11
POPSChickens Not Fooled by GM Crops GM corn found itself in the hot seat late last year, after a highly reputable study commissioned by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety discovered that mice fed GM corn had significantly smaller and fewer offspring compared to the control group. The lead author of the study stated there was a direct link between the GM diet and reduced fertility. Likewise, Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette, has documented 65 serious health risks from GM products of all kinds. Among them: * Offspring of rats fed GM soy showed a five-fold increase in mortality, lower birth weights, and the inability to reproduce * Male mice fed GM soy had damaged sperm * The embryo offspring of GM soy-fed mice had altered DNA functioning * Several US farmers reported sterility or fertility problems among pigs and cows fed on GM corn varieties So the question is, what
2
POPSScientific American editors decry research restrictions on GMOs Something as basic as seed to grow food, the very substance of life, necessary for the survival of every person, should not in any way be controlled by any corporation or individual. Patents for the control of plant seed is a crime against humanity designed to gain ownership of life itself.
13
POPSMonsanto to Charge as Much as 42% More for New Seeds "Despite 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization, genetic engineering has failed to significantly increase US crop yields." Still Monsanto is going to claim yet a bigger piece of the non-existent pie. What greedy bastards. GM Fails To Boost Crop Yields
1
POPSThe Risks of Genetically Modified Foods WHEN will people start reacting to Monsanto and pals before it is too late and they hold the keys to our food supplies? I have a horrible fear of not being able to find an organic vegetable anywhere and having to buy all our seeds and vegetables, etc from these people with absolutely no scruples!!!
0
POPSNo to GMO Corn in Mexico For the people of Mexico, corn is not a commodity; it is the cradle of civilization and the subsistence base of rural lives and households. We will not allow our seeds to be lost, nor will we allow them to be contaminated by the modified genetic property of transnational corporations. We will not comply with unjust laws that criminalize seeds and rural life. We will continue to protect corn and the life of the people.
5
POPSBiotech GM Seeds Buccaneers destroy India's Rice Economy Not only that approvals have been rushed through in anticipation of a possible full spectrum ban on field trial in India, activists have been stone walled from obtaining information on locations and type of seeds being tested. Not easy to clip but worth a read.
8
POPSSome Farmers Now Protected Against Monsanto Lawsuits
Monsanto’s Seed Police How would Monsanto know if farmers were reusing their seeds? They’ve hired an army of private investigators and agents to do just that. It’s difficult to say exactly how extensive this army of “seed police” actually is today, but as of 2005 Monsanto had 75 employees and a $10 million budget solely to investigate and prosecute farmers for patent infringement. Let’s just say, for argument’s sake, you were inclined to agree with Monsanto about their right to monitor their seeds. They have, after all, invested millions of dollars into these (typically toxic) genetically modified seeds, and they need to recover some of that money. Well, can anyone rationally say that a farmer is responsible for patent infringement if a seed blows onto his property? Of course not. And this is where the bill AB 541 will protect California’s farmers from this type of harassment. I don’t believe for one second, though, that Monsanto has any justification in any of these matter
31
POPSOur Rights Taken Away By Corporations
"He went on to specify how this could happen: direct seed movement by birds, by wind, especially on the prairies, by floods, and through cross-pollination by bees). It doesn’t actually matter how the genetically modified organisms get into an organic farmer’s field or into the fields of a conventional farmer like myself: once there, those seeds and plants become Monsanto’s property.” It was a very startling decision. The judge also ruled that we were not allowed to use our seeds or plants again and that all the seeds and plants that we had developed over 50 years became the property of Monsanto. The judge also ruled that all the profit from my 1998 canola crop was payable to Monsanto. The judge further ruled that even from the land that had no contamination, all profit would be payable to Monsanto because there was a probability that our seed contained some of Monsanto’s GMOs. The really worrying thing is how we can lose our rights and freedoms. The contract from Monsanto, take
12
POPSThe World According To Monsanto continues: Robin, a farmer’s daughter who has spent twenty-five years as an investigative journalist, uses the film to channel her outrage, resulting in the most comprehensive film about Monsanto’s crimes to date. She takes us from Anniston, Alabama, where Monsanto dumped one million pounds of PCBs into local waterways, to rural Paraguay, where Round-Up herbicide has caused illness and physical deformation in the children, and to India, where suicide is seen as a farmer’s only retreat from Monsanto.
14
POPSMonsanto's Harvest of Fear Monsanto are evil. Evil, evil, evil. More: In the majority of cases where Monsanto sues, or threatens to sue, farmers settle before going to trial. The cost and stress of litigating against a global corporation are just too great. But Pilot Grove wouldn’t cave—and ever since, Monsanto has been turning up the heat…Monsanto demanded hands-on access to Pilot Grove’s in-house computers…petitioned to make potential damages punitive—tripling the amount that Pilot Grove might have to pay…Monsanto expanded the scope of the pre-trial investigation by seeking to quadruple the number of depositions.…Monsanto now subpoenaed the records of more than 100 of the co-op’s customers. In a “You are Commanded … ” notice, the farmers were ordered to gather up five years of invoices, receipts, and all other papers relating to their soybean and herbicide purchases, and to have the documents delivered to a law office in St. Louis. Monsanto gave them two weeks to comply.
19
POPSGenetically modified crops: The latest scheme to take over the world Pinky: What's wrong Brain?? Brain: War has become too long, too costly, and too unpredictable Pinky. The peasants are starting to dislike war and don't fall for the propaganda campaigns anymore. Pinky: So what are we going to do now Brain?? Brain: The same thing we always try to do Pinky. Try to take over the world. Control what the world eats and you control the world Pinky!!!
4
POPSRacing Toward Super Seeds Methinks it would be a humanitarian gesture to charge these giant unethical corporations with crimes against the planet.
4
POPSWill the World Survive GM Cultures and the Damage to the Earth's Eco-Systems?
The bio-tech industries have taken a big and dangerous step towards destroying the earth as it has been known for thousands of years. Organic agriculture, biodiversity and natural pest control have made the earth a place for sustainable farming for millennia. However, at this point of delicate balance for the earth's survival, bio-tech corporations want to put an end to everything that is natural in order to make short-term profit from huge monocultures of the genetically modified products that they are falsely marketing as our saviors from world hunger and poverty. India is one country that has been severely hit by the bio-tech industry with accompanying disasters. What follows after the farmers change over to GMO seeds after millennia of planting and making a livelihood in organic farming is a horror story of bad harvests, huge debts, increased costs for herbicides and fertilizers (in spite of the companies' promises of lower costs), and the suicides of thousands of farmers
9
POPSWill giant vegetables help solve world food shortage? Scientists have yet to offer a definitive explanation of why space causes the seeds to mutate but they believe that cosmic radiation, micro-gravity and magnetic fields may play a part. Mr Lo said: "After space travel the genetic sequence may change from 1,2,3,4 to 1,2,4,3 or a gene may even disappear so 1,2,3,4 becomes 1, 2, and 4. "We don't think there is any threat to human health because the genes themselves do not mutate, just their sequence changes. "With genetically-modified crops you have seen environmental problems because they have added genes that can damage other organisms. "But with space seeds they don't gain genes, they can only lose them."
8
POPSMonsanto's Udder Disgrace The milk labeling controversy - and other corporate practices of Monsanto - have been issues for years. For a while every time I saw my Senator, I would greet him with the same comment, "Hey Bernie, when are you going to do something about Monsanto?" Senator Bernie would shake his head and raise his hands in frustration. I often heard him say that no matter how bad you think things are in Washington, they are really much worse. While the Congress is distracted with growth hormones taken by sports figures, our farm animals are being abused with other hormones. Baseball players have a free choice. Cows don't. None of us have a choice. Not if Monsanto has anything to say about it and they do. Money talks.