MONSANTO investigator in Illinois laughs they are doing "RURAL CLEANSING."

[Joanne98]

As of last night, a US marshall, 2 state police and a county police are all over Mr. Hixon's area, serving notices to farmers that they are being sued by Monsanto. They arrive in pairs, with two cars parked a quarter mile and half mile down the road. They've served 3 so far and said "a bunch more are coming." No telling how many will be served since Hixon has between 200-400 farmers he cleans seeds for and these farmers have been repeatedly threatened by Monsanto thugs for the last two months, getting "visits," letters, and calls daily.

Farmers report that a Monsanto investigator laughed that they were doing "rural cleansing."

Steve Hixon is a seed cleaner in southern Illinois. He has equipment that takes the plant materials and "cleans" it so that the seeds are separated out and can be given back to farmers to save for the next season. It's a mechanized step up from farmers hand picking seeds off their own plants, which, with hundreds of acres - or even 10 - would not be easy to do.

Mr. Hixon has the non-distinction of being attacked by Monsanto. He is far from alone. Monsanto has been picking off seed cleaners across the Midwest, having already done its thuggish thing in Pilot Grove, Missouri, and in Indiana, attacking Maurice Parr, destroying business for all of them.

Mr. Parr reports that when he was sued, the first think out of the judge said was how "honored to have a fine company like Monsanto in my courtroom."

"Shortly after someone broke into Mr. Hixon's office and he found his account book on his truck seat where he would never have left it, evey one of his remotely located and very scattered customers had three men (described as goons with "no necks") arrived at each farm, going out onto it without permission ... Mr. Hixon and state police who were called in, believe a GPS tracking device may have been put on Mr. Hixon's equipment."


http://www.opednews.com/articles/MONSANTO-investigator-in-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090110-168.html

[PM Martin]

1. MONTSANTO needs to go the way of ENRON.

[intheflow]

11. But without fucking over their lowest-level employees. n/t

[PM Martin]

2. See this article from Vanity Fair!

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805?currentPage=1

[Doctor_J]

12. Sounds like Monsanto is a bunch of gangsters

:shrug:

[machI]

32. MONSANTO's agricultural protection racket - just like the organized crime protection racket

Ya see, Monsanto genetically engineered those plants. They own the patent on them, and they own the copyright too.

In fact, Monsanto owns all of nature.

Now if you don't want something bad to happen to your farm, like being forced in to bankruptcy through never ending legal suits, you gotta pay Monsanto every time a seed go into the ground. You say those are your seeds harvested from your plants? Prove it (keep in mind that Monsanto owns all of nature.)

:sarcasm:

[safeinOhio]

39. Patents, copyrights?

They are not "free market".

See how there are "free markets" for corporations, but not us.

http://bostonreview.net/BR34.1/baker.php

[stevedeshazer]

15. Thanks. That was a great article.

Long, but worth the read.

[mimitabby]

22. Vanity Fair

by all means read the Vanity Fair article, It is a lot more coherent and explains the story a lot better.

Monsanto thugs are making it hard for even those who do NOT use their products to stay in business.

[Enthusiast]

33. Fantastic article!

I had no idea Monsanto was a bad corporate citizen. And their defenders, the identity of their defenders, is really revealing. Some of the most despicable characters one could imagine.

[liberation]

38. Montsantan has been evil from way back...

"bad corporate citizen" is putting mildly. Pure unadulterated evil is more like it...

[Kolesar]

46. what was the basis of the anti-Monsanto protests at the Seattle WTO talks?

Was it the genetic content of the seeds??

thanks for the great link. I learned a lot!

[Why Syzygy]

3. I sent the letters.

Follow the link at the bottom of the page. DU Activists need to hear about this.

[democrank]

4. Monsanto thugs.....rural cleansing.

How very corportate of them.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

5. That is OUTRAGEOUS!

:grr:

[mahina]

6. Can I tell you how much we hate them here too? Way out in the middle of the Pacific,

they are working hard to poison us. I guess they figure it won't hurt anybody way out here- or rather, they figure they can minimize their liability.

We frikken loathe them. We feel powerless to stop them. We don't even find out until it's too late and they already have long term leases and we can't do a thing about it. http://www.hawaiipoliticalinfo.org/?q=node/166
http://kauaian.net/blog/

[midnight]

7. Two americas. One who lives by rules, and the other who

breaks them.

[DemBones DemBones]

8. Monsanto just may be the greediest and most unethical corporation

in the world.

[deadmessengers]

10. I'm glad someone else thinks that, too.

I've been saying it for years - Monsanto makes Halliburton and Walmart look small-time.

[acmavm]

9. Monsanto, Monsanto? Now where have I heard that before? WAIT! I GOT

IT!

Tom Vilsack.

[Kolesar]

45. That won't win you any prize

[roody]

13. Friends of Vilsack, Obama's pick for Sec. of Ag.

[bvar22]

14. Monsanto has been given a seat...

...at Obama's table.

Monsanto............................................... seat AT the Table.

For Profit Health Insurance Corporations...... seat AT the Table

Single Payer HealthCare.............................OFF the table.

I get it.

[kas125]

16. Monsanto is evil. Watch the documentary

The Future of Food to see just how evil.

http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2008/07/21/watch-the-future-of-food-online-for-free/

[Coes]

31. America's most dangerous criminal

Monsanto is America's most dangerous criminal ?

www.niburu.nl/showarticle.php?articleID=1767

www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=123&contentid=1060

[kas125]

44. "History will judge them to be mass murderers."

I hope so! But I wish someone would judge them to be mass murderers now.

[Hannah Bell]

17. The Bill Gates Foundation is in bed with Monsanto as well.

Little-known fact, one I wish more people were aware of.

e.g.:

http://www.politicalfriendster.com/rateConnection.php?id1=75&id2=238

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded US$ 3.3 million to the Monsanto-backed Donald Danforth Plant Science Centre in Ohio, USA, to genetically engineer cassava.

...and $16.9 million to Wambugu's African consortium to genetic engineer sorghum for African farmers, also at a US company, Pioneer Hi-Bred, a subsidiary of DuPont based in Des Moines, Iowa.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_3733.cfm

[rucognizant]

28. That figures....

ANd this old lady is funding GAtes, beonmg FORCED to update computer stuff! ( Even thi I own a MAc.)
Hey a thought! Could Steve Jobs be experiencing arswnic poisening with his rapid weight loss?

[BobTheSubgenius]

18. How does one company manage to consistently set the ethics bar so low

for ALL industry, then just as consistently slither under it? It's as if their BOD has twice its normal share of Satanists. I can't imagine how they even come up with some of their policies and actions. Remember Iraq's farmers?

[polly7]

19. This is older, but I had no idea Monsanto was into all of this as well as

spreading its freak seeds and ruining native agriculture across the globe.


These are the markets that are most relevant to us as a life sciences company committed to delivering "food, health and hope" to the world, and there are markets in which there are predictable sustainability challenges and therefore opportunities to create business value." Monsanto plans to earn revenues of $420 million and net income of $63 million by 2008 from its water business in India and Mexico. By the year 2010 about 2.5 billion people in the world are projected to lack access to safe drinking water. At least 30% of the population in China, India, Mexico and US is expected to face severe water stress. By the year 2025 the supply of water in India will be 700 cubic kilometers per year while the demand is expected to rise to 1050 units. Control over this scarce and vital resource will of course be a source of guaranteed profits. As John Bastin of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development has stated "Water is the last infrastructure frontier for Private investors." Monsanto estimates that providing safe water is a several billion dollar market. It is growing at 25 - 30% in rural communities and is estimated to be $300 million by the year 2000 in India and Mexico. This is the amount currently spent by NGO's for water development projects and local government water supply schemes and Monsanto hopes to tap these public finances for providing water to rural communities and convert water supply into market. The Indian Government spent over $ 1.2 billion between 1992-97 for various water projects whicle the World Bank spent $900 million. Monsanto would like to divert this public money from public supply of water to establishing Monsanto's water monopoly. Since in rural areas the poor cannot pay, in Monsanto's view "Capturing a piece of the value created for this segment will require the creation of a non-traditional mechanism targeted at building relationships with local government and NGO's as well as through innovative financing mechanisms, such as microcredit. Monsanto also plans to penetrate the Indian market for safe water by establishing a joint venture with Eureka Forbes / TATA, which controls 70% of the UV Technologies. To enter the water business Monsanto has acquired an equity stake in Water Health International (WHI) with an option to buy the rest of the business. Monsanto will also buy a Japanese company which has developed electrolysis technology. The joint venture with TATA / Eureka Forbes is supposed to provide market access, and fabricate, distribute, service water systems, Monsanto will leverage their brand equity in the Indian Market. The joint venture route has been chosen so that "Monsanto can achieve management control over local operations but not have legal consequences due to local issues."

http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/a130899a.htm

[reggie the dog]

20. More evidence why we don't want Monsanto in France

fuck their "OGM's" as we say in French. Fuck them taxing farmers.

[bertman]

21. Thanks Joanne98. I'll have lots of reading to keep me busy today.

From just reading the OP it seems that trespassing and threatening citizens is not illegal; whereas, cleaning seeds is. No disconnect here.

One of my all-time favorite signs on a local farms fences: NOTICE: Trespassers WILL BE Violated.

[Phred42]

23. Monsanto is extremely dangerous to the Future of the planet - They MUST be stopped

[L0oniX]

24. Terrorists!

[fudge stripe cookays]

25. To add to their bullshit record....

http://www.percyschmeiser.com/

[Coes]

29. good

that was the link I was intending to post ^_^

[Roland99]

26. What the hell?!?! This is news to me and something I want to really look into.

geeeeez.

[arcane1]

27. We have officially become a 3rd world country

:grr:

[biermeister]

30. watch the dvd "the world according to monsanto" it's available online nt.

[leftstreet]

34. K&R

[valerief]

35. Does Monsanto want to control the food supply by making real plant seeds extinct?

Is it because they'll own the rights to all their GMO seeds, which they want as the only seeds in the world?

[madrchsod]

36. yes

[valerief]

37. And this is another cruel truth cloaked in conspiracy theory clothes.

[russspeakeasy]

40. I have dealt directly with Monsanto

They are well financed and will break you..they do not care.

[1monster]

41. Monsanto = Famine, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

[bertman]

42. What laws were these seed cleaners breaking that Monsanto could have them arrested?

I have not had time to read all of the links, so my apologies if this is covered somewhere else. Thanks.

[BrklynLiberal]

43. Monsanto is such a pillar of principle....hahahahahahahahah

The Monsanto Company is a multinational corporation agricultural biotechnology corporation. It is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosateGlyphosate, marketed as "RoundupRoundup". Monsanto is also by far the leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed, holding 70%–100% market share for various crops. Agracetus, owned by Monsanto, exclusively produces Roundup Ready soybean seed for the commercial market. In March 2005, it finalized the purchase of Seminis Inc, making it also the largest conventional seed company in the world. It has over 18,800 employees worldwide, and an annual revenue of USD $8.563 billion reported for 2007.

Monsanto's development and marketing of genetically engineered seed and bovine growth hormone Bovine somatotropin, as well as its aggressive litigation and political lobbying practices, have made the company controversial around the world and a primary target of the anti-globalization movement and environmental activists.

Monsanto was founded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901, by John Francis QueenyJohn Francis Queeny , a 30-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry. He funded the start-up with his own money and capital from a soft drinkSoft drink distributor, and gave the company his wife's maiden name. The company's first product was the artificial sweetener saccharin, which it sold to the Coca-Cola Company. It also introduced caffeine and vanillin to Coca-Cola, and became one of that company's main suppliers.

<snip>

The 1940s saw Monsanto become a leading manufacturer of plastics, including polystyrenePolystyrene, and synthetic fibers. Since then, it has remained one of the top 10 US chemical companies. Other major products have included the
herbicides 2,4,5-T and Agent Orange, aspartame, bovine somatotropin, and PCBs. Also in this decade, Monsanto operated the Dayton Project, and later Mound Laboratory in Miamisburg, Ohio, for the Manhattan Project, the development of the first nuclear weapons and, after 1947, the Atomic Energy Commission. In 1947, an accidental explosion of ammonium nitrate fertilizer loaded on the French ship S.S. Grandcamp destroyed an adjacent Monsanto styrene manufacturing plant, along with much of the port at Galveston Bay. The explosion, known as the Texas City Disaster, is considered the largest industrial accident in US history, with the highest death toll. As the decade ended, Monsanto acquired American Viscose from England's Courtauld family in 1949

<snip>

Monsanto has been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as being a "potentially responsible party" for 56 contaminated sites in the United States. Monsanto has been sued, and has settled, multiple times for damaging the health of its employees or residents near its Superfund sites through pollution and poisoning. In 2004 The Wildlife Habitat Council, (which has incidentally also given awards to nuclear power companies, waste management companies, steel manufacturers, and oil companies), and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Environmental Performance Track presented a special certificate of recognition to Monsanto Company during WHC's 16th Annual Symposium.

Monsanto is the largest producer of glyphosate herbicides through its popular brand, Roundup. Roundup has been a source of ongoing controversy, as researches in several studies have argued leads to the first stages of and/or causes cancer, while a review of the toxicity of roundup concluded that "under present and expected conditions of new use, there is no potential for Roundup herbicide to pose a health risk to humans"..

<snip>

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Monsanto