as lab animals.. The tipping point needs to come, and we need to undergo massive recovery from the havoc already rendered.

  • How could you say nothing is wrong with GMOs? We aren’t mindless! The people have spoken and they clearly do not want genetically modified food because it’s FAKE! (Unless they don’t know how bad they are for you). Monsanto only wants money and they don’t want anyone to find out about the truth.

  • Monsanto and other corps (like ConAgra) are rabidly consolidating seed stock in a transparent power play.

    Through its outright bullying behavior and belligerence, in the form of hijacking our legal system for the purpose of threats, intimidation and frivolous lawsuits, Monsanto has shut down family farms, community seed banks and other seed-saving operations all across the US. It has destroyed entire communities, intergenerational operations and is directly threatening our the security and autonomy of our food system.

    It’s time we shut Monsanto (and the people responsible for its dangerous, evil, unethical, unsustainable deeds) down — for good. Our welfare depends on it.

    If the people in charge of Monsanto aren’t a bunch of brainwashed sociopaths, they sure are doing a great job of acting the part…

  • Patenting life forms is fundamentally wrong. It has absolutely no legitimacy, yet like the power of a repressive dictator it will be enforced – so long as the violent apparatus of the state is corrupted by the corporation’s political contributions. Monsanto’s method of profit accumulation is made possible only by it’s continuous efforts to repress democracy, bribe politicians and lawmakers, and through enormous disinformation / propaganda efforts. It denies men, women and children the world over their fundamental rights to food security; to subsistence through the harmonious cultivation of nature. We die without food. Monsanto wants to collect a tax on our subsistence! This is absolutely, morally and politically indefensible. No amount of PR / propaganda will fool people anymore.

    And anyway, time is running out for the environment, which has endured already one century too many of Monsanto-style abusive and destructive agriculture.

    Monsanto is responsible for pushing millions of people in developing countries into such extreme debt that they and their families end up starving. Imagine what kind of corporate executive determines that it is ok to refuse malnourished and impoverished farmers the right to save seed..? This is disgusting.

    Monsanto’s GMO’s are designed to “need” their chemical products, and they require totally unsustainable volumes of water to maintain. The world is facing an enormous environmental crisis – the critical lack of fresh water available for agriculture, the salinification of fields and desertification caused by aggressive industrial agriculture. Everywhere topsoil has been destroyed by industrial farming. As land has become unusable in many large countries, corrupt leaders in much poorer countries are being manipulated into selling off huge swathes of land to foreign investors intended to be used for export crops only. (Land Grabbing). In Africa and Asia, so much land has already been “sold” to foreign investors attempting to mitigate their own coming food crises – sweeping it out from under the feet of all the local inhabitants who are often forcibly evicted, or forced to work as wage labour on the fields producing food they cannot eat, while their children go hungry. So for a while longer we can maintain “cheap” imports to developed nations and continue the illusion of “abundance” on a sick planet. This is totally unsustainable.

    Monsanto will never be acceptable to people who must eat and who can think for themselves. Let them make their phony PR responses and their “corporate responsibility” propaganda. It falls on deaf ears…!

    @Elaine – nice video..! thanks for sharing 🙂

    Well done to all OCA activists..! Keep up the good work..!

  • I am a wife, mother, and member of Millions Against Monsanto. I believe in the free market system. I don’t have a problem with large companies making money and providing jobs. I have a problem with companies that do so unethically and deceptively. Monsanto in particular, and biotech in general, is deceiving U.S. citizens by not promoting the labeling of ‘foods’ that contain GM ingredients. If they are so proud of their GM seeds and crops, then why not promote the labeling of GM ‘foods’? Could it be that Monsanto believes that GM crops are not REAL FOOD? Well, I and my body agree with them that GM crops are not REAL FOOD. REAL FOOD does not require patents, 2 years of safety testing, and does not cause infertility, tumors, obesity, and cancer.
    The only way to tell REAL FOOD is if it is labeled Organic, or you visit and know the farm. Know from where your food comes!!! Do not be fooled by the ‘natural’ label – it has no standards. I do feel sorry for the food processors that cannot afford to buy into the USDA Organic labeling standards – they have the U.S. government and biotech to blame for that. I encourage organic farmers to invite consumers to their farms, and processors invite consumers to their facilities. I encourage consumers to know your farmers and processors. If I cannot visit the organic farm or organic food processor, I will not purchase the food from them.
    With U.S. government approval, Monsanto and biotech have singlehandedly caused the rapid increase in food prices. U.S. citizens have the right to truth-in-labeling. And we vote.

  • Label genetically engineered foods. That way we will know which toxins to keep our children away from so they don’t develop diseases in the future. THere is a rise in allergies (which is a reaction from the body to an invader) and other diseases-. Infertility, diabetes, cancer, alzheimer’s . When will we learn? Eating whole natural foods from whole healthy soil, not contaminated with poisons made from chemical companies that pose as agricultural do gooders. They contaminate the soil, the water, the air and have unleashed unknown substances that may react with our environment in a totally unstable way. I say no to gmo, we have enough good food in the world to feed the world, we need to end WAR in the nations that don’t have enough.

  • Over and over it is stated that there is a “PREMATURE application of this science”. This is true – there IS a premature application of this science. It is very sad. Monsanto disgusts me with their audacity to claim that GE food is safe. Hell, the science in this area truly is in it’s infant stages!! Who is going to clean up this mess 30 years from now?? I am surprised that the other biotech companies are not angry with Monsanto for starting this prematurely, and then add to it the whole underhanded process of how they got it through the FDA. By doing so, Monsanto has ruined the public’s perception of GE food, and thus the future for any legitimate company working with true weighted science and ethical principles.

    No I AM NOT CONFUSED. I believe in taking the time to question and delve into the issues that concern my health and environment. NO CONFUSION here. I am 100% backed by unbiased science. To follow Monsanto is to follow a cult. Few of those who work there really understand the aspects of epigenetic’s, DNA synergistic systems, and so on. All they know is the simplistic way Monsanto views DNA. They do not understand how once GE seed is introduced to a “virgin” field the microbes in the soil will be changed. I could go on… These employees all work and are happy to get a paycheck in these economic times, which Monsanto is exploiting with their PR as to why we need GE crops – to help lower food prices and all that crap.

  • I have avoided GE food for over two years now. My food bill has gone up as a result (which is wrong). I eat healthier, feel FANTASTIC. Best move I ever made for my family.

    Contrary to what Monsanto believes I as an individual have the right to choose what I eat.

  • This is what former Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro, in a 1998 interview with the State of the World Forum, said in answer to a question about the labeling of GM foods:

    “One can make a reasonable argument that consumers and citizens have a right to know anything they wish to know. It is they who are choosing these products and it is they who are choosing and judging their governments. So it is almost impossible to make a case that information should be withheld from consumers…. consumers’, in my view [have an] unquestioned, right to know anything they wish to know about the products they consume…. it is not my role, or Monsanto’s role, to decide these things. It is society’s role to decide those questions after appropriate debate” To the question “So you are open to labeling being introduced then?” Shapiro answered: “Yes. Of course”

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Labeling_Issues,_Revolving_Doors,_rBGH,_Bribery_and_Monsanto

    So I want to know WHY is Monsanto now SOOOO afraid to allow people to make informed decisions? Do they REALLY expect us to believe that it’s NOT because they know that if people learn which foods contain their lab manufactured franken genes they will stop eating them?

  • Seems to me if they are not different than Mother Natures foods like they say, then what right do they have to patent any of them?

  • IF there is nothing wrong with GMO’s then why hide them?? LABEL FOODS so we can make an informed choice — of course you don’t want to do that cause you KNOW people will choose NOT eat that garbage !!!! We will continue to support organic sustainable farming practices – GMO crops are bad not only for our health but also for the health of our planet !!!!

    Monsanto yes this is geared towards toward biotech because biotech is YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Monsanto has to realize this is a new generation. Whereas the baby boomers were perhaps more accepting and trusting on the premise of believing all people have best intentions, however this generation is not one of being spoonfed while our eyes are closed.

    We’re informed, educated and most importantly ABLE to choose otherwise like no other generation in history.

    Having recently completed my third surgery from Ulcerative Colitis, I am convinced the increase of gastrointestinal diseases are due to the fact of our food is no longer in it’s perfect, original form.

    Europe has succeeded in placing labels on GMO foods. We must stand up and ensure this happens as there are too many people calling Monsanto’s game.

  • Another Monsanto attempt to make it appear as if all is well. All is NOT well and you people need to stop lying to the public. Hey Monsanto, JUST BECAUSE PEOPLE DON’T LIKE WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND ARE STANDING UP FOR CHANGE DOES NOT MAKE THEM “MISINFORMED”.

  • This CBS News report explains why activists against Monsanto’s GMO crops are not alone. Organic farmers’ livelihoods are at stake. Don’t you think a farmer would understand the risks better than most people? Farmers want to provide non-GMO food and citizens want to consume it. Monsanto is pushing ahead with a product that has had NO scientific peer reviewed tests by independent sources. In other words, the introduction of GMOs into our environment is solely approved by the corporation that is making it. That is why activists and farmers are protesting it.

    No one is ‘confused,’ no one is ‘mis-informed.’ Monsanto has paid for lobbyists to influence USDA decisions. Bio-tech is wonderful when used in medicine and to improve the health of living things. Bio-tech is risky when the outcomes are unknown and not properly researched.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7367630n

  • We have the human right to know where are foods come from. All GMO foods should be labeled so I can make the choice what I feed my family and not what Monsanto seems fit.

  • You guys have said it all. I’m right there with you.

    Eat food…not stuff that’s made to look like food…but real food. It’ll taste better and it’ll make you feel better!

  • Former Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro, said in a 1998 interview with the State of the World Forum in answer to a question about the labeling of GM foods:

    “One can make a reasonable argument that consumers and citizens have a right to know anything they wish to know. It is they who are choosing these products and it is they who are choosing and judging their governments. So it is almost impossible to make a case that information should be withheld from consumers…. consumers’, in my view [have an] unquestioned, right to know anything they wish to know about the products they consume…. it is not my role, or Monsanto’s role, to decide these things. It is society’s role to decide those questions after appropriate debate” To the question “So you are open to labeling being introduced then?” Shapiro answered: “Yes. Of course”

    Google sourcewatch, Monsanto and Labeling

    So what happened Monsanto? Changed your mind when you saw those polls that showed people wouldn’t buy your slop if they knew it was in their food? The excuse you give at the end of this article for being against labeling is so lame it’s an insult. But then you never much cared what people think anyway. It’s all about money, money, money, money. MONEY!

  • If the GMOs are fine, as Monsanto suggests, then why are they trying so hard to stealth them into our food supply. Labels shouldn’t be an issue if they really believe their own lies. I say they should proudly label all of the GMO’s if they are so sure of themselves. Of course we won’t buy them because we are not as stupid as they pretend but the point remains, why try and fool us if they are not lying?

  • Congress is corrupt and will stay corrupt until we the voters take the mony out or the election campains. Congress listens only to where the mony comes from. Public financing only will make Congress listen to us.

  • This is a perfect example of where we should let customers decide. Label GM foods as such and let the American people “vote” on whether or not they accept them. It seems to me when you are fighting to keep customers and consumers ignorant of where their food comes from, then you must have something pretty big to hide.

  • While Monsanto continues to outrage me, I’m thrilled to see such feedback from food activists regarding this article! Honestly, how hard is it to label something? I have three label makers at home if Monsanto needs help labeling products.

  • No person of integrity can say, with a straight face, that genetically-modified food is the same as non-modified food, when the overt purpose of genetic modification is to withstand enormous amounts of pesticide and the covert purpose is to hold a patent on every plant this is grown.

    Eventually, every person in the U.S. will know the truth about GMOs … and Monsanto, if it hasn’t changed its tune by then, will simply cease to exist. Godspeed that day … or the day when Monsanto executives grow a conscience.

  • My father has Parkinson’s Disease. The government has recently started paying VA benefits for his 24 hour care. He qualified for VA benefits for Parkinson Disease related to Agent Orange exposure. My Dad served at Danang, the epicenter during the Vietnam War for Agent Orange. He tells me guys would take sponge baths with Agent Orange. Why? Because it was “safe”: my Dad was told by an officer that Agent Orange had thoroughly been tested and that he had met personally with the company (Monsanto) who produced it and was told it was 100% safe for human exposure.

    Several times my Dad watched soldiers jump into ditches filled with Agent Orange scrambling to get out of enemy fire/shelling. The soldiers would emerge soaking wet from head to toe in Agent Orange. Agent Orange was stored at this base and no care was taken in its storage or use.

    Here is an excerpt from a more recent report on a family living in the Danang area:

    Nguyen Van Dung, 38, and his family have lived just outside the air base since 1990. Dung used to bring home fish he caught in Lotus Lake.

    At about age 2, his daughter began manifesting grotesque health problems.

    Now 7, Nguyen Thi Kieu Nhung’s shin bones curve sharply and appear to be broken in several places, as though smashed with a hammer. Her right shoulder bone protrudes unnaturally, stretching her skin. She has only two teeth, her right eye bulges from its socket and she has sores on her face. She can’t walk; she can only slide around on her rear end.

    When her mother, Luu Thi Thu, changes her daughter’s shirt, Nhung screams in pain.

    “If they had acted before, we wouldn’t have been exposed,” Thu said. “I’m angry, but I don’t know what to do. I go to the pagoda twice a month to pray that my daughter will get better.”

    Her doctors say she won’t.

    The Vietnamese military has taken some steps to contain the dioxin, but Le Ke Son, Vietnam’s top Agent Orange official, said cleaning up Danang and other Agent Orange hotspots is likely to cost at least $40 million, far more than the developing country can afford.

    If a biotech rep happens to be reading this just think about it. You are selling and pushing GE seed just like the rep who told the military officer that Agent Orange was safe. Are you saying the same thing about GM food because the company you work for tells you it is safe? Where were the proper studies back when Agent Orange was released? Where are the proper GE food studies on humans, environment and etc.? Do you know how to even read and understand a good study and what should be studied? What questions to ask? Do you understand statistics? Are you just to smart too think you could possibly be wrong? That a company as big as yours could be wrong again? Duped again? That all of us consumers are just simpletons who do not understand the workings of the global economy, the agricultural and corporate world? Get over your self importance. Maybe you don’t want to know so you can claim your hands are clean when eventually (which it will) the health effects will be known.

    For any Monsanto CEO who would like to volunteer in helping out children and families affected by Agent Orange check out an opportunity at Buffalo Tours.

  • Buying into an idea. That is what it is all about at Monsanto…

    U.S. government website:

    http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/gmfood.shtml

    lists all the issues concerning GMO:

    “Controversies
    Safety
    Potential human health impacts, including allergens, transfer of antibiotic resistance markers, unknown effects
    Potential environmental impacts, including: unintended transfer of transgenes through cross-pollination, unknown effects on other organisms (e.g., soil microbes), and loss of flora and fauna biodiversity
    Access and Intellectual Property
    Domination of world food production by a few companies
    Increasing dependence on industrialized nations by developing countries
    Biopiracy, or foreign exploitation of natural resources
    Ethics
    Violation of natural organisms’ intrinsic values
    Tampering with nature by mixing genes among species
    Objections to consuming animal genes in plants and vice versa
    Stress for animal
    Labeling
    Not mandatory in some countries (e.g., United States)
    Mixing GM crops with non-GM products confounds labeling attempts
    Society
    New advances may be skewed to interests of rich countries ”

    Richard Strohman,PHD. Professor Emeritus, Dept of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley has this to say about the actions of companies like Monsanto,

    “When you insert a single gene into a plant or an animal, the technology will work. You will be able to move that gene from organism A to organism B. You will be able to know that the transfer was successful. You will be able to know that the gene is being expressed, and even that the function of the gene is being expressed. So you’ll get the desired characteristic. But you will also get other effects that you couldn’t have predicted from your original assumptions. You will have also produced changes in the cell or the organism as a whole that are unpredictable. And that’s what the science is having to deal with.”The reason why Monsanto can claim scientific soundness is that they are only answering the technical question, ‘Can I move this gene and this characteristic from A to B?’ They are not asking the questions that the current understanding of cell biology demands. You can ask the technical question and get the answer you are looking for. You can take a gene from A and put it into B. We know that. But that’s the only question we can answer with certainty. We now realize that there are a whole host of other questions.”Genes exist in networks, interactive networks which have a logic of their own. The technology point of view does not deal with these networks. It simply addresses genes in isolation. But genes do not exist in isolation. And the fact that the industry folks don’t deal with these networks is what makes their science incomplete and dangerous. If you send these new genetic structures out into the world, into hundreds of thousands of acres, you’re going into the world with a premature application of a scientific principle. “We’re in a crisis position where we know the weakness of the genetic concept, but we don’t know how to incorporate it into a new, more complete understanding. Monsanto knows this. DuPont knows this. Novartis knows this. They all know what I know. But they don’t want to look at it because it’s too complicated and it’s going to cost too much to figure out. The number of questions, the number of possibilities for what happens to a cell, to the whole organism when you insert a foreign gene, are almost incalculable. And the time it would take to assess the infinite possibilities that arise is beyond the capabilities of computers. But that’s what you get when you’re dealing with living systems.” ———————

  • Again and again, chemicals and GE food is pushed onto the public without proper study and it is the public’s responsibility to prove it is not safe. So backward in this country. No allowance for precaution. I resent it.

    For all you big pro GMO and biotech investors do you really understand the global situation with food and population or just the spin story companies like Monsanto put on it. Read and educate yourself. I HAVE read studies by the biotech companies, I have gone to their MANY websites (marketing all the wonders of GMO’s) plus company websites and read much of the literature. I UNDERSTAND what is at stake here. Have you studied the ‘other’ side and seriously considered the implications claimed of GE foods? Go ahead and feed this to your baby and your grandchildren if you are fine with it. If you in secret do not eat GE foods but work for or invest in the companies that produce it shame, shame on you. You are a hypocrite and of weak character.

    Here is a snippet of the latest study on the “safe” Bt corn:

    Dangerous Toxins From Genetically Modified Plants Found in Women and Fetuses

    When U.S. regulators approved Monsanto’s genetically modified “Bt” corn, they knew it would add a deadly poison into our food supply. That’s what it was designed to do. The corn’s DNA is equipped with a gene from soil bacteria called Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) that produces the Bt-toxin. It’s a pesticide; it breaks open the stomach of certain insects and kills them.

    But Monsanto and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) swore up and down that it was only insects that would be hurt. The Bt-toxin, they claimed, would be completely destroyed in the human digestive system and not have any impact on all of us trusting corn-eating consumers.

    A study just proved them wrong.

    Doctors at Sherbrooke University Hospital in Quebec found the corn’s Bt-toxin in the blood of pregnant women and their babies, as well as in non-pregnant women. (Specifically, the toxin was identified in 93% of 30 pregnant women, 80% of umbilical blood in their babies, and 67% of 39 non-pregnant women.) The study has been accepted for publication in the peer reviewed journal Reproductive Toxicology.

    According to the UK Daily Mail, this study, which “appears to blow a hole in” safety claims, “has triggered calls for a ban on imports and a total overhaul of the safety regime for genetically modified (GM) crops and food.” Organizations from England to New Zealand are now calling for investigations and for GM crops to be halted due to the serious implications of this finding.

    Links to allergies, auto-immune disease, and other disorders

    There’s already plenty of evidence that the Bt-toxin produced in GM corn and cotton plants is toxic to humans and mammals and triggers immune system responses. The fact that it flows through our blood supply, and that is passes through the placenta into fetuses, may help explain the rise in many disorders in the US since Bt crop varieties were first introduced in 1996.

    In government-sponsored research in Italy, mice fed Monsanto’s Bt corn showed a wide range of immune responses. Their elevated IgE and IgG antibodies, for example, are typically associated with allergies and infections. The mice had an increase in cytokines, which are associated with “allergic and inflammatory responses.” The specific cytokines (interleukins) that were elevated are also higher in humans who suffer from a wide range of disorders, from arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, to MS and cancer (see chart).

    Elevated interleukins Associations
    IL-6 Rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, various types of cancer (multiple myeloma and prostate cancer)
    IL-13 Allergy, allergic rhinitis, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)
    MIP-1b Autoimmune disease and colitis.
    IL-12p70 Inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis
    The young mice in the study also had elevated T cells (gamma delta), which are increased in people with asthma, and in children with food allergies, juvenile arthritis, and connective tissue diseases. The Bt corn that was fed to these mice, MON 810, produced the same Bt-toxin that was found in the blood of women and fetuses.

    When rats were fed another of Monsanto’s Bt corn varieties called MON 863, their immune systems were also activated, showing higher numbers of basophils, lymphocytes, and white blood cells. These can indicate possible allergies, infections, toxins, and various disease states including cancer. There were also signs of toxicity in the liver and kidneys.

    Natural Bt is dangerous

    OK clearly Bt toxin from Bt corn is found in the blood of people who are consuming it. So I would like more studies on this and what the implications are. Now the biotech companies will just ignore, blatantly state it is false or they have proof otherwise or sweepingly dismiss and distance themselves from it as they have of all the other snippets of worrisome studies (or even worse publicly discredit via a good smear campaign the fine and reputable individuals/scientist who conduct such studies that result in any negative outcome ). I cannot be comfortable with this and in not being comfortable with this I will be labeled as “confused” by the GMO advocates. After all anyone who is against GMO’s for belief in real science will be a dissenter. The whole country of Ireland apparently is “confused”.

    I bet when countries such as Ireland decide to ban GE crops the CEO’s at Monsanto pound their fists and have tantrums with vows to make them pay. Which unfortunately they can to some extent. 500 Billion in biotech marketing has to go somewhere. Would be great to be a fly at these top exec’s meetings. Little do they know about the science (that is not their job, their job is to buy into the idea), though know all about running a company whether ethically or not.

    I refuse to be a pawn in a corporate game. Monsanto and other biotech co’s are corporations that strategically make plays globally to control our food.

  • It is bio-ethically wrong, wrong, wrong to produce GMO foods and put it in the food supply. Nearly every commercial product contains ingredients derived from GM. A good number of other countries require GM labeling, why not America?

    They don’t think we care about what we eat and feed our children. They don’t want GM labeling laws because it is tantamount to putting a skull and crossbones on the package and they know we will choose not to buy it. That’s the crux – knowing. And knowing is half the battle! Too many people have no idea that it is in the food they eat.

    As with the Simpson’s spider poison analogy earlier…my mother refuses to believe that ant spray is poison because “stores wouldn’t sell poison”. That’s the same reasoning behind believing that GMOs can’t be in our supermarkets and restaurants.

    Tell everyone. Tell them it is in nearly everything they eat and that their children eat. Tell them it causes endocrine disorders, genetic mutation of reproductive cells, higher infant mortality rates, and leads to sterility. Let’s be blunt – tell them it amounts to the planned mass genocide of the American people.

    Let’s get all the moms (and dads) out there mad!!

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