*Monsanto India: GM foods, crops - preparing for worldwide genetic control
*
Despite rules to the contrary, GM (Genetical Modification) experiments
have been going on across India with the complicity of the Indian
Government.

In the 67th Meeting of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee [GEAC]
held on 22 May 2006, the GEAC brushed aside all such concerns and in
utter defiance of the spirit of a Supreme Court Order it has
rubberstamped an astonishing 91 GM (Genetically Modified) products for
multi-location trials [MLTs] - 91 approvals in one meeting.

Approvals were rushed through in anticipation of a possible full
spectrum ban on field trials in India, while investigators have been
stone walled from obtaining information on locations and type of seeds
being tested. Only after a petition under the Right to Information [RTI
Act of 2005] was filed, did the Department of Biotechnology reveal some
information.

The United States of America declared a war on Indian rice and food
security already in the early 1960s when India's No 1 scientist mole, Dr
M.S. Swaminathan, stole the gene bank of rice, evolved over decades by
Dr Riccharia, and passed it over to the Americans. Activists say that
Monsanto, operating through its Indian Joint Venture partners
Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Corporation or Mahyco, have committed crimes
against humanity with the full connivance of officials of the Department
of Biotechnology and members of GEAC, and that therefore several
Ministries are also involved, chiefly, the Minister of Agriculture & the
Ministry of Environment & Forestry.

India had 120,000 varieties of rice seeds; today, no more than 50 are
available. This is the result of the United States' war on genetic
diversity, ably supported by scientist-criminals like MS Swaminathan.
The Indian Government is to have these criminals head Agriculture Policy
of India: at age 75, Swaminathan lives to lord over many "Expert
Committees", including crucial ones in the Ministry of Agriculture. The
deadly tentacles of this hydra-headed monster extend in many ministries
of the Government of India. From early 1960s, Swaminathan has been the
front of the Rockefellers, implementing their agenda with full support
of the US Government.

Emboldened by a deliberately errant Indian Regulator, which is
malfunctioning with intent and deliberation to support a pro GE agenda,
and the open support of USAID, the GM seeds producers are furthering the
agenda of destroying India's food sovereignty and food security knowing
fully well that GE seeds do not enhance productivity (yield), which is
what Indian farmers need: "For example, the USAID-backed initiative,
Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project-II (ABSP-II), is based and
directed from Cornell. ABSP partners have included Asgrow, Monsanto, and
Pioneer Hi-Bred. Promoting GM is, of course, an official part of USAID's
remit - one of its roles being to "integrate GM into local food systems."

The repercussions of the Regulator's releases of GM foods in India will
be global, and some of the best known scientists from around the world
have joined hands with Indian activists and filed exclusive submissions
to the Supreme Court, the activists point out.

"Dr. Arpad Pusztai, the world renowned toxicologist and leading expert
in protein lectins in a telephone conversation with Petitioner No 1 said
that in all these years of scrutinising industry studies, (and most of
these have passed through his hands), he has never seen anything quite
like this. According to David Schubert, the safety testing data on the
Ministry (GEAC) website is "very poorly done and in the absence of REAL
DATA it is impossible to make any assessment of the validity of their
claims". Dr. Doug Gurian Sherman, Senior Scientist at the Centre For
Food Safety concurs. Dr. Robert Mann formerly senior lecturer in
biochemistry at the University of Auckland and Advisor to successive
Ministry’s of Health in NZ, says, "I regard the 'Bt'-brinjal field-trial
proposal as one of the most ill-conceived I have encountered in my three
decades of critical appraisal of GM. The risks and hazards, while not
exactly known or indeed precisely foreseeable, appear to be so grave
that the proposed field-trials should be enjoined pending a thorough
assessment such as has yet to be performed." Dr. Mae Wan Ho (of the
Independent Science Panel) and Prof. Joe Cummins, Prof. Emeritus of
Genetics, University of Western Ontario, Canada, say: "In India, brinjal
would be comparable to potato or tomato in the American diet. GM Egg
Plant Contains Bt Toxin Linked to Hundreds of Allergy Cases and
Thousands of Sheep Deaths. It would be unthinkable and irresponsible to
approve the genetically modified eggplant. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe
Cummins find neither published studies nor experimental details on
safety tests in the application for field releases of the Bt brinjal and
raise serious questions. Instead of approving more GM crops, regulatory
authorities in India should start a comprehensive enquiry into the
health impacts of Bt cotton and impose a ban on further releases of all
GM crops".

Monsanto in India

[Monsanto www.genewatch.org] has been operating in India since 1949, and
is a market leader in agricultural chemicals. It operates three Indian
subsidiaries: Monsanto India, Monsanto Enterprises and Monsanto
Chemicals, and early in 1998, Monsanto acquired a 26 per cent stake in
the Indian seed company Mahyco. Mahyco is accused of misleading local
people about the nature of GM trials, even keeping the farmer on whose
land the trial was being conducted in the dark. Bharatiya Kissan Union
(BKU) spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said, "We found that trials of Bt rice
were conducted under secrecy on the farm land of Paramjit Singh, who
leased his two-acre land to Mahyco for Rs 15,000. He was not informed by
Mahyco about what seeds were sown and for what purpose. We found blatant
violation of biosafety norms in the field trial which may lead to
genetic contamination of other rice fields. Singh after discovering the
truth joined us along with 500 farmers in uprooting and burning of the
crop."

Already in 2005-06, Indian rice exporters exported 5 million tonnes of
rice valued at US$1.53 billion to 102 countries worldwide. Their main
markets are Europe, North America, West Asia, and Australia. In each of
these countries, the respective Governments must warn the Indian
Government that consumers do not want GM (Genetically Modified) Indian
Rice, the concerned activists say, giving a list of suggestions on
actions concerned individuals can take worldwide, including to ask
political representatives to tell the Government of India to stop all GM
field trials because it will destroy the global environment. They point
out that every farmer's association has come out against GM seeds. The
All India Rice Exporters Association has expressed its readiness to work
with all persons who refuse to fall in line with a pro-GM agenda because
of the demonstrated risks of GE technology. They are also calling for
lawyers to come forward to assist in taking lawsuits against the
Government of the USA, including the US-FDA and USDA, USAID and others.

Monsanto even seeks to control water, the very basis of life. Monsanto
is seeing a new business opportunity because of the emerging water
crisis and the funding available to make this vital resource available
to people. As it states in its strategy paper, "first, we believe that
discontinuities (either major policy changes or major trendline breaks
in resource quality or quantity) are likely, particularly in the area of
water and we will be well-positioned via these businesses to profit even
more significantly when these discontinuities occur. Second, we are
exploring the potential of non-conventional financing (NGOs, World Bank,
USDA, etc.) that may lower our investment or provide local country
business-building resources." Thus, the crisis of pollution and
depletion of water resources is viewed by Monsanto as a business
opportunity.

Monsanto is not new to killing, being one of the suppliers of Agent
Orange with its devastating after effects upon Vietnamese civilians and
US Vietnam Veterans.

Politicians lobbied, bought and sold

Head of the large Indian State of Andra Pradesh, Y S Rajasekhara "YSR"
Reddy is currently on a visit to the United States of America with daily
press releases by his spin doctors presenting him at various forums. He
spoke at the World Agriculture Forum (WAF), of which Monsanto is one of
the major sponsors, yet the bill for his speech was footed by Indian tax
payers, at a whopping 700,000 Indian Rupees. The WAF was founded by
Monsanto's former director of public policy Leonard Guarraia. The WAF
focuses on lobbying government leaders the world over.

Other sponsors of the WAF, which some are terming the "World
Annihilation Forum", include the giant chemicals and pesticides company
DuPont, which has significant presence in the state seed marketing
through Pioneer Hi-Bred. Other sponsors include Abengoa, a bio-fuels
major, Bunge North America, a food supply chain "services" company and
Novus, an animal agriculture giant. "Most of these firms have either a
direct or an indirect interest in the Indian market owing to its
dependence on agriculture", an analyst told the Times of India.

State governments in India have large powers to deal directly with large
foreign corporations without adequate central control, which some
analysts predict will hasten the break-up of India into largely
independent states, each vying for foreign contracts in competition.
Already countless communities have been uprooted by large companies
moving in upon conclusion of contracts with Indian state governments,
which then seek to forcibly evict them from the land.

Millions of India farmers join lawsuit against Monsanto & biotech
industry over GMO contamination

Over 6.5 million farmers from every state in India are asking the
Supreme Court to let them join the case before the Court, saying GM
crops risk irreversibly damaging India's farmland and biodiversity. This
new move follows on from the application already filed in the Supreme
Court by the Association of the Rice Millers and Exporters in India, who
want a GM moratorium to protect the rights of farmers and consumers to
grow and consume GM-free crops, as well as to ensure - in their interest
and in the national interest - that exports don't suffer because of GM
contamination.

Contamination has occurred with American Long Grain Rice. The
announcement in August 2006 that an unapproved variety of genetically
modified (GM) rice, i.e. not approved for human consumption, had been
found at low levels in US long-grain rice shocked the global food
industry. Bayer Crop Science's GM LL601 rice had last been grown in
field trials in 2001 and was not intended for commercialization. Liberty
Link 601 [LL601 rice] has been modified to be tolerant to Bayer's
herbicide, Liberty (glufosinate), so farmers can use the weed-killer
without harming the crop.

The global marketing of unapproved GM rice has led to product
withdrawals in Switzerland, Germany, France, Sweden, Ireland and the UK.
Exports to Europe require certification that foods are GM-contaminant
free. Japan has zero tolerance for GM crops, has halted rice imports
from the USA, and is carrying out extensive tests to detect the Liberty
Link LL601 rice contamination level and extent.

Contamination, even the risk of contamination, from GM crops has been
long denied by the GE Industry as a figment of the imagination of those
opposing GM crops. However, it is a biological fact and the physical
evidence of genetic contamination being reported from all over the world
is now incontrovertible and conclusive. The recent GM rice contamination
of US long-grain rice is so serious that the damage to the US rice
industry is valued in billions of $s with countries moving to ban US
rice imports and American farmers being stopped from planting rice in
the current season. The GM contamination of rice in the US is spiralling
out of control despite the best attempts of farmers, millers, exporters
and the Regulator to contain it and clean up. Thus, the strategy of GM
crop developers in the US and other parts of the world has now changed
to demanding that they be allowed to contaminate Non GM crops!
Regulation is being 'bent' to allow contamination.

Monsanto & Co's crimes

"When I worked at Monsanto, I warned both scientists and executives that
our GM foods may cause disease, but no one was even willing to listen,
let alone investigate the unpredicted side effects. For them, it was all
about profit. Now our whole population is threatened by the serious
dangers described in Genetic Roulette." — Kirk J. Azevedo, DC

Monsanto's programme includes converting all crops to genetically
engineered species which produce sterile seeds, and disenabling farmers
to engage in the age-old practice of saving seeds from one crop to
generate the next.

When purchasing Monsanto seed, farmers must agree to comply with
Monsanto's herbicide and pesticide management regime. Should the wind
blow pollen from a Monsanto client's crop onto a neighbour's, Monsanto
will test the neighbour's crop and, if there is contamination with
Genetically Engineered (GE) crop, the neighbour will be forced into
court to compensate Monsanto for using its genetic property. More than
one farmer is in prison for refusing to pay this blackmail.

GE contamination in a single food crop can mean that the entire
country’s crops are banned by consumer nations; who understandably do
not want contamination to enter their own crops or resident human
metabolisms. The same principle applies to meat - that is, dairy animals
and poultry that consumed contaminated GM feeds. Because of Monsanto’s
GE interference, the entire corn export from America to Europe was
terminated. Africa, too, bans GE material.

Meanwhile sick people have been used like laboratory rats in GM trials
by Monsanto, The Monsanto Company dumped toxic waste in the UK,
Starbucks is dropping milk products containing an artificial growth
hormone manufactured by Monsanto, Globalization's Policy of Famine meets
with success as Wheat Supplies Plunge, the US-India Knowledge Initiative
in Agriculture gives US giants like Monsanto free access to the Indian
market for their GM products], the European commission has been
approving genetically modified crops for human consumption while
secretly warning about their impact on health and the environment, and
Monsanto's pesticide Roundup is killing amphibians worldwide.

Compelling evidence of GM food being unsafe comes from the animals
themselves in experiments — preferring natural food to GM food and
suffering internal injuries or succumbing to death after eating GM food.

Media silence is bought

National Public Radio (NPR) that long ago abandoned the public trust it
was sworn to uphold when it was founded in 1970 as an independent,
private, non-profit member organization of public radio stations in the
United States, is now as tainted and corrupted as its television
counterparts and now also gets a substantial proportion of its funding
from corporate donors demanding control, and is careful to shy away from
all controversial topics that may be sensitive to corporate interests
that include those providing it funding support. Monsanto supports NPR
with funds.

A full disclosure by Monsanto and its directors under oath is required
to establish which politicians and which media networks have received
funds from it, yet no such disclosure has been made. Mathaba News has
not received any funds from Monsanto.

Mounting opposition, more needed to prevent irreversible worldwide
contamination

Beginning in April 2007, organizations around the world will present
Genetic Roulette to government officials as evidence that GM foods are
unsafe and need to be banned immediately. Former British government
environment minister Michael Meacher says that Genetic Roulette is "the
authentic book on genetic modification that the world has been waiting
for... The case presented is absolutely a smoking gun that should stop
in its tracks any dabbling with GM foods, whether by individual
families, food companies, or indeed nations."

In March this year, nearly 5,000 farmers from 84 villages spanning eight
blocks of Gonda district in Uttar Pradesh, India, have pledged NOT to
cultivate genetically modified (GM) crops and instead practice organic
farming, whilst in February 2,000 farmers from 64 villages of Chitrakoot
and Banda districts in Uttar Pradesh took a similar pledge. This brings
the total number of UP villages, which have pledged to remain GM free to
148. An online petition to the Prime Minister of India against genetic
engineering has also been set up.

According to New Delhi-based food and trade policy expert Devinder
Sharma, more than 10,000 cotton farmers have killed themselves after the
introduction of fourth-generation pesticides, called synthetic
pyrethroids, less than 20 years ago. Farmers are caught in vicious
cycles of debt to meet the high costs of green revolution cotton
farming: debts they incur to purchase pesticides, fertilizers, water
pumpsets and hybrid seeds. For many, the only way out of the debt trap
is to swallow the very pesticides they purchase with their loans.

Contamination of all crops by GM will be so pervasive that we will all
be faced with a 'fait accompli' everywhere, particularly in India and
the developing world, so that it will be futile in future to oppose it.
Hence action is required now, otherwise all 'natural' seeds will be
virtually extinct. This is quite simply the objective of the Biotech GE
industry led by Monsanto.

Activists say that the US Government is not only stealing genetic assets
as mentioned above has been taking place since the 1960's, it is
deliberately promoting near lethal food worldwide. Genetic Engineering
if not stopped will lead to the irreversible contamination of the
world's food at the molecular level and in perpetuity. This demonstrates
the seriousness of the crisis we face, as a global agenda that aims to
control the world's population as stated in US National Security Study
Memorandum 200 (SSM-200), is being implemented militarily, economically
and by means of pro-agenda companies such as Monsanto which have
sponsored leading politicians including Britain's Tony Blair, with these
western politicians also advocating production of Ethanol cash crops
which will result in a genocidal famine with estimated deaths by hunger
in future of 3 billion people as farmers will find Ethanol production
more lucrative business than food production.

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