Agbiotech and corporate special interests in reaction to stubborn
global resistance have stepped-up their propaganda and bullying. This
aggression is evident in the media, the marketplace, the trade and
diplomatic fronts, the legislatures, courts, patent offices, and the
streets of the cities where anti-globalization protests have taken
place. Recognizing that a critical mass of youth, consumers, farmers,
environmentalists, and public interest nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) all over the world are rejecting, not only the biotech and
industrial agriculture model, but also the entire “Free Trade”
globalization agenda itself, the Gene Giants and their allies know
they are losing ground. Reacting to massive demonstrations in
Seattle, Washington, Quebec, Sweden, and Genoa–with anti-Frankenfoods
concerns often in the forefront-governing elites have clamped down and
repressed youthful protestors, and have begun shifting their meetings
to inaccessible locations such as the oil sheikdom of Qatar, where the
142 nation members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are scheduled
to hold a ministerial meeting November 9-13.
Since September 11, with public attention focused on terror attacks
and the war in Afghanistan, White House operatives have done their
best to: – sabotage stringent safety testing of genetically engineered
(GE) foods and crops in the WTO Codex Alimentarius negotiations in
Vancouver; – pressed Congress forward for “Fast Track” Presidential
negotiating authority to enable Bush to expand the power of the WTO
and spread Free Trade fundamentalism throughout the Americas; –
inserted language into the Fast Track bill that would ban mandatory
labeling of gene-altered foods and the use of the precautionary
principle; – increased pressure on the EU to lift its moratorium on
genetically modified organisms (GMOs); – and threatened Thailand and
other nations seeking to ban or label GE crops. (See OCA’s website
www.organicconsumers.org for details on these stories and other news
items referred to in this issue).
Monsanto, meanwhile, has tightened its stranglehold over the agbiotech
and seed sector. The company in April was awarded a wide-ranging,
controversial patent from the US Patent office on all antibiotic
resistant marker genes (found in nearly all GMO crops), and continues
to move forward to gain a similar monopoly patent on Agrobacterium
tumefaciens, a vector (sort of a cellular taxi) used widely in
gene-splicing. Monsanto is also requiring strict licensing and
royalty agreements for scientists carrying out research on the genetic
structure or genome of rice-for which the company holds a patent.
(See www.rafi.org)
On the intimidation front, Monsanto continues to press legal charges
against several hundred North American farmers for the “crime” of
saving their seeds without paying a royalty payment to Monsanto.
After gaining a precedent setting court conviction against
Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser in March, unjustly accused of
growing Roundup Ready canola which had actually drifted onto his
fields from adjoining farms growing GE crops, Monsanto set up a
toll-free “snitch line” in Canada, advertised on radio stations, for
farmers to “turn in” their seed-saving neighbors. After protests the
snitch line was disconnected. A similar snitch line was set up in the
US several years ago.
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