Rallyround the Flag

Rallyround the Flag: US Government Busts Monsanto for Bribery

By Trevor Wells
Farmers Legal Action Group-South Africa
27 July 2007



According to online news Stltoday.com bribery and corruption allegations involving Turkish officials and Monsanto were settled today with a US$300,000 payment.
Furthermore the US Government will once again monitor Monsanto's dealings. The Government ordered monitoring of Monsanto's external dealings after a previous conviction for bribery in 2005.

This follows closely in the wake of the announcement by the industry front Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO), on Wednesday,of their latest clean up
plans to introduce third-party auditing "to help agricultural players around the world feel confident that biotech crops are subject to stringent safety standards."

According to Carey Gillam, REUTERS, Kansas City, Missouri, agro-chemical giants Monsanto and DuPont endorsed this plan.

Forbes Insider Trading reported on 17 July that Monsanto's top executives had begun selling off their Monsanto shares. This was followed on 24 July 2007 by an announcement that 4 key Monsanto patents asserted against farmers were rejected by the Patent Office.

The new PR policy is in reality directly aimed at assuring ordinary shareholders that "We will walk out of this as clean as a whistle."

Monsanto has consistently shown disrespect for biosafety rules and a persistent reluctance to reveal information on the safety aspects of its products.It has a record of systematically bribing government officials to ignore safety regulations

In 2005, Monsanto bribed Indonesian officials to disregard safety regulations and was caught smuggling South African grown GM Bollgard cotton seed into Indonesia. The GM seed was disguised in crates labled "Rice". Monsanto was fined US$1 million for a US$50,000 bribe to a top Indonesian official after the CEO of Monsanto ordered it to be disguised as a "consultancy fee". At the time South Africa was a signatory to the Cartagena Protocol which requires exports of GM seed to be properly labled. Heading this operation was Monsanto's Asia and Pacific CEO, Hugh Grant. At the same time was member of a British Government sponsored advisory committee. The International Advisory Board, was set up by Scottish Enterprise to advise businesses on how to expand overseas.

In the same year, 2005, Monsanto joined the South African Department of Agriculture in opposing a High Court application by Biowatch for information on safety aspects of GM crops. Monsanto claimed that they were protecting "confidential business information". The Court ruled that access to this information was in the public interest and was a necessary part of the proper administration of the GMO Act.

In Europe Monsanto, supported by European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), kept the study from public scrutiny once again under a false claim of confidential business information until a German Court Order forced Monsanto to release the full report.

The EFSA has more recently been criticised by the medical and veterinary professions for downplaying the role of Monsanto's patented anti-biotic resistant marker gene npt11. This antibiotic is water soluble and is therefore used extensively in aquaculture,quail, pigeon, rabbit, chick, piglet and calve rearing industries. Monsanto have been using this gene in a number of products including the highly controversial GM potato. Anti-biotic marker genes were supposed to be phased out in terms of European Union Directive 2001/18EC and Revising Directive 90/220/CEE.
The controversy about the GM Potato started in Egypt when researchers (Toxins Volume 6, Issue 6, 1998. Pages: 219-233) found that GM potatoes caused cancerous damage to part of the small intestine in rats.
More recently Monsanto was ordered to remove false claims on the safety testing of GM foods in South Africa. In this cvase Monsanto claimed to conduct it's business according to a strict Code of Ethics. It can be deduced from their actions that they conduct their business according to the philosophy that Crime Pays.
Bribes, corruption and relatively insignificant fines are small change for Monsanto compared to the huge prize of monopoly position in countries with large agricultural sectors. And once GM crops are planted in a country, any contamination of non-GM crops means Monsanto can also claim royalties from these farmers.

Rallyround the Flag: Monsanto lies about food safety tests

By Trevor Wells
Farmers Legal Action Group-South Africa
27 July 2007



According to online news Stltoday.com bribery and corruption allegations involving Turkish officials and Monsanto were settled today with a US$300,000 payment.
Furthermore the US Government will once again monitor Monsanto's dealings.

This follows closely in the wake of the announcement by the industry front Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO), on Wednesday,of their latest clean up plans to introduce third-party auditing "to help agricultural players around the world feel confident that biotech crops are subject to stringent safety standards."

According to Carey Gillam, REUTERS, Kansas City, Missouri, agro-chemical giants Monsanto and DuPont endorsed this plan.

Forbes Insider Trading reported on 17 July that Monsanto's top executives had begun selling off their Monsanto shares. This was followed on 24 July 2007 by an announcement that 4 key Monsanto patents asserted against farmers were rejected by the Patent Office.

The new PR policy is in reality directly aimed at assuring ordinary shareholders that "We will walk out of this as clean as a whistle."

Monsanto has consistently shown disrespect for biosafety rules and a persistent reluctance to reveal information on the safety aspects of its products.It has a record of systematically bribing government officials to ignore safety regulations

In 2005, Monsanto bribed Indonesian officials to disregard safety regulations and was caught smuggling South African grown GM Bollgard cotton seed into Indonesia. The GM seed was disguised in crates labled "Rice". Monsanto was fined US$1 million for a US$50,000 bribe to a top Indonesian official after the CEO of Monsanto ordered it to be disguised as a "consultancy fee". At the time South Africa was a signatory to the Cartagena Protocol which requires exports of GM seed to be properly labled. Heading this operation was Monsanto's Hugh Grant who at the same time was member of a government business advisory committee. International Advisory Board, set up by Scottish Enterprise to advise businesses on how to expand overseas.
In the same year, 2005, Monsanto joined the South African Department of Agriculture in opposing a High Court application by Biowatch for information on safety aspects of GM crops. Monsanto claimed that they were protecting "confidential business information". The Court ruled that access to this information was in the public interest and was a necessary part of the proper administration of the GMO Act.
In Europe Monsanto, supported by European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), kept the study from public scrutiny once again under a false claim of confidential business information until a German Court, order a year later forced Monsanto to release the full report.
The EFSA has more recently been criticised by the medical and veterinary professions for downplaying the role of Monsanto's patented anti-biotic resistant marker gene npt11. This antibiotic is water soluble and is therefore used extensively in aquaculture,quail, pigeon, rabbit, chick, piglet and calve rearing industries. Monsanto have been using this gene in a number of products including the highly controversial GM potato. Anti-biotic marker genes were supposed to be phased out in terms of European Union Directive 2001/18EC and Revising Directive 90/220/CEE.
The controversy about the GM Potato started in Egypt when researchers (Toxins Volume 6, Issue 6, 1998. Pages: 219-233) found that GM potatoes caused damage to part of the small intestine in rats.
More recently Monsanto was ordered to remove false claims on the safety of GM foods in South Africa.

In view of the latest incident of bribery by the GM seed indusrty involving Monsanto
this article has been updated and appears above

""We in the alliance will not incorporate GMO's in our programmes. We shall work with farmers using traditional seeds."

By Trevor Wells

The Farmers' Legal Action Group-South Africa welcomes the first firm announcement that the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) will not fund Genetically Modified seeds by the new Chief Executive of AGRA, Kofi Annan

The announcement today,17-July-2007, was reported in Business Daily (Kenya), in an article by Allan Odhiamo headlined "Annan rules out the use of GMO's in the war on hunger in Africa."

The former United Nations General-Secretary said "Poor pricing of commodities, and not type of seeds, keeps African growers away from their farmlands despite spiraling food insecurity and poverty on the continent."

This is complete turn around by the Gates/Rockefeller Foundation who up to now have been hell bent on forcing GM seeds down the throats of the African people.

The previous Green Revolution was severely criticised for removing peasant farmers off their heritage lands to be replaced by huge agrobusiness farms in third world Countries. It was hailed as a huge success in first world countries which reaped the benefits of cheap food from the south. Apologists for the system claimed that they had raise levels of employment.

This announcement comes in the wake of the South African Government applying due diligence in rejecting an application by the African Biofortified Sorghum(ABS) Consortium to do trials in South Africa with an American patented sorghum gene. The Consortium claimed it was a truly African Sorghum. According to the ABS website "the consortium comprised nine – seven African and two American - institutions led by Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International(AHBFI). Africa Harvest's communication activities have been supported byCropLife, a global federation 'representing the plant science industry' and led by companies like BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont , Monsanto and Syngenta. According to the AHBFI Funding Statement they are a well-resourced and highly professional lobbying operation. The US$18.5 million project was funded as part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Grand Challenge in Global Health program."

The rejection by the South African Government was based on the results of scientific research funded by US-AID and done by Dr Gurling Bothma of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in Roodeplats.The research proved conclusively that all native African relatives of sorghum including Sudan Grass would be adulterated by the American patented gene. Being an African, Kofi Annan, fully understands the spiritual connection between the land, the seeds,and the ancestors.

Kofi's inaugural speech in Cape Town can be read on the new Agra-alliance.org website launched to coincide with the official announcement of his appointment.

The website confirms that the Alliance "Programe for Africa's Seed Systems" (PASS) is funding African-led initiatives that use conventional breeding to develop new varieties of maize, cassava, beans, rice, sorghum, and other crops resistant to diseases and pests."

Credible community based farmers organisations with the links to AGRA are sadly missing from their website.
The list is still overweighted with international and African organisations who have no standing or legitimacy at grassroots community farming level in the African context. This however is a legacy of the past largely due to funding by biotech industry fronts, the World Bank and US-AID. What is pleasing is that the usual biotech brigade and industry front organisations have been very wisely, surgically cleansed from the list. It is clear that with the disastrous record of smuggling, bribery and racketeering which some of them are burdened with, would prove to be the kiss of death for AGRA.

Concerned African environmental groups and communal farmers have been monitoring behind the scenes, top level, negotiations for some months. The clear, unequivocle announcement not to finance GM0's together with the appointment of former UN-Secretary General Kofi Annan as the Chairperson of AGRA sends out a clear signal that good faith negotiation with a view to building long term relationships is the way forward.

Farmers' Legal Action Group- South Africa
www.flag-sa.org/blog/rallyround.html

Rallyround says "My thumb will show da basic code to play the mbira dza vadzimu!
We can make that thumb piano sing!"



The late, great, mbira maestro, Professor Ephat Mujuru,
whose musical thumbs you see playing the mbira dza vadzimu on the right,
used to tell his students:
"There are twenty three notes on this mbira. You click all the notes when you play Miriam Makeba's Click Song.
When asked "How did you get to Carnegie Hall ?"
He replied, "Practice! Practice! Practice!"

by Trevor Wells

Fiona Macleod's revealing article ' Evidence of Poison', Mail&Guardian, March 9, and the website Tasmaniatimes quoted in Dr Alison Bleaney's letter of March 16, highlight the fact that the denialist agrochemical industry front, CropLife, is active all over the world creating smoke clouds over the dangers of aerial spraying and other poisons.

They represent the same group of companies who deny global warming. Dr Johan Minnaar produced evidence of serious illnesses and disorders among his patients in Groblersdal, where commercial farmers are spraying large amounts of agrochemicals on crops.

-- Horrific cases include breasts on a five year old girl.
-- Teenage boys temporarily "growing breasts" during spraying seasons.
-- Miscarriages, partial facial paralysis, cancers and ear malfunctions.
-- Milder poisoning symptoms, include asthma, sinusitis, headaches, dizziness and depression.

Professor Leslie London of the University of Cape Town states:-

" premature puberty and other hormonal abnormalities are symptoms of contamination by pesticides containing endocrine disruptors".

He went on to say,

"I think there is a view that if you choose to live in the country, you should accept this as a way of life. "

Patricia Bailey MD reported similar symptoms in Hawai, after the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) sprayed cannabis crops on the island. As a result of the numerous dead birds, patented glyphosate 'Roundup' was dubbed "Agent Green" because it kills everything it touches.

At first, officials denied that glyphosate had killed the birds, claiming on Hawaiian television station KGMB and in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald that the noise of the low flying helicopters had caused the birds to die of heart attack!

According to Wikipedia,

"The largest single user of Monsanto Roundup, reportedly is the U.S. Government, which sprays huge quantities of the herbicide over the northern countries of South America in an effort to discourage cultivation of the coca plant".

Large areas of land and delicate ecosystems have been laid waste by aerial spraying.

The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) prohibits all biological warfare, including attacks on crops.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) conducts similar clandestine glyphosate spraying operations on wild cannabis in South Africa. The Senior police spokesperson in charge of the Police Air-Wing, who conduct these clandestine operations confirmed that the Roundup pamphlet informed him "that Roundup is as safe as table salt". The Medical Council and the Univeristy of Kwa-Zulu have linked the high incidence of oesophagael cancer in areas of the former homelands to fungae known to be present in herbicides used in the war against drugs.
For a full expose of the use of crop spraying with deadly herbicides click Agent Green

"Aerial application has been shown in some studies to drift more than 2km, even in the absence of strong winds," said Prof London. Gusts of wind disperse the pesticide even further to outlying communities, where it collects in rainwater catchments. Rooftop catchments are a common source of residents' drinking water in rural areas. Ingestion of glyphosate as a result of this can result in sudden death.

Studies done at the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Changhua Christian Hospital, Taiwan, Republic of China report that Between 1 January 1980, and 30 September 1989, 93 cases of exposure to herbicides containing glyphosphate and surfactant ('Roundup') were treated at Changhua Christian Hospital.
There were seven deaths, all of which occurred within hours of ingestion.

Fiona Mcleod is a strong contender for the South African Breweries Environmental Writers' Award.

-- Farmers' Legal Action Group-South Africa:

This is a giant debilitated by fleas.


Who has ever heard of a domain "members.cox.net"? No www? Well I suppose I am new on the block. I checked it out on Google and discovered that some time back this site was humming. Whilst I could not get the waving flag going the old Apple Quicktime button still works. The Battle Cry of Freedom still has validity in the struggle. A wonderfully moving guitar picking version which brought tingles up the back of my spine and tears to my eyes. Click on the members button above to listen to this grand old rallying song.

Labels: apple_quicktime battle union freedom flying music tune march Battlecryoffreedom

Exposure to pesticides crosses the generations, according to a new University of Florida study that finds daughters of mothers who lived near areas of heavy agricultural spraying may be unable to nurse their children.

read more | digg story

Monsanto tells a pack of lies to Advertising Standards Authority

By Trevor Wells
Farmers' Legal Action Group-South Africa

Mark Wells, an organic farmer from Cintsa on the Wild Coast, South Africa, challenged the claim of a Monsanto advert that no negative reactions to Genetically Modified food have been reported. The false claim was made in the Monstanto advert which appeared in the widely read "You Magazine" on February 15th, 2007. Wells produced evidence to repudiate the claim.

An arbitration panel consisting of eight members was chaired by former High Court Judge Mervyn King SC whose cutting edge 'King Report on Corporate Governance' is hailed as the best practice corporate governance bible.

In view of the prima facie evidence produced by the complainant, the ASA opened the proceedings by stating that the matter before them for consideration was whether the advert was in breach of two sections of the Code of Practice:

1. Substantiation
2. Misleading claims

Dealing with the substantiation section first the ASA ruled that the onus is on the advertiser to substantiate the claim.

Monsanto addressed the ASA at length and submitted inter alia that it had a strict code of conduct and that MON 863 was not their product.

The facts are that MON 863 is indeed a product of Monsanto and that Monsanto had suppressed the evidence of serious damage to the liver and kidneys of rats in their own GM maize trials until ordered to release this evidence by a German Court. Furthermore Monsanto had applied to the South African GM regulatory authority for a commodity release permit for MON 863.

Monsanto then argued that after the rats had contracted liver damage Monsanto contracted five 'independent' scientists to assess the data supplied by them and they concluded that MON 863 had no adverse effect as claimed by the complainant.

Monsanto then changed their tack in mid-stream and argued that rather than focus on the two conflicting studies the ASA should focus on the benefits of GM maize.

The substantiation section of the code provides that any advertiser must be able to substantiate any claim objectively with documentary evidence which emanates from an independent, credible and expert source acceptable to the ASA. The ASA then invoked this clause.

Monsanto's lawyers then pulled a letter out of the hat from Covenance Laboratories in the USA which inter alia stated that they were not affiliated with Monsanto.

After applying their minds to the letter from Covenance in the USA, Justice King ruled that the benefits of "GM-Corn" had nothing to do with the case in front of them. After having given Monsanto every opportunity to substantiate their claim they had failed to do so. The letter from Covenance made no mention of the issue which was before the ASA for consideration.

"The statement which the complainant alleges is false, to wit: 'This is one of the most extensively tested and controlled types of food, and no negative reactions have ever been reported.' goes beyond merely indicating safety. It expressly states that out of all the studies done in this field no negative effects have ever been reported."

Without reference to the fact that Monsanto had wasted the time of an eight member panel and come to the hearing with dirty hands, Monsanto was politely informed that their claim was unsubstantiated and in breach of the Code of Practice. The ASA further ruled that as the claim was unsubstantiated it was not necessary to consider whether it was misleading.

Monsanto was ordered to immediately withdraw their claim and given the standard polite warning, which applies to all advertisers, that in future they must make sure that they can substantiate any claims before they publish them.

In January, this year, Monsanto was fined 15,000 euros (19,000 dollars) in a French court for misleading the public about the environmental impact of herbicide Roundup.

A former chairman of Monsanto Agriculture France was found guilty of false advertising for presenting Roundup as biodegradable and claiming that it left the soil clean after use. Monsanto's French distributor Scotts France was also fined 15,000 euros.

In 2005 Monsanto was caught smuggling South African produced GM Bollgard cotton seed into Indonesia disguised as rice. Monsanto was fined for bribing Indonesian officials.

More recently in June this month, a second peer-reviewed case involving another variation of Monsanto's GM maize, namely, NK603, has been shown by studies to be potentially toxic to humans. NK 603 has been approved for food, feed, processing, and propagation in Europe and the Philippines The new research, carried out by the French scientific research institute CRIGEN, involves biotech firm Monsanto's NK603 GMO corn (marketed commercially under the name Round-up Ready) which was approved as food and feed in the country in 2003, and for propagation in 2005.

Rats that were fed GM maize showed significant differences in measurements, as well as significant weight differences compared to those fed with normal maize. Almost 70 statistically significant differences were observed and reported - 12 for hematology parameters, 18 for clinical chemistry parameters, nine for urine chemistry parameters, six for the organ weights (brain, heart, liver), 14 for body weights and body weight changes, and eight for food consumption. toxicity, The most alarming was the diminished brain size. Scientists warned that this was a danger warning for growing children.
Greenpeace financed the research which exposed the health hazards in both MON863 and the Roundup Ready NK603. They are the only organisation which is funding such essential research and concerned people throughout the world are extremely grateful.

Here is the unsubstantiated Monsanto's advert which had to be withdrawn after the judgment:

Is your food safe?

Biotechnology - the true facts

The safety of genetically modified food products though biotechnology remains a subject of uncertainty to many people, but after more than twenty years' of research and ten years' commercial use, genetically modified grain products have been found to be just as healthy, nutritious and safe as normal products. All commercially approved grain products that have been genetically modified adhere to strict food, feed and environmental safety guidelines of regulatory authorities worldwide. This is one of the most extensively tested and controlled types of food, and no negative reactions have ever been reported. In fact, these innovative products also lead to food with improved nutritional value, which includes enhanced vitamin A, protein and antioxidant content, as well as better food safety through the removal of allergens and anti-nutrients. In short, you can use it with confidence!

Tested. Healthy. Nutritious. Safe.