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<h1 class=""><font size="4">Monsanto, the TPP and Global Food Dominance</font></h1>
<p class="">By Ellen Brown, The Web of Debt Blog</p>
<p class="">27 November 13</p>
"Control
oil and you control nations," said US Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger in the 1970s. "Control food and you control the people.
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class=""><strong>Profits Before Populations </strong></p>
<p class=""><a href="http://www.organicconsumers.org/artman2/uploads/1/May2011_Huber.pdf" target="_blank">According to an Acres USA interview</a>
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.</p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class="">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 <a href="http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/roundup-weed-killer-is-toxic-to-human-cells.-study-intensifies-debate-over-inert-ingredients" target="_blank">the surfactant POEA can kill human cells</a>, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells. But these risks have been conveniently ignored.</p>
<p class="">The widespread use of GMO foods and glyphosate herbicides helps explain the anomaly that <a href="http://pgpf.org/Chart-Archive/0006_health-care-oecd" target="_blank">the US spends over twice as much per capita on healthcare</a> as the average developed country, yet it is rated far down the scale of the world's healthiest populations. <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/new-health-rankings-of-17-nations-us-is-dead-last/267045/" target="_blank">The World Health Organization has ranked</a> the US LAST out of 17 developed nations for overall health.</p>
<p class=""><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/08/what-are-gmos-and-why-should-i-care" target="_blank">Sixty to seventy percent of the foods in US supermarkets</a>
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-<a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/176863/twenty-six-countries-ban-gmos-why-wont-us" target="_blank">GMOs are totally or partially banned</a>; and significant restrictions on GMOs exist in about sixty other countries.</p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class=""><strong>Roundup's Insidious Effects </strong></p>
<p class="">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, <a href="http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Why_Glyphosate_Should_be_Banned.php" target="_blank">residues in foods are set to rise 100-150 times</a> if a new proposal by Monsanto is approved. Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/move-over-round-up-usda-approves-2nd-gen-gmos-that-can-withstand-even-deadlier-herbicide-09012013" target="_blank">herbicide-tolerant "super-weeds" have adapted to the chemical</a>, requiring even more toxic doses and new toxic chemicals to kill the plant.</p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class=""><a href="http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416" target="_blank">According to researchers Samsell and Seneff</a> in <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/journal/entropy/special_issues/biosemiotic_entropy" target="_blank">Biosemiotic Entropy: Disorder, Disease, and Mortality</a> (April 2013):</p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class="">More than 40 diseases have been linked to glyphosate use, and more keep appearing. In September 2013, <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11150351" target="_blank">the National University of Rio Cuarto, Argentina, published research</a>
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.</p>
<p class="">Glyphosate has also done serious damage to the environment. <a href="http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Why_Glyphosate_Should_Be_Banned_PDF.php" target="_blank">According to an October 2012 report by the Institute of Science in Society</a>:</p>
<blockquote><em>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.</em></blockquote>
<p class=""><strong>Politics Trumps Science </strong></p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class="">In the ground-breaking 2007 book <a href="https://store.globalresearch.ca/store/seeds-of-destruction/" target="_blank">Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation</a>,
William Engdahl states that global food control and depopulation became
US strategic policy under Rockefeller prot�g� 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.</p>
<p class=""><a href="http://www.responsibletechnology.org/posts/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/State-of-the-Science-of-GMO-Health-Risks-sm-.2013.pdf" target="_blank">Jeffrey M. Smith, Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, confirms</a>
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:</p>
<blockquote><em>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.</em></blockquote>
<p class="">Whether or not depopulation is an intentional part of the agenda, <a href="http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/us-birthrates-plummet-by-310000-babies-responsible-economic-planning-or-shadow-depopulation-07102013" target="_blank">widespread use of GMO and glyphosate is having that result</a>.
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.</p>
<p class="">In Gary Null's eye-opening documentary <a href="http://youtu.be/a6OxbpLwEjQ" target="_blank">Seeds of Death: Unveiling the Lies of GMOs</a>,
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."</p>
<p class=""><strong>The TPP and International Corporate Control </strong></p>
<p class="">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. <a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/trans-pacific-partnership-and-monsanto-1372074730" target="_blank">According to Barbara Chicherio</a> in Nation of Change:</p>
<blockquote><em>The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has the potential to become the biggest regional Free Trade Agreement in history. . . . <br><br>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. <br><br>. . . 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.</em></blockquote>
<p class="">Food safety is only one of many rights and protections liable to fall to this super-weapon of international corporate control. <a href="http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9985" target="_blank">In an April 2013 interview on The Real News Network</a>, Kevin Zeese called the TPP "NAFTA on steroids" and "a global corporate coup." He warned:</p>
<blockquote><em>No matter what issue you care about-whether its wages,
jobs, protecting the environment . . . this issue is going to adversely
affect it . . . . <br><br>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 . . . .</em></blockquote>
<p class=""><strong>Return to Nature: Not Too Late </strong></p>
<p class="">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. <a href="http://naturalhomes.org/naturalliving/russian-dacha.htm" target="_blank">In 2011, 40% of Russia's food was grown on dachas</a>
(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. <a href="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/" target="_blank">According to Vladimir Megre</a>,
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.</p>
<p class=""><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_farming_by_country" target="_blank">In the US, only about 0.6 percent</a>
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.</p>
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