[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Many more stories like this one both in TEHELKA and in the press at large.
Will They Get Our Bellies?[/FONT]
MARIE-MONIQUE ROBIN has laid bare the criminal DNA of Monsanto. Enough reasons to throw it out, says
PM BHARGAVA
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[/FONT] THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO Marie-Monique Robin Tulika Books 373 pp; Rs 675
FOOD BUSINESS is the biggest business in the world and whoever controls it controls the world. That this is what Monsanto and its patron, the US Government, want to do is the message that comes out strongly in this extremely wellresearched book. The route to food domination will be through genetically manipulated (GM) seeds, pesticides and weedicides..
Historically, this is a logical follow-up of a host of dangerous toxic chemicals that Monsanto has been making one after the other — polychlorinated biphenols that cause cancer, dioxins that lead to chloracne, the deadly weedicide Round-Up (glyphosate), GM bovine growth hormone that produce painful mastitis in cattle, and genetically modified organisms such as GM corn, GM soya and Bt cotton, of which a variety of health hazards are now being increasingly documented in reliable scientific literature.
All this was preceded by Agent Orange, the defoliant used extensively by the Americans in Vietnam, contaminating more than 3,000 villages and defoliating between five and 10 million acres of plants and trees. I saw the consequences of this in 1982 while directing, under UNESCO, the first international scientific course after the war in Hanoi. I was taken several hundred kilometres south by Vietnam’s health minister. The surrealistic picture of mile-after-mile of denuded trees still haunts me.
Robin clearly brings out the {censored}tail of techniques that Monsanto has used to incur often irreversible damage to plant and animal life, including humans, and done so under the garb of humanitarian action such as making the world produce enough food to take care of its bourgeoning population. This deadly {censored}tail, all to maximise the company’s profits, includes lies, falsification of data, suppression of information, false advertising claims, shady scientific work, contamination of the environment, bribery, threats to whistle-blowers, controlling the media, victimisation of farmers, and control of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in its own country through collusion of the US Government.
In fact, we in India have evidence of it all — evidence that has inexorably led to an indefinite moratorium on the release of Monsanto-Mahyco’s Bt brinjal.
Monsanto’s propensity for criminal and unethical acts is built into its genes
This book gives us enough reasons to throw Monsanto out of India in national interest and freeze the assets of such companies if they don’t behave — which, as the book brings out, they are unlikely to do. The propensity to indulge in criminal, illegal and unethical acts, like the ones I have mentioned above, is built in their genes. With its corruption status, India is unlikely to fare better than Indonesia where Monsanto bribed more than 140 government officials to have its Bt cotton released without an environmental risk assessment. Yet, there is hope with what we did with Monsanto-Mahyco’s Bt brinjal, and the fact that even the US could not have Monsanto market its Round-Up Ready wheat.
If our government does not learn a lesson from Robin’s book, it must lose the right to govern the country.
Dr Bhargava is a molecular biologist and was a Supreme Courtappointed observer of GEAC, India’s GM regulatory body
What is at stake with GMOs and Monsanto?
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[/FONT] The digger Journalist Marie-Monique Robin
Marie-Monique Robin, 50, is a French investigative journalist who won the Albert Londres prize for her exposé on organ transplants. Her work on Monsanto was first released as a documentary. She spoke to
Samrat Chakrabarti from France. Excerpts:
How did you begin researching Monsanto ?
Some years ago I went to India to tell the story of bio-piracy, such as patenting of neem by an American company. In Punjab I met with farmers’ organisations that told me you should do something on Monsanto. I asked them why, and they said, “We Indian farmers would like to know more about this company and why it’s buying up all the major seed companies in India.” Everywhere I went, I heard about this company called Monsanto. And so I began researching. It was incredible to discover its criminal past. With GM organisms (GMO), too, it was the exact same criminal process at work — lying, concealing, falsifying.
Have you been threatened by Monsanto ?
During my investigation I was very afraid, knowing that Monsanto uses litigation to intimidate people. Every part of the documentary and book has been reviewed by a lawyer and I was sure I would win any case — but to win I might have to sell my house. Then something quite incredible happened. When the documentary and book released in France, it got a huge following on the Internet, which made it counter-productive for Monsanto to come after me. I showed my documentary in the Congress and equivalent bodies in France, Canada, Paraguay, Brazil, Argen tina, Luxembourg — and it had a huge impact. Scientists couldn’t dismiss my story because the core of my investigation was to show that there was nothing scientific about the principle of substantial equivalence (that says that a GMO plant is the same as a non-GMO plant). It was a Monsanto invention to introduce GMOs as quickly as possible into the market without any health or environment assessment. This hit Europe like a bomb since it was the reason for GMOs there. Now Europe does not allow it and my earnest hope is that India does the same, because it’s a disaster. There were two things that moved me the most in my investigation — one was how Monsanto is destroying communities in the US by making farmers spy on each other to prevent patent infringement, and the other was the farmer suicides in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh where Bt cotton was introduced. Farmer suicides is nothing new, neither in India or even here in France, but there is no doubt in my mind that Bt cotton was a great contributor in pushing Indian farmers into the debt trap that led to these suicides.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 7, Issue 30, Dated July 31, 2010
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main46.asp?filename=hub310710willtheyget.asp
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