Subject: food news (fwd) Seed of dicontent

From: Victor Guest <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 11:08:49 WST

In Permaculture West Jan 1998 3 Articles appear which support these 
stories
Vic

Reply-To: Conference "chrm.general" <[email-masked]>

I learned from Dr. Elaine Ingham, soil microbiologist from Oregon State 
University that Roundup is a perfect bacterial food.  In fact, a 
bacterial bloom occurs where one sprays roundup as it translocates down 
into the root and is exudated out into the soil.  What can this mean?  
well in an orchard, or a forest, the soil food web is fungal 
dominated...Roundup causes major disruptions in the bacteria to fungi 
ratios in orchards and SHOULD NOT BE USED EXTENSIVELY.  Remember, trees 
cannot live without endo and some exto mychorrizal fungi.  Roundup could 
be responsible for decreased productivity in orchards,  is monsanto 
liable? 

----------
From: 	[email-masked]
Sent: 	Tuesday, May 19, 1998 3:47 PM
To: 	Recipients of CHRM-GENERAL
Subject: 	Fwd: food news

This came to me from another source. In light of our discussions about
Round-up, I thought it might interest those on the list.

Barbara

>Subject: food news
>
>
>>SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION
>>IN MONSANTO CONSPIRACY
>>Reported by George Monbiot in The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 September
>>1997
>>
>>
>>Monsanto, that company that health and freedom activists love to hate,
>>has embarked on one of the most extraordinary and ambitious corporate
>>strategies ever launched.=A0 The story begins with a single chemical,
>>glyphosate.=A0 Sold to farmers and gardeners as "Roundup", it is the
>>world's biggest selling herbicide, earning more than $2 billion last
>>year alone.=A0 The company's patent on Roundup runs out in 2000, but =
far
>>from sowing corporate catastrophe, this event seems likely to enhance
>>Monsanto's market value.
>>
>>For the past 10 years it has cleverly been developing a range of new
>>crops, genetically engineered to resist glyphosate.=A0 Spraying with
>>Roundup does not harm these crops, but destroys all the weeds that
>>compete.=A0 New patent legislation in Europe and the U.S. allows =
Monsanto
>>to secure exclusive rights to their production.
>>
>>The first Roundup ready plant Monsanto released was a genetically
>>engineered soybean.=A0 Between 50 and 60% of processed foods contain =
soy,
>>so the potential market is enormous.
>>
>>Alarmed at possible increases in the use of herbicides, as well as the
>>health effects of genetically engineered crops in general,
>>environmentalists and consumer groups in Europe started calling for
>>products containing the new beans to be clearly labeled.=A0 But in the
>>U.S., Monsanto insisted that would be impossible to keep Roundup ready
>>soybeans apart ordinary ones.
>>
>>As the new beans were snapped up by growers in the U.S., Monsanto =
began
>>and extraordinary round of acquisitions, buying shares in seed and
>>biotechnology companies worth nearly $2 billion in the past 18 months
>>alone.=A0 Among its purchases are companies which produce the famous
>>Flavr-savr tomato, own the U.S. patent on all genetic manipulations of
>>cotton, and control around 35% of the germlines of American corn.
>>
>>Monsanto is now experimenting with new rice, corn, potato, sugarbeet,
>>rape and cotton varieties.=A0 It has been suggested that within a few
>>years all the major staple food crops will be genetically engineered.
>>The new products are so attractive to many farmers that Monsanto has
>>managed to sign away their future rights to the seed they grow, and
>>allow the company to inspect their fields whenever it wants.
>>
>>Monsanto's new crops could not have become commercially viable without
>>major legislative change.=A0 As members of the trade lobby Europabio,
>>Monsanto and the other big biotech companies have mastered the legal
>>climate in which they operate.=A0 Despite significant public =
opposition,
>>in July, Europabio managed to persuade the European Parliament to =
adopt
>>a new directive, allowing companies to patent manipulated plants and
>>animals.
>>
>>Researchers and lawyers from Monsanto already occupy important posts =
in
>>the U.S. Food and Drug Administration which regulates the food
>>industry.=A0 Only the New York Attorney General's office has taken the
>>company to task, forcing it to withdraw ads claiming that Roundup is
>>biodegradable and environmentally friendly.
>>
>>But Monsanto has been most successful when appealing to multilateral
>>bodies.=A0 Last month, the World Trade Organization (WTO) confirmed =
its
>>ruling that the European Union can no longer exclude meat and milk =
from
>>cattle treated with Monsanto's bovine growth hormone, despite protests
>>from farmers, retailers and consumers.
>>
>>Biotech firms are now trying to persuade the WTO to forbid the =
labeling
>>of genetically engineered foods.=A0 Any country whose retailers tell
>>consumers what they are eating would be subject to punitive sanctions.
>>
>>With astonishing rapidity, a handful of companies is coming to govern
>>the global development, production, processing and marketing of our =
most
>>fundamental commodity: food.=A0 The power and strategic control they =
are
>>amassing will make the oil industry look a corner shop.
>>
>>More successfully than any other lobby, they are inhibiting the two
>>remaining means of public restraint on their activities: government
>>regulation and genuine consumer choice.
>>
>>This may be the first and last chance we will get to tell the
>>biotechnology companies what we think about their re-engineering, of
>>both the stuff of life itself and the means by which it reaches us.
>>
> =20

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