[Ngo-sanrm] Food prize

Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Working Group ngo-sanrm at ngocentre.org.vn
Fri Oct 18 09:14:22 ICT 2013


I realize that some people try to be "fair" to Monsanto and suggest that
the company should not be criticized so much for the terrible practices
they pursue around the world, including Vietnam.

However, an item such as the one below *must be shared *with anyone who is
concerned about global corporate giants buying their way into countries
such as Vietnam.

NGOs, beware.

CHUCK

*======================================
CHUCK SEARCY
International Advisor, Project RENEW
Vice President, Veterans for Peace Chapter 160 (Hoa Binh)
**71 Tran Quoc Toan, Hanoi, Viet Nam
Tel:          +844 6685 2622 **
**Mobile:    +849 0342 **0769
**Skype:      chucksearcy
Email:       chuckusvn at gmail.com
Web:         www.landmines.org.vn
**======================================*
http://jimhightower.com/node/8155#.UmCXoFMrLak
Monsanto buys a food prize
*Monday, October 14, 2013*   |   Posted by Jim Hightower

As Lily Tomlin has noted, "No matter how cynical you get, it's almost
impossible to keep up."

For example, imagine if a prestigious group announced that this year's
"World Environmental Prize" will be awarded to BP for its unique
contribution to the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico. Too absurd, you say?

Right, but try this one: An Iowa group announces that the "World Food
Prize" will go to Monsanto for pushing its patented, pricey,
genetically-tampered Frankenseeds on impoverished lands as an "answer" to
global hunger. This would be so morally perverse that the "cyn" in cynical
would be spelled S.I.N. Yet, it's actually happening.

Rather than encouraging sustainable farming and self-sufficiency in
impoverished communities as a way to alleviate poverty and malnutrition,
the World Food Prize has been "won" by a profiteering, biotech,
seed-and-chemical monopolist that's the freakish opposite of
sustainability. Monsanto is globally infamous for bullying family farmers,
bribing and corrupting governments, stiffing independent scientific
inquiries into its hokum, running false ads and fraudulent PR campaigns,
and going all out to keep consumers from knowing that the crops produced by
its seeds contain alien, bioengineered DNA and have not been tested for
longterm health and environmental problems.

Why would this avaricious outfit get any sort of award, much less one that
can give it a false legitimacy as a corporate "savior" for the world's
poor? Perhaps because Monsanto is a major funder of the World Food Prize.
Indeed, the foundation that hands out the award is headquartered in
downtown Des Moines in a historic building that recently got a spiffy
remodeling, thanks to a $5 million donation from – you guessed it –
Monsanto.

How cynical is that? Even Lily Tomlin wouldn't have imagined it.
*

"Basu: Food Prize goes too far in honoring Monsanto,"
www.desmoinesregister.com<http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20130630/BASU/306300070/Basu-Food-Prize-goes-too-far-honoring-Monsanto>,
June 29, 2013.

"Executive at Monsanto Wins Global Food Honor,"
www.nytimes.com<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/monsanto-executive-is-among-world-food-prize-winners.html?_r=0>,
June 19, 2013.

"The World Food Prize, Brought to You by Monsanto,"
www.motherjones.com<http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/06/why-did-john-kerry-announce-world-food-prize>,
June 19, 2013.

"Welcome to the Hall of Laureates,"
www.worldfoodprize.org<http://www.worldfoodprize.org/index.cfm?nodeID=38176&audienceID=1>,
2013.
*


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