Nonsanto: A Month Without Monsanto

Nonsanto: A Month Without Monsanto
by Sarah Newman
April 8, 2010 Abridged; link to full article below

When I first heard about April Davila's quest to live without Monsanto for a month, I thought she was doing something noble in a public setting. But would it really be that hard? As a locavore, I pride myself on purchasing my produce from farmer's markets, so couldn't she just do the same? When we decided to meet, I soon realized that my arrogant assumptions had enough hot air to heat a compost bin.

After many attempts to find a place to meet, we settled on having organic herbal tea at a local coffee shop. She greeted me in her new wardrobe. No, she's isn't an Angeleno fashionista. Rather, Monsanto owns most cotton seeds, so she had to purchase clothes and shoes made from other sources. April is plain and soft-spoken -- I wouldn't pick her to stand with a bull-horn outside of a McDonald's protest. Despite her demeanor, her month without Monsanto was her own small, but very impactful way of positively affecting our food system.

April wasn't a food activist before she saw Food, Inc. She's a scientist, writer and mom who was a conscious food consumer, but hadn't let it define her life. After seeing the film, she started reading more about Monsanto and was disturbed by an article about the possible harmful kidney and liver effects of the company's genetically modified corn. She decided to go Monsanto-free for a month after casually mentioning it to a friend who challenged her to do it (and this friend was critical in helping her succeed as the volume of research became more than a full-time job).

April's life radically changed from shopping at farmer's markets and purchasing organic products at supermarkets to one where she was tracking the source of every seed of everything she ingested and wore. She was caught flat footed when she began her journey as she didn't realize the extent of the company's reach. Her first few days consisted of wild fish and seaweed because she couldn't confirm anything about the company (she nearly gave up at this point). She learned that Monsanto controls many, many seeds and seed subsidiaries and even owns major organic seed companies (e.g. Western Seed). She switched to heirloom-only produce (non-Monsanto) and started contacting companies and their suppliers about their seed sources. She received responses from CEOs who did their own research on their seed sources (for example, Lundberg rice and certain Annie's macaroni and cheese were confirmed to be non-Monsanto). Farmers might not be aware, even if they grow
organic, because they order from seed distributors who don't list their sources.

It wasn't just that Monsanto owns most seeds. April started to examine them through her scientific lens. It turns out, not surprisingly, that some of their scientific evidence is questionable as they have paid off scientists....

Please read the full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-newman/nonsanto-a-month-without_b_530325.html


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IMPORTANT ARTICLE: Amid Monsanto’s antitrust troubles, another study questions the health effects of GMOs

Amid Monsanto’s antitrust troubles, another study questions the health effects of GMOs
by Tom Philpott
16 Dec 2009
LINK TO FULL ARTICLE BELOW

Better living through biotechnology? Pity executives at genetically modified seed giant Monsanto. Not only are they having to knock heads with Department of Justice lawyers over the company’s business practices, but some of their most-cherished PR talking points are being obliterated by researchers.

In the past few months, we’ve learned that its much-vaunted technologies don’t really increase yields after all; and aren’t really all that promising for adapting to climate change.

We’re also getting a trickle of information that calls into serious question the PR talking point on which the entire GMO seed industry hangs: that GMO products are safe to eat. This is a widely held assumption; but as Don Lotter showed in a recent paper in the International Journal of the Sociology of Food and Agriculture, there has actually been shockingly little research done on the long-term effects of eating GMO foods—and most of what has been was conducted by the industry itself.

The problem is that government funding for independent research on GMOs is scant—and industry funding is non-existent. And it’s extremely difficult for independent researchers to get their hands on GMO seeds without signing restrictive contracts with their patent holders, as the New York Times reported earlier this year.

The independent research that has been done on the health effects of GMOs paints an alarming picture. Here’s my discussion of the results of a multigenerational study, funded by the Austrian government, that came out last year on the effects of GMO corn on mice. Short story: in the third and fourth generations, mice fed GMOs showed “statistically significant” reproductive dysfunction.

PLEASE READ THE FULL ARTICLE: http://www.grist.org/article/2009-12-16-monsanto-GMO-safety-health/

Monsanto Questioned by Justice Department on Rival’s Complaint

Monsanto Questioned by Justice Department on Rival’s Complaint
By Jack Kaskey
Bloomberg
Oct. 9, 2009 Link to full article below

Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed producer, said it received questions from the U.S. Justice Department about anti-competition complaints that rival DuPont Co. made in a lawsuit.

The Justice Department’s inquiry is another sign the Obama administration is taking an aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement. Philip Weiser, the antitrust division’s deputy assistant attorney general, said at an August meeting on agriculture markets that the government had “concerns about the competitive consequences of how the marketplace is evolving.”

Full article: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=awMe9JNnCI4I

The World According to Monsanto (destroying the entire planet)

The World According to Monsanto

On March 11 a new documentary was aired on French television (ARTE – French-German cultural tv channel) by French journalist and film maker Marie-Monique Robin, The World According to Monsanto - A documentary that you won’t see on American television. The gigantic biotech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years.

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