Another 8 million farmers in India have abandoned their lands after Monsanto bankrupted them with water- and pesticide-intensive GM cotton.

A patent filed in Europe also gives Monsanto sole “rights” over the use of India's own indigenous Nap Hal wheat to make chapattis - a staple food of more than one-billon people. Monsanto also continues to use child labor in India - “primarily very young girls, exposing them to a lethal pesticide 13-14 hours a day, for pennies in pay. But you take donations from their lobbyists,” wrote Wellesley College Alumna Linn Cohen-Cole in an open letter to Hillary Clinton last year.

MONSANTO ATTACKS INDIA
Dedicated to “helping small farmers” abandon their ancestral lands to corporate agri-giants, Monsanto's practices have so far driven more than 166,000 Indian farmers to commit suicide. Because of Monsanto's lies in promoting its unsustainable GM (Genetically Modified) seeds, India farmers are killing themselves in the largest mass suicide in recorded human history: On average, one farmer takes his own life every 30 minutes.

“Monsanto and Tyson are two of the largest industrial agricultural corporations in the world,” Cohen-Cole went on to remark, “represented by your Rose Law Firm.” [Guardian Jan 31/05; The Hindu Jan 30/08; Open letter to Hillary Clinton from Wellesley College Alumna Linn Cohen-Cole Feb 19/08]

MONSANTO TARGETS THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO
Monsanto has also permanently contaminated corn crops throughout Mexico with unwanted GMO strains banned throughout Europe. Even though transgenic seeds are also prohibited in Mexico, Monsanto's cross-border contamination has poisoned the world's last diverse corn varieties - long-used by the Mexican people to make tortillas and other staple foods.

"Mexican peasants planted their fields with seed corn imported from the United States and distributed by a government agency at prices that defied any competition. This corn is transgenic, but the farmers in our poorest regions know nothing about that. Nobody ever told them what transgenic was," explains Silvia Ribero from the environmental organization ETC. "During a 2003 inquiry covering 2,500 plants, we discovered that all nine of the regions tested contained traces of GMO. It's possible that Mexico is entirely polluted.” [Liberation Mar 1/04]

ETC is also on record saying: “For the Gene Giants to argue that there is no problem, is to suggest that violating Mexico's sovereignty and insulting the socio-cultural rights of Mexican farmers is of no concern. Can industry really be saying that citizens don't have the right to say 'no' to a technology that offends their views on life and food and, as well, raises concerns for their livelihood, health and environment?” [ETC Group Jan-Feb/02 newsletter]

MONSANTO KNOWS ITS MUTANT CORN DAMAGES HEALTH
Monsanto continues to spread its unwanted GMO corn even after the company's own laboratories found that r ats fed the mutant corn developed s maller kidneys and “blood abnormalities” - signs scientists say that are "red flags" for immune system damage and cancer tumor promotion. [Independent May 22/05]

MONSANTO VS GOD
Without approval of the public or Congress, Monsanto has also patented life forms for the first time. Taking corporate control of a huge number of crop seeds has already made it technically illegal for small farmers and backyard growers to plant certain, Earth-given seeds!

CORNFUSED
In addition to Frankencotton, nearly half (49%) of all corn acreage in the United States was planted with Monsanto's GM corn in 2007 after a French study showed that it causes kidney and liver toxicity. [Open letter to Hillary Clinton from Linn Cohen-Cole Feb 19/08]

The heavily meat-reliant U.S. food supply mostly depends on two feed crops - soy and corn. (Cars and trucks are also consuming a substantial amount of the U.S. corn crop in the form of carbon-intensive biofuels.)

Of America's soy, 90% is genetically modified. And 90% of those GM soy seeds belong to Monsanto. America's largest crop, corn, is 60% GM and nearly 100% Monsanto's.

“Essentially our entire food supply is genetically modified, to the benefit of one company,” wrote Wellesley College Alumna Linn Cohen-Cole to Hillary Clinton, whose husband and law firm are heavily enmeshed with Monsanto and its agenda. The Grocery Manufacturers of America estimated that 70% of food in the United States contained GM traits. And that was eight years ago. [Open letter to Hillary Clinton from Linn Cohen-Cole Feb 19/08]

Seed diversity is also plummeting, development of new crop varieties is slowing as Monsanto works tirelessly to eliminate seed saving, while destroying the ability of Roundup-resistant farmers to maintain biotech-free crops by contaminating their natural harvests with chemical poisons and seeds genetically jiggered to die after a single season. [Common Dreams Mar 19/08]

As Vanity Fair reporters Donald Barlett and James Steele recently pointed out, “The company now profoundly influences - and one day may virtually control - what we put on our tables. For most of its history Monsanto was a chemical giant, producing some of the most toxic substances ever created, residues from which have left us with some of the most polluted sites on earth.”

“Monsanto's Harvest Of Fear” describes how Monsanto calls itself “An 'agricultural company' dedicated to making the world “a better place for future generations” - an incongruity almost as grotesque as the tens of thousands of deformed children its products produced in Vietnam. [Vanity Fair May/08]

If Monsanto's plans succeed, its temperamental terminator seeds will dominate the food supplies of a burgeoning world population - expected to reach to reach nine billion by 2050, the UN forecasts.

Long before then, already tightening water supplies and drastically altered growing regimes from accelerating Climate Shift will have intersected GM-spawned plagues of mutated insects and blights and sharply reduced oil and natural gas supplies needed to make GMO-dependent pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers - to crash all water-and-oil-intensive GMO crops. If Bill HR 875 - or similar subsequent measures are passed - the elimination of backyard, rooftop, neighborhood and regional farmers means the survivors of the resulting mass die-off will probably end up eating each other.

Think I'm exaggerating?

Want to find out?

Simply do nothing to stop Monsanto and its monstrous Congressional agenda.

H(orrible) R(epression) 875
Even as the international backlash grows to Monsanto's threats to life, the more immediate threat to Monsanto is the rapid blooming of organic produce as a consumer preference, and the resurgence of small farms. According to Debbie Stockton of the National Independent Farmers and Consumers Association, “Small farms are the fastest growing economic sector in the USA. They're growing by the order of about 10,000 a year.”

Not if Congressional Bill HR 875 is passed.

Introduced by anti-life Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, whose husband Stanley Greenburg works for Monsanto, this bill has been described by the indefatigable Dr. Mercola as “a giant gift package for Monsanto, mandating the criminalization of seed banking, prison terms and confiscatory fines for small farmers and 24 hour GPS tracking of their animals.”

The bill would force independent farmers and backyard growers to grow healthy food under the same “industrialized” standards that routinely passes uninspected shit-contaminated meat to U.S. consumers, along with cow pus from abused udders in pasteurized milk, and rBGH bovine growth hormone that 30 scientific studies link directly to a 700% increased risk of breast cancer in women. Not to mention increased prostate cancer risks in men and elevated colon cancer possibilities in everyone who consumes cows. [notmilk.com]

As Dr. Mercola points out, “The corporations want nothing less than full control of the land, the end of normal animals so they can substitute patented genetically engineered ones, and the end of normal seeds and thus of seed banking by farmers or individuals.”

Monsanto enthusiastically agrees. As its corporate spokesman Robert Farley boasts, "What you are seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it is really a consolidation of the entire food chain.” [ZMag.org]

HINT:
For continuing viable life on a lone planet surrounded by the cold, irradiated vacuum of deep space, the one Big Lesson nature teaches is that you absolutely do not want to consolidate the entire food chain into a single corporate laboratory bent on twisting its eons-evolved genetic expression into a misshapen caricature rejected by every immune system it comes in contact with.

MIKE'S COMING BACK
The man responsible for injecting genetically engineered rBGH into U.S. cows - whose milk is rejected by Canada and every country in Europe - is Monsanto's Michael Taylor. Placed in control of “food safety” by President Clinton in the 1990's, Taylor would have police powers as President Obama's new “food safety tsar” under HR 875. If signed into law, this legislation will allow Taylor's goons to enter small farms without warrants, confiscate crops, and arrest, fine and imprison small farmers - and even backyard veggie growers - for failing to implement the strict tracking of every animal and every clove of garlic or carrot sold. [OpEdNews Mar 9/09 ; Cryptogon Mar 9/09 ; Campaign for Liberty Mar 6/08 }

H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 is designed to halt the growing trend of small organic farms by making it extremely difficult and incredibly expensive for small farms to comply with mandatory regulations.

HR 875 defines as “potential hazards” not salmonella-laced meat or cancer-causing milk - but fruits and vegetables sold at farmer's markets. Any American engaged in food growing or “holding food for consumption” is seen as a threat - not to food safety but to Monsanto. These potential apple anarchists and potato-wielding terrorists include backyard fruit and vegetable garden growers. Under these Reich-like regulations, even if you don't sell anything, but grow food only for personal consumption, you can be seriously busted.

Whether you like it or not, HR 875 could also force you to use pesticides and herbicides (most likely made by Monsanto) in your “food production facility”. That's the new Orwellian term for any plot of dirt used to grow something edible.

No subversive plots allowed!

Once this bill is signed into law by the People's President, Taylor and the USDA - aka US “Departure from Agriculture” department - will dream up regulations to squelch local food autonomy - while continuing to allow the industrialized production of feces-contaminated meat from Cargill's cattle-incarceration facilities, pus-laden milk from industrial-scale lots, and veggies saturated with ever-rising amounts of pesticides directly derived from the chemical warfare agents of WWI. No one even knows what these food production standards are yet. But never mind. Whatever Monsanto - I mean Taylor - decides, will have to be obeyed!

As the proposed law reads: It is prohibited to fail to register, refuse to permit access to an inspector, refuse to allow copying of all records, or fail to establish or maintain any record required under the law. (If a jack-booted inspector covets your wife, you may have to hand her over, too.)

Should you fail to comply with any of the rules and regulations, be prepared to fork over as much as $1 million per unaccounted carrot, or other “violation” of a law that is exactly that - a violation of your most basic rights and freedoms as a human being.

Can this bill be stopped?

Absolutely. If enough good people… do something. (See suggested actions below.)

WOMEN IN INDIA LEAD THE WAY: SOWING SEEDS IS A BACKYARD POLITICAL ACT
"Seeds are our mother," declares physicist and activist Vandana Shiva. Founder of the revolutionary Indian seed-saving organization Navdanya ("Nine Crops"), its mission is to save local farmers and crops from being pushed into extinction.

"Seed is the first link in the food chain," Shiva says. "Saving seed is our duty, sharing seed is our culture."

Farmers everywhere have saved seeds for generations, preserving the most durable for replanting. But since India signed a trade agreement in 1955, allowing a handful of multinational corporations like Monsanto to patent and sell seeds as their private property, saving seeds has become a wonderfully subversive political act in countries around the world.

As seed-bearers themselves, women farmers developed the plant seeds Monsanto has hijacked. “If today we have seeds that we can save, if today we have communities that can tell us the unique properties of different crops and different seeds, it's because we've had generations of women not recognized as agronomists, not recognized as breeders, not recognized in any way as having knowledge. The 10,000 years of human expertise in feeding us is a women's expertise," Shiva points out.

Led by Vandana Shiva and inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's non-violence precepts, the women of Navdanya refuse to obey corporate-driven trade laws, or a computer-ruled market economy.

"Most patents today are based on straightforward biopiracy, the theft of women's innovation of centuries,” Shiva continued during her address in Santa Barbara, California. “A system where few companies control the seed supply is in effect a system of slavery for farmers.”

And families.

Perhaps farmers in the United States will recall their country's revolutionary heritage and draw inspiration from the women of Navdanya, who are mobilizing farmers across India to refuse buying biodiversity-damaging GMO seeds. They are campaigning against the use of pesticides and herbicides, and educating farmers on the benefits of native seeds that naturally improve every season - instead of terminating. Navdanya has also established 34 community seed banks across India to preserve native seeds and distribute them for free to all inquiring farmers.

According to the imow website, “Small farmers organized by Navdanya have shut corporations out of their fields, are using their own native seeds, and growing food for subsistence instead of monocultures for sale.

“The women have organized some 35,000 Indian villages into declaring themselves 'biodiversity republics'. These republics are organized around the principle of 'living democracy,' meaning democracy that is participatory and values sharing, community and the environment. Whereas Indian economy is governed by free trade, these republics are pockets of fair trade and economic independence… based on women's knowledge, women's traditions and women's legacy.” [imow.org]

RESISTANCE FURTHERS: MONSANTO FORCED TO WITHDRAW ITS GMO WHEAT
In 2004, a “storm of protest” forced Monsanto to cancel the rollout of the world's first genetically modified wheat.

"I am sure a combination of exporters, farmers and consumers has finally got the message back to Monsanto that they can't spin this past the people who can see the truth of what is behind these products," said Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth.

"This is great news for the environment, for farmers and consumers," agreed Greenpeace GM expert Ben Ayliffe. "Monsanto spent a great deal of time and money trying to push this stuff on farmers and consumers, but despite their best efforts - even in countries that have historically been very pro-GM - they have managed to fail. This is certainly a significant setback for GM. It is fantastic news because this was Monsanto's big flagship product. It was the product that they thought was going to finally break the consumer rejection of GM." [Star Tribune May 12/04; Reuters May 11/04]

RESISTANCE FURTHERS: FDA AND USDA FORCED TO KEEP “ORGANIC” ORGANIC
When the Food and Drug Administration gave Monsanto launch permission to unleash the first genetically engineered food products on American supermarket test subjects, the FDA did not recall milk contaminated with Monsanto's bovine growth hormone - or even put warnings on milk containers it - despite reports of “downer cows” getting sick and dropping dead after being injected with rBGH.

Attempting to head off a massive consumer shift to safe, wholesome organic foods, the FDA and U.S. “Departure From Agriculture” quickly proposed broadening "organic" standards to include the genetic engineering of plants and animals, irradiated food and the use of municipal sewage sludge containing heavy metals and other severe toxins as farm fertilizer.

This attempt to destroy organic agriculture was met by a public uproar so overwhelming, the FDA and USDA were forced to hastily back down. As USDA head Dan Glickman explained, “This is probably the largest public response to an (Agriculture Department) rule in modern history.”

In fact, the response from an outraged public was 20-times greater than any other measure ever proposed by the USDA. [Open letter to Hillary Clinton from Linn Cohen-Cole Feb 19/08]

IT'S TIME TO DO IT AGAIN, FREEDOM FANS!
In spite of massive pharma industry pressure, even bigger public push-back has kept vitamin supplements available as over-the-counter nutrients in the USA and Canada. (Thank you, John Hammell! -iahf.com)

With less than two weeks left to act, you too can be part of a nationwide “upwising” to stop the corporate takeover over your backyard garden, local farmers market and national food supply.

WATCH THESE SHORT VIDEOS NOW:

The End Of Small farms - What You Should Know


Free Speech TV Story On HR 875


Small Farmers And Backyard Gardeners React

ACT NOW!!!

Contact your Congressional members at 202-224-3121
Ask them to oppose HR 875 and S 425.

YOU CAN HELP STOP…

MONSANTO ATTACKS SMALL FARMERS
Monsanto has also successfully sued farmers unlucky enough to be contaminated by its poison-ready GMO seeds spread on neighboring fields. On May 21, 2004 the Supreme Court of Canada freaked out farmers around the globe when it upheld a judgment against Saskatchewan canola farmer Percy Schmeiser for “infringing” Monsanto's patent after watching that company's unwanted GMO canola seed drift onto his land and contaminate his own natural crops.

Instead of compensating small farmers like Percy Schmeiser for their crippling land remediation expenses, Monsanto has collected damages from them for patent “infringement” by allowing contrary winds to blow!

"Monsanto and other biotech companies have been relentless in their attack on farmers both in Canada and the US," says Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the ICTA, "Nearly 100 farmers sued by Monsanto in the U.S. face similarly dire prospects. Mr. Schmeiser's loss should underscore the threats farmers face when biotech crops are allowed to invade our farmlands." [canadians.org May 21/04]

MONSANTO GOONS = GESTAPO
The French liken Monsanto's tactics to the Gestapo. Following a documentary TV expose on Monsanto's practices, aired as "Le Monde Selon Monsanto" ("The World According to Monsanto") on March 11, 2008 on the Arte channel, the French newspaper Le Monde (“The World”) informed its readers:

“Farmers who buy Monsanto's Roundup Ready seeds are required to sign an agreement promising not to save the seed produced after each harvest for re-planting, or to sell the seed to other farmers. This means that farmers must buy new seed every year. Monsanto puts pressure on farmers, farmers' co-ops, seed dealers, and anyone else it suspects may have infringed its patents of genetically modified seeds. To do this, Monsanto relies on a shadowy army of private investigators and agents. They secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops. They infiltrate community meetings. They gather information from informants about farming activities.

“Some Monsanto agents pretend to be surveyors. Others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them to sign papers giving Monsanto access to their private records. Farmers call them the “seed police” and use words such as 'Gestapo' and 'Mafia' to describe their tactics.

“The multinational firm Monsanto which sells 90% of genetically modified organisms (GMO) massively lies to many people and even the whole planet with great success - the power that money and the - apparently unlimited - support of the United States government bestows."

The documentary's director says: “On its Internet site, Monsanto presents itself as an agricultural company the mission of which is to help small farmers produce healthier food, while reducing agriculture's impact on the environment.”

Le Monde explains: “Neither assertion is true. Some of these foodstuffs are dangerous and their effect on nature is catastrophic in the long term.” [Le Monde Mar 12/08]

As Robert Weissman, editor of the Washington DC-based Multinational Monitor and director of Essential Action writes in Common Dreams, “There have been few experiments as reckless, overhyped and with as little potential upside as the rapid rollout of genetically modified crops.”

So far genetically modified seed have been introduced into soy, corn, cotton, canola and tomatoes. Most of these “Frankencrops” are unnaturally engineered to resist the heavy-duty herbicide Roundup, sold by the same company that invented baby-deforming and cancer-causing Agent Orange.

Instead of helping to “feed the poor,” genetically modified (GM) crops are destroying small farmers eking out sustainable livelihoods and maintaining their land tenure by forcing them to spray Monsanto's expensive glyphosate herbicide more frequently in ever-increasing amounts to fend off Roundup-resistant pests that were previously kept naturally in check.

KING CONTAMINATED COTTON
The heaviest user of biotech seeds - the United States - is seeing glyphosate-resistant weeds proliferating. Glyphosate use in the United States rose by 15-times from 1994 to 2005 - primarily to contaminate the cotton used in clothing. Nearly 90% of US cotton acreage is planted with genetically engineered cotton-seed varieties, nearly all containing traits developed by Monsanto to encourage massive use of Roundup. An analysis by the Center for Food Safety and the International Center for Technology Assessment has linked heavy spraying of the glyphosate weed killer, with damage to soil and local amphibian populations - as well as the emergence of herbicide-resistant weeds.

The report also warned that conventional farms - especially organic crops - are vulnerable to the "drift" of aerially sprayed herbicide, and cross-pollination from prevalent biotech crops.

The report's author, Bill Freese said, "We all have a stake in who produces the seeds that we depend on. It's very dangerous when one company gains this level of control over the seed supply." ["Who Benefits from GM Crops"; NewStandard Feb 26/07]

MONSANTO VS VIETNAM AND THE EARTH
Not content with spreading havoc like Agent Orange in non-white countries, Monsanto has made a bid for planet-wide biocide by unleashing its genetically raped “terminator” seeds into the wild. These seeds die after a single planting, ensuring that farmers must buy more single-crop seeds from Monsanto each year. If enough wild plants are contaminated by these self-destructing sterile seeds, “every farmer in the world could come to rely on Monsanto for their seed supply!” Dr. Mercola warns.