Accompanying disgusting pictures can be seen at:
http://www.organicconsumers.orgMONSANTO WARNS TWO BILLION FARMERS: "STOP SAVING YOUR SEEDS"
Since the advent of farming, thousands of years ago, farmers have carefully collected seeds at harvest so as to have enough seed for the next year's planting. Concerned that seed saving by farmers reduces their profits, seed and biotech giants like Monsanto have rammed though controversial "intellectual property laws" in numerous countries that make traditional seed saving a crime. Last year, Monsanto harassed and/or sued more than 500 U.S. farmers who saved their seeds, forcing them to pay the company over $15 million in fines, including up to 8 month long prison sentences.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/seedsaving031405.cfm__________________________________
MONSANTO HELPS KEEP A NOTORIOUS TOXIC PESTICIDE ON THE MARKET
This week, Minnesota became the first U.S. state to attempt to follow the lead of the European Union and ban Atrazine. The commonly used corn pesticide has been directly linked to cancer, low sperm counts and widespread deformities in frogs, and has been showing up at increasing rates in wells and municipal water supplies. In response to the proposed law, chemically-dependent corn farmers and distributors of the pesticide, including Monsanto and Syngenta, successfully flexed their lobbying muscle and convinced lawmakers to reject the bill, claiming that Atrazine is safe, and that a ban would negatively impact profits.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/toxic/atrazine031705.cfm__________________________________
JUDGE RULES AGAINST ONE MILLION VIETNAMESE
IN FAVOR OF MONSANTO
On March 10, conservative Judge Jack B. Weinstein ruled against compensating Vietnamese children and adults who have suffered serious health damage due to the intensive spraying of the herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Agent Orange was widely applied to remove forest cover, despite being categorized as a highly toxic dioxin to humans. Backed by legal teams that only billions of dollars in annual sales can provide, the Monsanto Corporation (the original producer of Agent Orange), Dow, and others claimed the chemical is not toxic, even though it is now globally banned for that very reason. Over a million Vietnamese suffer serious health problems, ranging from cancer to birth defects, due to exposure to Agent Orange, which still persists in the nation's environment. Birth defect rates are among the highest in the world in regions where Agent Orange was applied. Here, children are frequently born without eyes, limbs, or are even missing internal organs. In making his ruling in favor of Monsanto and Dow, Judge Weinstein claimed that pesticides and birth defects are not related, saying, "There is no basis for any of the claims of plaintiffs. The case is dismissed."
http://www.organicconsumers.org/Politics/agentorange031405.cfm