[Ngo-sanrm] Monsanto, the TPP and Global Food Dominance

Thu Nov 28 00:30:07 ICT 2013

[image: (illustration: Occupy Monsanto)]
(illustration: Occupy Monsanto)

http://splashurl.com/nfbjzff
Monsanto, the TPP and Global Food Dominance

By Ellen Brown, The Web of Debt Blog

27 November 13
"Control oil and you control nations," said US Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger in the 1970s. "Control food and you control the people.

Global food control has nearly been achieved, by reducing seed diversity
with GMO (genetically modified) seeds that are distributed by only a few
transnational corporations. But this agenda has been implemented at grave
cost to our health; and if the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) passes,
control over not just our food but our health, our environment and our
financial system will be in the hands of transnational corporations.

*Profits Before Populations *

According to an Acres USA
interview<http://www.organicconsumers.org/artman2/uploads/1/May2011_Huber.pdf>of
plant pathologist Don Huber, Professor Emeritus at Purdue University,
two modified traits account for practically all of the genetically modified
crops grown in the world today. One involves insect resistance. The other,
more disturbing modification involves insensitivity to glyphosate-based
herbicides (plant-killing chemicals). Often known as Roundup after the
best-selling Monsanto product of that name, glyphosate poisons everything
in its path except plants genetically modified to resist it.

Glyphosate-based herbicides are now the most commonly used herbicides in
the world. Glyphosate is an essential partner to the GMOs that are the
principal business of the burgeoning biotech industry. Glyphosate is a
"broad-spectrum" herbicide that destroys indiscriminately, not by killing
unwanted plants directly but by tying up access to critical nutrients.

Because of the insidious way in which it works, it has been sold as a
relatively benign replacement for the devastating earlier dioxin-based
herbicides. But a barrage of experimental data has now shown glyphosate and
the GMO foods incorporating it to pose serious dangers to health.
Compounding the risk is the toxicity of "inert" ingredients used to make
glyphosate more potent. Researchers have found, for example, that the
surfactant POEA can kill human
cells<http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/roundup-weed-killer-is-toxic-to-human-cells.-study-intensifies-debate-over-inert-ingredients>,
particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells. But these risks
have been conveniently ignored.

The widespread use of GMO foods and glyphosate herbicides helps explain the
anomaly that the US spends over twice as much per capita on
healthcare<http://pgpf.org/Chart-Archive/0006_health-care-oecd>as the
average developed country, yet it is rated far down the scale of the
world's healthiest populations. The World Health Organization has
ranked<http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/new-health-rankings-of-17-nations-us-is-dead-last/267045/>the
US LAST out of 17 developed nations for overall health.

Sixty to seventy percent of the foods in US
supermarkets<http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/08/what-are-gmos-and-why-should-i-care>are
now genetically modified. By contrast, in at least 26 other
countries-including Switzerland, Australia, Austria, China, India, France,
Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, Italy, Mexico and
Russia-GMOs are totally or partially
banned<http://www.thenation.com/blog/176863/twenty-six-countries-ban-gmos-why-wont-us>;
and significant restrictions on GMOs exist in about sixty other countries.

A ban on GMO and glyphosate use might go far toward improving the health of
Americans. But the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a global trade agreement for
which the Obama Administration has sought Fast Track status, would block
that sort of cause-focused approach to the healthcare crisis.

*Roundup's Insidious Effects *

Roundup-resistant crops escape being killed by glyphosate, but they do not
avoid absorbing it into their tissues. Herbicide-tolerant crops have
substantially higher levels of herbicide residues than other crops. In
fact, many countries have had to increase their legally allowable levels-by
up to 50 times-in order to accommodate the introduction of GM crops. In the
European Union, residues in foods are set to rise 100-150
times<http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Why_Glyphosate_Should_be_Banned.php>if a
new proposal by Monsanto is approved. Meanwhile, herbicide-tolerant
"super-weeds" have adapted to the
chemical<http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/move-over-round-up-usda-approves-2nd-gen-gmos-that-can-withstand-even-deadlier-herbicide-09012013>,
requiring even more toxic doses and new toxic chemicals to kill the plant.

Human enzymes are affected by glyphosate just as plant enzymes are: the
chemical blocks the uptake of manganese and other essential minerals.
Without those minerals, we cannot properly metabolize our food. That helps
explain the rampant epidemic of obesity in the United States. People eat
and eat in an attempt to acquire the nutrients that are simply not
available in their food.

According to researchers Samsell and
Seneff<http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416>in Biosemiotic
Entropy: Disorder, Disease, and
Mortality<http://www.mdpi.com/journal/entropy/special_issues/biosemiotic_entropy>(April
2013):

Glyphosate's inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked
component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in
biology . . . . Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests
slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the
body. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with
a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity,
diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and
Alzheimer's disease.

More than 40 diseases have been linked to glyphosate use, and more keep
appearing. In September 2013, the National University of Rio Cuarto,
Argentina, published
research<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11150351>finding
that glyphosate enhances the growth of fungi that produce aflatoxin
B1, one of the most carcinogenic of substances. A doctor from Chaco,
Argentina, told Associated Press, "We've gone from a pretty healthy
population to one with a high rate of cancer, birth defects and illnesses
seldom seen before." Fungi growths have increased significantly in US corn
crops.

Glyphosate has also done serious damage to the environment. According to an
October 2012 report by the Institute of Science in
Society<http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Why_Glyphosate_Should_Be_Banned_PDF.php>
:

*Agribusiness claims that glyphosate and glyphosate-tolerant crops will
improve crop yields, increase farmers' profits and benefit the environment
by reducing pesticide use. Exactly the opposite is the case. . . . [T]he
evidence indicates that glyphosate herbicides and glyphosate-tolerant crops
have had wide-ranging detrimental effects, including glyphosate resistant
super weeds, virulent plant (and new livestock) pathogens, reduced crop
health and yield, harm to off-target species from insects to amphibians and
livestock, as well as reduced soil fertility.*

*Politics Trumps Science *

In light of these adverse findings, why have Washington and the European
Commission continued to endorse glyphosate as safe? Critics point to lax
regulations, heavy influence from corporate lobbyists, and a political
agenda that has more to do with power and control than protecting the
health of the people.

In the ground-breaking 2007 book Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of
Genetic Manipulation<https://store.globalresearch.ca/store/seeds-of-destruction/>,
William Engdahl states that global food control and depopulation became US
strategic policy under Rockefeller protégé Henry Kissinger. Along with oil
geopolitics, they were to be the new "solution" to the threats to US global
power and continued US access to cheap raw materials from the developing
world. In line with that agenda, the government has shown extreme
partisanship in favor of the biotech agribusiness industry, opting for a
system in which the industry "voluntarily" polices itself. Bio-engineered
foods are treated as "natural food additives," not needing any special
testing.

Jeffrey M. Smith, Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible
Technology, confirms<http://www.responsibletechnology.org/posts/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/State-of-the-Science-of-GMO-Health-Risks-sm-.2013.pdf>that
US Food and Drug Administration policy allows biotech companies to
determine if their own foods are safe. Submission of data is completely
voluntary. He concludes:

*In the critical arena of food safety research, the biotech industry is
without accountability, standards, or peer-review. They've got bad science
down to a science.*

Whether or not depopulation is an intentional part of the agenda, widespread
use of GMO and glyphosate is having that
result<http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/us-birthrates-plummet-by-310000-babies-responsible-economic-planning-or-shadow-depopulation-07102013>.
The endocrine-disrupting properties of glyphosate have been linked to
infertility, miscarriage, birth defects and arrested sexual development. In
Russian experiments, animals fed GM soy were sterile by the third
generation. Vast amounts of farmland soil are also being systematically
ruined by the killing of beneficial microorganisms that allow plant roots
to uptake soil nutrients.

In Gary Null's eye-opening documentary Seeds of Death: Unveiling the Lies
of GMOs <http://youtu.be/a6OxbpLwEjQ>, Dr. Bruce Lipton warns, "We are
leading the world into the sixth mass extinction of life on this planet. .
. . Human behavior is undermining the web of life."

*The TPP and International Corporate Control *

As the devastating conclusions of these and other researchers awaken people
globally to the dangers of Roundup and GMO foods, transnational
corporations are working feverishly with the Obama administration to
fast-track the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that would
strip governments of the power to regulate transnational corporate
activities. Negotiations have been kept secret from Congress but not from
corporate advisors, 600 of whom have been consulted and know the
details. According
to Barbara Chicherio<http://www.nationofchange.org/trans-pacific-partnership-and-monsanto-1372074730>in
Nation of Change:

*The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has the potential to become the
biggest regional Free Trade Agreement in history. . . . The chief
agricultural negotiator for the US is the former Monsanto lobbyist, Islam
Siddique. If ratified the TPP would impose punishing regulations that give
multinational corporations unprecedented right to demand taxpayer
compensation for policies that corporations deem a barrier to their
profits. . . . They are carefully crafting the TPP to insure that citizens
of the involved countries have no control over food safety, what they will
be eating, where it is grown, the conditions under which food is grown and
the use of herbicides and pesticides.*

Food safety is only one of many rights and protections liable to fall to
this super-weapon of international corporate control. In an April 2013
interview on The Real News
Network<http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9985>,
Kevin Zeese called the TPP "NAFTA on steroids" and "a global corporate
coup." He warned:

*No matter what issue you care about-whether its wages, jobs, protecting
the environment . . . this issue is going to adversely affect it . . . . If
a country takes a step to try to regulate the financial industry or set up
a public bank to represent the public interest, it can be sued . . . .*

*Return to Nature: Not Too Late *

There is a safer, saner, more earth-friendly way to feed nations. While
Monsanto and US regulators are forcing GM crops on American families,
Russian families are showing what can be done with permaculture methods on
simple garden plots. In 2011, 40% of Russia's food was grown on
dachas<http://naturalhomes.org/naturalliving/russian-dacha.htm>(cottage
gardens or allotments). Dacha gardens produced over 80% of the
country's fruit and berries, over 66% of the vegetables, almost 80% of the
potatoes and nearly 50% of the nation's milk, much of it consumed raw.
According
to Vladimir Megre<http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2009/08/09/in-1999-35-million-small-family-plots-produced-90-of-russias-potatoes-77-of-vegetables-87-of-fruits-59-of-meat-49-of-milk-way-to-go-people/>,
author of the best-selling Ringing Cedars Series: Essentially, what Russian
gardeners do is demonstrate that gardeners can feed the world - and you do
not need any GMOs, industrial farms, or any other technological gimmicks to
guarantee everybody's got enough food to eat. Bear in mind that Russia only
has 110 days of growing season per year - so in the US, for example,
gardeners' output could be substantially greater. Today, however, the area
taken up by lawns in the US is two times greater than that of Russia's
gardens - and it produces nothing but a multi-billion-dollar lawn care
industry.

In the US, only about 0.6
percent<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_farming_by_country>of the
total agricultural area is devoted to organic farming. This area
needs to be vastly expanded if we are to avoid "the sixth mass extinction."
But first, we need to urge our representatives to stop Fast Track, vote no
on the TPP, and pursue a global phase-out of glyphosate-based herbicides
and GMO foods. Our health, our finances and our environment are at stake.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://ngocentre.org.vn/pipermail/ngo-sanrm/attachments/20131128/7686c114/attachment-0022.html 