New app for boycotting Koch Brothers, Monsanto, etc.

This video from the USA is called Koch-blocked! App Helps You Boycott Koch Brothers and Monsanto.

From Forbes magazine in the USA, by Clare O’Connor:

5/14/2013 @ 8:57AM

New App Lets You Boycott Koch Brothers, Monsanto And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart

In her keynote speech at last year’s annual Netroots Nation gathering, Darcy Burner pitched a seemingly simple idea to the thousands of bloggers and web developers in the audience. The former Microsoft MSFT +2.29% programmer and congressional candidate proposed a smartphone app allowing shoppers to swipe barcodes to check whether conservative billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch were behind a product on the shelves.

Burner figured the average supermarket shopper had no idea that buying Brawny paper towels, Angel Soft toilet paper or Dixie cups meant contributing cash to Koch Industries through its subsidiary Georgia-Pacific. Similarly, purchasing a pair of yoga pants containing Lycra or a Stainmaster carpet meant indirectly handing the Kochs your money (Koch Industries bought Invista, one of the world’s largest fiber and textiles companies, in 2004 from DuPont).

At the time, Burner created a mock interface for her app, but that’s as far as she got. She was waiting to find the right team to build out the back end, which could be complicated given often murky corporate ownership structures.

She wasn’t aware that as she delivered her Netroots speech, a group of developers was hard at work on Buycott, an even more sophisticated version of the app she proposed.

“I remember reading Forbes’ story on the proposed app to help boycott Koch Industries and wishing that we were ready to launch our product,” said Buycott’s marketing director Maceo Martinez.

The app itself is the work of one Los Angeles-based 26-year-old freelance programmer, Ivan Pardo, who has devoted the last 16 months to Buycott. “It’s been completely bootstrapped up to this point,” he said. Martinez and another friend have pitched in to promote the app.

Pardo’s handiwork is available for download on iPhone or Android, making its debut in iTunes and Google GOOG +0.52% Play in early May. You can scan the barcode on any product and the free app will trace its ownership all the way to its top corporate parent company, including conglomerates like Koch Industries.

Once you’ve scanned an item, Buycott will show you its corporate family tree on your phone screen. Scan a box of Splenda sweetener, for instance, and you’ll see its parent, McNeil Nutritionals, is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson JNJ +0.73%.

Even more impressively, you can join user-created campaigns to boycott business practices that violate your principles rather than single companies. One of these campaigns, Demand GMO Labeling, will scan your box of cereal and tell you if it was made by one of the 36 corporations that donated more than $150,000 to oppose the mandatory labeling of genetically modified food.

Deciding to add that campaign to your Buycott app might make buying your breakfast nearly impossible, as that list includes not just headline grabbers like agricultural giant Monsanto but just about every big consumer company with a presence in the supermarket aisle: Coca-Cola, Nestle, Kraft, Heinz, Kellogg’s, Unilever and more.

Buycott is still working on adding new data to its back end and fine-tuning its information on corporate ownership structures. Most companies in the current database actually own more brands than Buycott has on record. The developers are asking shoppers to help improve their technology by inputting names of products they scan that the app doesn’t already recognize.

And if this all sounds worthy but depressing, be assured that your next trip to the supermarket needn’t be all doom and gloom. There are Buycott campaigns encouraging shoppers to support brands that have, say, openly backed LGBT rights. You can scan a bottle of Absolut vodka or a bag of Starbucks coffee beans and learn that both companies have come out for equal marriage.

“I don’t want to push any single point of view with the app,” said Pardo. “For me, it was critical to allow users to create campaigns because I don’t think it’s Buycott’s role to tell people what to buy. We simply want to provide a platform that empowers consumers to make well-informed purchasing decisions.”

Forbes reached out to Koch Industries and Monsanto for comment and will update this story with any responses.

Update: Tuesday’s traffic surge is causing some problems for Buycott. Pardo says he’s working to fix issues with the Android app in particular. “The workload is a bit overwhelming now,” he said. “For example, our Android app was just recently released and the surge of new users today has highlighted a serious bug on certain devices that needs to be fixed immediately. So all other development tasks I was working on get put on hold until I can get this bug fixed.”

Update 2: Pardo has had to temporarily remove the Android app from the store to fix glitches. He told Forbes on Wednesday: “Things are *slightly* more stable, but the app is now #10 in the App Store overall, which is pretty unbelievable. I simply didn’t set up the servers to be prepared to handle 10+ new users every second. I was expecting a more manageable rise. I had to pull the Android app from the store because I haven’t had a second to address the issues with it and I’ll take any relief I can get right now. Will continue to try and get it in decent shape but I’ll eventually need some sleep!”

Related articles

• New phone app allows users to boycott Koch Brothers and Monsanto products (rawstory.com)
• New app helps liberals avoid grocery items from conservative companies (redalertpolitics.com)

Monsanto threatens food security, Internet petition

From Avaaz.org:

Dear Avaazers,

One mega-company is gradually taking over our food supply — putting the planet’s food future in serious danger. But we can turn the tide on Monsanto and other companies that push through policies that prioritise their profits over the public good. Pledge €5 now to help stop this dangerous domination of our politics and our food:

One mega-company is gradually taking over our global food supply, poisoning our politics and putting the planet’s food future in serious danger. To stop it we need to expose and break up Monsanto’s worldwide grip.

Monsanto, the chemical giant that gave us poisons like Agent Orange and DDT, has a super-profitable racket. Step 1: Develop pesticides and genetically modified (GM) seeds designed to resist them, patent the seeds, prohibit farmers from replanting their seeds year to year, then send undercover agents out to investigate and sue farmers who don’t comply. Step 2: Spend millions lobbying government officials and contributing to political campaigns, get former Monsanto bigwigs into top government jobs, and then work with them to weaken regulations and push Monsanto goods into markets across the world.

As long as US law allows corporations to spend unlimited sums to influence policy, they can often buy the laws they want. Last year, Monsanto and biotech giants spent a whopping $45m to kill a ballot initiative that would have labelled GMO products just in California, despite 82 percent of Americans wanting to know if they are buying GM. And just this month, the company helped ram through the “Monsanto Protection Act,” that blocks courts from stopping the sale of a product even if they’ve been wrongly approved by the government.

Monsanto’s power in the US gives them a launch pad to dominate across the world. But brave farmers and activists from the EU, to Brazil, to India and Canada are resisting and starting to win.

We’re at a global tipping point. If enough of us pledge just €5 now, we can join forces to break Monsanto’s grip on our politics and our food and help stop the corporate capture of our governments. Avaaz will only process the pledges if we get enough to make a real difference:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_nd4/?bHFhfab&v=24248

Monsanto is driving an industrial farming takeover — trampling small farmers and small businesses as vast ‘monoculture’ farms of single crops leech the land of nutrients, diminish genetic diversity, and create dependency on fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals. The irony is, it’s not clear that the decimation of natural, sustainable farming has brought any boom in crop yields. Just more profit for the corporations. Our governments should step in, but Monsanto’s lobbying obstructs them.

Monsanto’s near monopoly is breath-taking, with patent rights over 96% of the GM seeds planted in the US. And despite concerns about health and safety, the same patents allow Monsanto to prevent any farmer or scientist from testing their seeds! Still, a few countries have banned or restricted Monsanto products.

They claim their products cost less, but often farmers are lured into multi-year contracts, then seed prices rise, and they have buy new seed each season and use more herbicides to keep out ‘superweeds’. In India, the situation is so dire that one cotton area has been called ‘the suicide belt’, as tens of thousands of the poorest farmers have taken their lives to escape crippling debt.

But farmers and scientists are also fighting back — and winning. One group in India has helped win three patent battles against the corporations, and in Brazil five million farmers sued Monsanto for unfair collection of royalties, and won a $2 billion payout! Scientists are campaigning for sustainable agriculture models, and just last week 1.5 million of us joined the fight against conventional patents in the EU.

Only a massive, global, united force can stand up to Monsanto and the corporate capture of our governments. Let’s expose this dominance of our democracies, help farmers speak out, challenge unjust laws and patents, and go head to head with the corporate lobbies. Pledge €5 to support action now:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_nd4/?bHFhfab&v=24248

We are running out of time. As we confront massive environmental, climate and food crises, we need sustainable agriculture and innovation, but that is best done by multiple farmers and scientists who know what works best in different ecosystems, rather than one monolith driven by their own profit, taking control our food future.

This corporate Goliath is increasing in power across our world. But if our 21 million strong community stands together, we have a chance. Avaaz members have repeatedly stood up against the world’s biggest bullies, and won. Now it is time for us to go big to save our policies from special interests, protect our food supply, and get justice for poor farmers.

With hope and determination,

Alice, Oli, Joseph, Ricken, Pascal, Chris, Michelle, Emily, and the whole Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION

Seeds of discontent (Texas Observer):
http://www.texasobserver.org/seeds-of-discontent/

Monsanto sued small farmers to protect seed patents, report says (The Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/12/monsanto-sues-farmers-seed-patents

Political contribution discloslures (Monsanto):
http://www.monsanto.com/whoweare/Pages/political-disclosures.aspx

The Real Monsanto Protection Act: How The GMO Giant Corrupts Regulators And Consolidates Its Power (ThinkProgress):
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/10/1832621/monsanto-protection-act-power/

Monsanto Protection Act put GM companies above the federal courts (The Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/apr/04/monsanto-protection-act-gm

Biodiversity for food and agriculture (UN Food and Agriculture Organization):
http://www.fao.org/sd/EPdirect/EPre0040.htm

Monsanto’s harvest of fear (Vanity Fair):
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805

Wikileaks shows US pushes GM on EU (The Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/03/wikileaks-us-eu-gm-crops

USDA Greenlights Monsanto’s Utterly Useless New GMO Corn (Mother Jones):
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/01/monsanto-gmo-drought-tolerant-corn

Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research (New York Times):
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/20crop.html?_r=0

Additional sources (Avaaz):
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_sources/

Related articles

• Stop Monsanto corporate food power grab, petition (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• March Against Monsanto – May 25, 2013 (sunnyromy.wordpress.com)
• Avaaz campaign – No to Monsanto patents in the European Union (swytla.wordpress.com)
• The Real Monsanto Protection Act: How The GMO Giant Corrupts Regulators And Consolidates Its Power (thinkprogress.org)
• Monsanto Protection Act Proves Corporations More Powerful Than US Government (kractivist.wordpress.com)
• ‘Monsanto Protection Act’: Chemical monopoly writes its own law (workers.org)
• On the eve of March against Monsanto Senate shoots down GMO labeling bill (rt.com)
• Global march challenges Monsanto’s dominance: LIVE UPDATES (rt.com)
• March against Monsanto highlights food safety concerns (examiner.com)
• March Against Monsanto Av (youngloveafter50.wordpress.com)

Stop Monsanto corporate food power grab, petition

From Avaaz.org:

Dear Avaazers,

It’s unbelievable, but Monsanto and Co. are at it again. These profit-hungry biotech companies have found a way to exclusively ‘own’ something that freely belongs to us all — our food! But if we can pressure key European countries to slam the patent door shut on their destructive plans, we can stop this attack on our food. Help build the biggest food defense call ever by clicking here:

It’s unbelievable, but Monsanto and Co. are at it again. These profit-hungry biotech companies have found a way to exclusively ‘own’ something that freely belongs to us all — our food! They’re trying to patent away our everyday vegetables and fruits like cucumber, broccoli and melons, forcing growers to pay them and risk being sued if they don’t.

But we can stop them from buying up Mother Earth. Companies like Monsanto have found loopholes in European law to get away with this, so we just need to close them shut before they set a dangerous global precedent. And to do that, we need key countries like Germany, France and the Netherlands — where opposition is already growing — to call for a vote to stop Monsanto’s plans. The Avaaz community has shifted governments before, and we can do it again.

Many farmers and politicians are already against this — we just need to bring in people power to pressure these countries to keep Monsanto’s hands off our food. Sign now and share with everyone to help build the biggest food defense call ever:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_vs_mother_earth_loc/?bHFhfab&v=23909

Once a patent exists in one country, trade agreements and negotiations often push other countries to honour it as well. That’s why these food patents change everything about how our food chain works: for thousands of years, farmers could choose which seeds they’d use without worrying about getting sued for violating intellectual property rights. But now, companies launch expensive legal campaigns to buy patents on conventional plants and force farmers to pay exorbitant royalty fees. Monsanto and Co. claim that patents drive innovation — but in fact they create a corporate monopoly of our food.

But luckily, the European Patent Office is controlled by 38 member states who, with one vote, can end dangerous patents on food that is bred using conventional methods. Even the European Parliament has issued a statement objecting to these kinds of destructive patents. Now, a massive wave of public outcry could push them to ban the patenting of our everyday food for good.

The situation is dire already — Monsanto alone owns 36% of all tomato, 32% of sweet pepper and 49% of cauliflower varieties registered in the EU. With a simple regulatory change, we could protect our food, our farmers and our planet from corporate control — and it’s up to us to make it happen:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_vs_mother_earth_loc/?bHFhfab&v=23909

The Avaaz community has never been afraid to stand up to corporate capture of our institutions, from pushing back the Rupert Murdoch mafia, to helping ensure that telecoms keep their hands off our Internet. Now it’s time to defend our food supply from this corporate takeover.

With hope and determination,

Jeremy, Michelle, Oli, Dalia, Pascal, Ricken, Diego and the whole Avaaz team

SOURCES:

Conventionally-bred plants or animals should be exempt from patents, say MEPs (EU Parliament)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20120509IPR44733/html/Conventionally-bred-plants-or-animals-should-be-exempt-from-patents-say-MEPs

President of the European Patent Office gives green light for patents on plants and animals (No Patents on Seeds)
http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/en/information/background/green-light-for-patents-on-plants-and-animals

Monsanto: All Your Seeds Belong to Us (Mother Jones)
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/02/scotus-hears-monsanto-soybean-case

Plant Patentability Questions Deepen In EPO Tomato Patent Case (IP Watch)
http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/06/13/plant-patentability-questions-deepen-in-epo-tomato-patent-case/

Tomato patent back before EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal (Europolitics)
http://europolitics.eis-vt-prod-web01.cyberadm.net/business-competitiveness/tomato-patent-back-before-epo-s-enlarged-board-of-appeal-art336003-7.html

Related articles

• March Against Monsanto (ellicecampbell.wordpress.com)
• The Four Steps Required to Keep Monsanto Out of Your Garden (blissmaybe777.wordpress.com)
• ‘Monsanto Protection Act’: Chemical monopoly writes its own law (workers.org)
• The Now Unstoppable Monster (caelumetterra.wordpress.com)
• Seeds of Suicide by Vandana Shiva (zcommunications.org)
• Monsanto Protection Act Proves Corporations More Powerful Than US Government (kractivist.wordpress.com)

Monsanto kills monarch butterflies

This video from North America is called Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed leaves.

By Debbie Hadley in the USA:

Monsanto, Milkweed, and the Declining Monarch Migration

March 18, 2013

By now, you’ve probably heard the bad news. This winter’s eastern monarch population hit a record low, occupying a scant 1.19 hectares of oyamel forest in Mexico. Since 1975, when the monarch overwintering habitat was discovered, scientists have never recorded numbers this low. Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch notes that this represents a 59% decline over the previous year. And 2011-2012 was not a good year, either.

While much of our attention over the past three decades has been focused on saving the monarchs‘ winter habitat in Mexico, we’ve done very little to preserve their breeding habitat here in the U.S. Monarch caterpillars are specialist feeders that feed only on milkweeds (genus Asclepias). As milkweed goes, so go the monarchs.

By some estimates, a full 70% of monarch butterflies fed on milkweeds growing in farm fields in the past. But thanks to Monsanto, an agricultural biotechnology corporation and the world’s leading producer of the herbicide Roundup, most of those farm fields no longer sprout milkweed. In the past 20 years, Monsanto introduced Roundup Ready corn and soybeans, and farmers were quick to adopt these genetically-modified crops. Instead of tilling their fields to control weeds, farmers spray them with Roundup. The Roundup Ready crops continue to grow, while the weeds – including the milkweeds – die back. Milkweed can tolerate tilling, but not Roundup.

Roundup isn’t the only factor contributing to the monarch decline, of course, but it certainly isn’t helping. That’s why Roundup Ready crops top my list of 10 threats to monarch migration.

March 2013. The Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal Health made up of representatives from Member States within the European Union met recently to discuss a substantial ban on neonicotinoid insecticides. Member States voted on the proposed ban but there was no consensus, and the ban has not been approved: here.

Related articles

• GMOs Drive Monarch Butterfly Populations to ‘Ominous’ Lows (commondreams.org)
• Monarch butterflies in trouble (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Monarch Butterflies’ Population Steadily Declining, But Why? (scienceworldreport.com)
• Monarch Butterflies Dying, Lowest Levels in Decades: Reports (theepochtimes.com)
• Where Have All the Monarch Butterflies Gone? (thefunlifeofsophia.wordpress.com)
• Monarch butterfly numbers drop by ‘ominous’ 59% (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
• Scientists see ominous decline in Mexico’s Monarch butterflies (science.nbcnews.com)
• How Monsanto is killing off the monarch butterfly (beyondmeds.com)
• Why the monarch butterfly migration may be endangered (cbc.ca)
• Monarch butterflies threatened by loss of habitat (pri.org)

Monsanto admits Roundup advertisement was lies

This video from the USA is called Dr. Huber Explains Problems with Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GMO Alfalfa & Coexistence.

Translated from biojournaal in the Netherlands:

Monsanto will abide by the verdict of the Advertising Advisory Committee: Roundup advertising was misleading

Monsanto has acquiesced to the verdict of the Advertising Code Committee about a misleading Roundup ad. The company did not appeal against the decision of the committee on 11 December 2012. The ad “Roundup, the facts” appeared in June 2012 in the dailies De Telegraaf and De Volkskrant. This ad is misleading in stating that the agent “would have no effect on the soil”, “would not remain in the ground” and “would not penetrate the groundwater,” the Advertising Code Committee said.

The complaint was filed against this advertisement by gifsoja.nl together with the Corporate Europe Observatory and the Pesticide Action Network. The complaint was substantiated with references to a series of scientific studies from different countries.

Tjerk Dalhuisen, one of the complainants, says: “The ad was trying to give the impression that Roundup is harmless. There were gross factual inaccuracies in it. Roundup is harmful to the living beings in the soil and is a major problem for the drinking water supply. Everywhere in the world, Roundup causes much damage to humans, animals and nature.”

Kees Beaart, one of the co-applicants, in the 1990s complained more than ten times successfully about misleading advertising by Monsanto. “The company knows very well how damaging its products are. The dose used in practice is lethal to many types of small animals, including many species which are useful for agriculture. In the beginning of this century the CTB therefore wanted to prohibit Roundup. Following the declaration by Monsanto, that by application of Roundup the vegetation is destroyed, and with it all the animals will die anyway, the admission was just renewed again and it was even no longer required to say “harmful to non-target arthropods” on the packaging.”

The verdict can be found on this page.

The complaint can be found on this website.

Publication date: 4 February 2013.

The world’s best-selling weedkiller is called Roundup. It’s supposed to be harmless to people but now there’s evidence that it can induce several human diseases: here.

Related articles

• Soybean Farmer Takes Monsanto to Supreme Court (truthdig.com)
• 75-year-old soybean farmer sees Monsanto lawsuit reach U.S. Supreme Court (rawstory.com)
• Illinois soybean farmer sees Monsanto lawsuit reach US supreme court (guardian.co.uk)
• Monsanto Ad Claiming Roundup Safety is Misleading – Dutch Commission | NationofChange (habariganiamerica.com)
• Farmer’s Use of Modified Seeds Reaches Supreme Court (thelibertybeacon.com)
• Monsanto (MON) stock slide…thank you Collar trade! (optionsanimal.com)

British Africa aid to corporations, not Africans

This video about Congo says about itself:

The greed for resources and Christian souls was a lesson in brutal European colonialism. In this case Belgian King Leopold II.

By Paddy McGuffin in Britain:

Britain ‘spends Africa aid on big business’

Tuesday 11 December 2012

The British government is spending millions of pounds promoting the interests of multinationals in Africa instead of fighting poverty, charity War on Want claimed today.

Global food and drink firms that produce many household brands have benefited at the expense of small-scale farmers in countries such as Mozambique, Tanzania and Malawi, the charity alleges.

According to War on Want those companies include Monsanto, Unilever, Diageo and SABMiller.

It also accuses the Department for International Development (DFID) of undermining efforts to combat poverty by increasing corporate power over local agriculture and supporting land grabs in Kenya, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone.

It further argues that the government’s policy will increase hunger levels in Africa, already up from 175 million to 239 million in two decades, citing UN figures.

In a new report published today the charity also criticised close personal connections between the British government and multinational companies.

Unilever is one example, where its CEO Paul Polman sits with David Cameron on the UN High Level Panel on global poverty.

DFID’s director of policy Nick Dyer started his career with Unilever, while the firm’s external affairs director for Africa Douglas Brew was previously Africa regional manager for DFID.

The report also exposed DFID’s support for a complex network of companies and investment funds registered in Mauritius, one of Africa’s foremost tax havens.

The revelation comes at a time when senior government officials are pledging to crack down on corporate tax avoidance in response to the public outcry over avoidance by firms such as Starbucks, Amazon and Google.

War on Want executive director John Hilary said: “DFID is channelling more and more UK aid to multinational food companies seeking to take over land and agriculture in Africa.

“Yet the expansion of corporate control over farming will increase vulnerability among the world’s poorest communities, deepening poverty and hunger for years to come.

“DFID should be using the aid budget to support small-scale farming in Africa, not boosting the profits of big business.”

Related articles

• More UK aid channelled via investment funds in tax haven of Mauritius (guardian.co.uk)
• Aid for Diageo? UK’s private-sector emphasis comes under scrutiny | Felicity Lawrence (guardian.co.uk)

Stop wildlife-killing Roundup in the Netherlands

This video is called Dr. Huber Explains Problems with Monsanto‘s Roundup Ready GMO Alfalfa & Coexistence.

This is the translation of an Internet petition by environmentalists in Leiden, the Netherlands, against using the internationally infamous herbicide Roundup, of the infamous Monsanto corporation:

Now that already so much has become known about the very harmful effects of the use of the toxic herbicide Roundup on the environment, humans and animals, the city of Leiden, despite warnings from scientists and nature and environmental organizations, continues to spray this poison on its streets and sidewalks. In this way, they knowingly put the health of its population and its (domestic) animals in danger. The municipality of Leiden should take better care of its citizens by stopping the spraying of chemical rubbish on our doorsteps and should switch to other, not dangerous weed removal methods!

PETITION

We

inhabitants of Leiden, parents, animal lovers, environmental organizations, nature lovers
ascertain

That scientific studies have conclusively shown that the toxic agent Roundup
- Harms the health of humans and animals
- Contaminates the surface water
- Endangers drinking water
- Harms the environment
and that sufficient alternative non-chemical ways to control weeds exist.
and requests

the city of Leiden to finally take its duty of care for its residents, their children and animals seriously, by immediately stopping to spraying or have others spray this toxic, the very harmful Roundup Evolution in their city and to proceed to another, non-chemical, harmless weed control method.

I:

living in:

am signing the petition No poisonous stuff gang on Leiden sidewalks.

my name and address may be publicly visible under the petition yes/no.

e-mail address:

You can sign the petition here.

Related articles

• Waxwings in the Netherlands (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Forget weedkiller and learn to love weeding | Alys Fowler (guardian.co.uk)
• DuPont Sends in Former Cops to Enforce Seed Patents: Commodities (bloomberg.com)
• Caltrans worker can sue over herbicides (sfgate.com)
• How GMOs unleashed a pesticide gusher (guardian.co.uk)
• Herbicide-Resistant ‘Super Weeds’ Increasingly Plaguing Farmers (usnews.com)
• USDA Scientist: Monsanto’s Roundup Herbicide Damages Soil (troymburnettnews.com)
• Pesticide Use Ramping Up As GMO Crop Technology Backfires (readersupportednews.org)
• Monsanto Roundup-Ready Alfalfa Should Be Blocked, Court Told – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• The new PCB: Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer turning up in air, rain and rivers (bagmo.wordpress.com)

Paraguayan students fight for their rights

This video from the USA is called Paraguay Coup: Will Obama Join Latin America and Condemn Ouster of President Fernando Lugo?

By Margaret Gleeson and Coral Wynter, in Asuncion, Paraguay:

Paraguay: Students fight against new education law

Sunday, November 11, 2012

About 300 students from the Paraguayan National University and the private Catholic University marched to the national police headquarters in Asuncion on October 25 to protest the new Law of Higher Education (LES).

The law passed through the lower house of the Paraguayan Congress three weeks earlier, and is currently before the Upper House.

During the protest, Romilio Gonzalez and Johana Orihuela, members of the Popular University Movement, spoke to Green Left Weekly.

“This is one of a number of actions we are carrying out,” Orihuela said.

“We did one in November last year. The demands are for free education for everyone.

“Right now education in Paraguay is not free. Our education system is just aimed toward work in the market place and it is not for our people, not for science and not for research.

“We want an education relevant to our people, to our country Paraguay and to South America. Education is considered a commodity and not a right. Students shouldn’t have to pay for education.”

Gonzalez explained: “This strike is part of the international student movement which marched last October 8. We are inspired by the Chilean student movement.

“The new law will further privatise education. It will be exclusive, and oriented toward studies that are merely designed to make a profit, which will be the principal basis of our education system.

“It will not liberate our people. It will not raise the cultural level of our people, but just increase the exploitation in the market place by the big multinationals.

“There are two giant transnationals, Monsanto and Rio Tinto, which are making a great effort to see that the law is passed. It is a great benefit for them; they will appropriate the science and the knowledge produced.

“There is a great danger with this law that education will be centralised so that the vast majority of young people won’t have access to higher education. There is no free university.

“Even at the National University, you still pay only a little less than other private universities. To register for a course, you must pay US$100-300, and $50-100 for each exam.

“There are about 3 million young people in Paraguay and only 6% go to university. Of that 6%, some 96% attend private universities and only 4% go to the public university.

“It is very exclusive. The majority of workers and peasants who want to go to university have to work to pay for a private education,” Gonzalez said.

Related articles

• Mercosur conflict still alive: Venezuela expels Paraguayan diplomats (en.mercopress.com)

Corporate profits and food crisis

By Simon Butler in Australia:

Corporations profiting out of food crisis

Sunday, October 21, 2012

The United Nations has warned that world grain reserves have fallen to critically low levels as world food prices have risen to levels close to that of 2008 — a year in which food riots took place in more than 30 countries.

UN Food and Agriculture Organisation economist Abdolreza Abbassian told the October 13 Observer: “We’ve not been producing as much as we are consuming. That is why stocks are being run down. Supplies are now very tight across the world and reserves are at a very low level, leaving no room for unexpected events next year.”

Today, about one in eight people around the world do not have enough to eat and 2.5 million children die of hunger every year. The UN released its report State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012 on October 9. The report said 15% of those in poor countries — about 850 million people — are hungry. A further 15 million people in developed countries are also undernourished.

The report said some gains were made in reducing hunger since the early 1990s, but admitted: “Most of the progress, however, was achieved before 2007–08. Since then, global progress in reducing hunger has slowed and levelled off.”

The latest food price hikes threaten to drive more people back into hunger.

The small group of food multinationals that monopolise the world food market are positioning themselves to take full advantage of the crisis.

Hunger and food insecurity is great for big business. During the “Great Hunger of 2008”, big food corporations such as Monsanto, ADM, Bunge and Cargill posted huge profits.

In August, the director of agriculture trading at giant commodities trading firm Glencore Chris Mahoney said: “The environment is a good one. High prices, lots of volatility, a lot of dislocation, tightness, a lot of arbitrage opportunities.”

Oxfam UK’s Jodie Thorpe told the Independent Glencore was “profiting from the misery and suffering of poor people who are worst hit by high and volatile food prices … Glencore’s comment that ‘high prices and lots of volatility and dislocation’ was ‘good’ gives us a rare glimpse into the little-known world of companies that dominate the global food system”.

Related articles

• Corporate giants reap billions from hunger (climateandcapitalism.com)
• BEST OF THE WEB: ‘We’ll make a killing out of food crisis’, psychopathic Glencore trading boss Chris Mahoney boasts (sott.net)
• Food price crisis: What crisis? (bbc.co.uk)
• UN warns of looming worldwide food crisis in 2013: Collapse of global food supply inevitable (sott.net)
• Barclays makes £500 ($790) million betting on food crisis (investmentwatchblog.com)
• World food prices near crisis levels (guardian.co.uk)
• UN Warns Of Food Crisis In 2013 If Extreme Weather Persists (thinkprogress.org)

Monsanto gives rats tumors

This video from the USA is called Yes on Prop 37 – California Right To Know.

By Mike Ludwig, Truthout in the USA:

French Study Finds Tumors and Organ Damage in Rats Fed Monsanto Corn

Wednesday, 19 September 2012 13:36

Rats fed a lifetime diet of Monsanto‘s genetically engineered corn or exposed to the company’s popular Roundup herbicide developed tumors and suffered severe organ damage, according to a French study released on Wednesday.

The study could have a big impact on the battle over a California ballot proposal that would require groceries containing genetically engineered ingredients to be labeled as such. Monsanto has already donated $7.1 million to the campaign to defeat the proposal, known as Proposition 37.

The study, published in a reputable American journal, links varying levels of both the Roundup herbicide and the transgenes in Monsanto’s patented NK603 corn to mammary tumors and severe liver and kidney damage.

The rats were either fed the NK603 corn alone, corn treated with agricultural levels of Roundup, or given water treated with Roundup at low levels commonly found in contaminated drinking water and used in agriculture in the United States. In each group, there were two to three more deaths compared to control groups, and the rats on the Monsanto diet died more quickly.

Gilles-Eric Séralini, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Caen who lead the research team, told reporters on Wednesday that the rats’ diet reflected the kind of exposure that humans who eat genetically engineered food should expect.

“This is around the level [that] the American population may eat, where, unfortunately GMOs are not labeled,” Séralini said. “In Europe, we have this labeling, and it helps us to avoid these compounds if necessary and promote personal choices.”

Russia Temporarily Bans Monsanto Corn Linked to Cancer in Rats: here.

Monsanto found guilty of chemical poisoning in landmark case: here.