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New
cables 'expose' US govt lobbies worldwide for Monsanto, other GMO
corps
After
US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks showed that the State
Department was lobbying worldwide for Monsanto and other similar
corporations, a new report based on the cables shows Washington's
shilling for the biotech industry in distinct detail.
RT,
15
May, 2013
The
August 2011 WikiLeaks revelations showed that American diplomats had
requested funding to send lobbyists for the biotech industry to hold
talks with politicians and agricultural officials in "target
countries"
in areas like Africa and Latin America, where genetically-modified
crops were not yet a mainstay, as well as some European countries
that have resisted the controversial agricultural practice.
After
a concerted effort to "closely
examine five years of State Department diplomatic cables from 2005 to
2009 to provide the first comprehensive analysis of the strategy,
tactics and U.S. foreign policy objectives to foist pro-agricultural
biotechnology policies worldwide,"
nonprofit consumer protection group Food & Water Watch published
on Tuesday a report showing in plain detail the depth of the
partnership between the federal government and a number of
controversial biotech companies that have slowly but surely pushed
their GMO products on a number of new countries in recent years.
Protesters
against Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are chained to a vehicle
as they block a delivery entrance to a Monsanto seed distribution
facility in Oxnard, California September 12, 2012. (Reuters/Mario
Anzuoni)
At
center stage in the report is Monsanto, the St. Louis, Missouri-based
makers of genetically-modified crops and genetically-engineered seeds
that has continuously generated criticism
as of late over its practices both on the growing field and in a
court of law. Monsanto is among the most valuable corporations in the
US, yet has relentlessly sued small-time farmers across the world
over alleged patent violations, often forcing independent
agriculturists to go out of business. Legislation signed into law
last month provided litigation immunity to GMO companies including
Monsanto, and on Monday the Supreme Court sided
with the corporation when ruling on a landmark patent infringement
case.
“The
US Department of State is selling seeds instead of democracy,”
Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter told
reporters. “This report
provides a chilling snapshot of how a handful of giant biotechnology
companies are unduly influencing US foreign policy and undermining
our diplomatic efforts to promote security, international development
and transparency worldwide. This report is a call to action for
Americans because public policy should not be for sale to the highest
bidder.”
139
РЕТВИТОВ 35
ИЗБРАННЫХ
Food
& Water Watch published their findings this week after combing
through the roughly 260,000 State Department cables that the
whistleblower website first began publishing in 2010, but notes that
their statistics specifically come from memos not classified as
'secret' or higher.
For
the most part, wrote the nonprofit, “The
State Department strategy sought to foist pro-biotech policies on
foreign governments”
using a four-prong approach: promote biotech business interests;
lobby foreign governments to weaken biotech rules; protect US biotech
exports and press developing world to adopt biotech crops.
As
the cables are analyzed, though, the efforts the State Department
undertook to advocate for Monsanto demonstrate a willingness to put a
US-based company’s profits about the interests and health of those
residing in foreign nations.
In
a cable sent from the Slovakian consulate in 2005, the State
Department is told that the local post “will
continue its efforts to dispel myths about GMOs and advocate on
behalf of Monsanto.”
In 2009, a cable out of Madrid, Spain announced that Monsanto had
made “urgent
requests”
to fight off an anti-GMO opposition campaign that posed problems to
the biotech industry. Other revelations show pro-GMO efforts waged by
the US on behalf of the biotech industry in Hong Kong, the European
Union, Egypt and elsewhere.
However,
activists in the areas in question and elsewhere are taking note of
Monsanto's dangerous and growing influence, with anti-Monsanto
demonstrations planned in 36 cities on six continents
for spring and summer 2013.
Members
of "Occupy" movements in the Midwest protest against
Monsanto's agricultural practices in front of the Missouri Botanical
Garden during the "Occupy the Midwest" regional conference
in St. Louis, Missouri March 16, 2012. (Reuters/Sarah Conard)
“The
State Department’s efforts impose the policy objectives of the
largest biotech seed companies on often skeptical or resistant
governments and public, and exemplifies thinly veiled corporate
diplomacy,”
alleged Food & Water Watch.
When
Food & Water Watch scoured those cables, they concluded that the
State Department was conducting off-the-radar negotiations that
didn’t seem to advance democracy or American ideals — instead,
rather, it found evidence of lobbying used to advance the agenda of
thriving US companies that have already purchased the approval of
much of Washington.
“It’s
not surprising that Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow want to
maintain and expand their control of the $15 billion global biotech
seed market, but it’s appalling that the State Department is
complicit in supporting their goals despite public and government
opposition in several countries,”
Ronnie Cummins, executive director of Organic Consumers Association,
said in the press release accompanying the report. “American
taxpayer’s money should not be spent advancing the goals of a few
giant biotech companies.”
Of
the 926 State Department cables analyzed by Food & Water Watch,
the group found Monsanto appeared in more than 6 percent of the
memos, shining light on how a federal agency “worked
especially hard to promote the interests”
of an outside company.
When
reached for comment by Reuters, Monsanto spokesman Tom Helscher said,
"We
remain committed to sharing information so that individuals can
better understand our business and our commitments to support farmers
throughout the world as they work to meet the agriculture demands of
our world's growing population.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for
comment.
Nancy
Brumley, Monsanto Soybean Plant Specialist, ties up a stalk of
soybean in the soybean greenhouse at the Monsanto Research facility
in Chesterfield, Missouri October 9, 2009. (Reuters)
As
RT reported previously, that so-called “Monsanto Protection Act”
signed into law last month was co-authored by a senator that has
received thousands
of dollars in campaign contributions
from the company — a revelation that didn’t surprise many given
that another important figure in Washington, Justice Clarence Thomas,
served as an attorney for the corporation before he was nominated to
the high court only to eventually preside over a case involving his
former employer. But according to Food & Water Watch, the
relationship between Monsanto and the government extends beyond
Congress and the Supreme Court. In a statement published on Tuesday
to accompany their report, Food & Water Watch wrote that the
cables detail “how
the US State Department lobbies foreign governments to adopt
pro-agricultural biotechnology policies and laws, operates a rigorous
public relations campaign to improve the image of biotechnology and
challenges commonsense biotechnology safeguards and rules —
including opposing genetically engineered (GE) food labeling laws.”
This
week’s report comes just one day after Justice Thomas and the
Supreme Court sided with Monsanto in reaching a decision in a
landmark
patent suit.
In the case, the high court said that an Indiana farmer infringed on
Monsanto’s patent rights by using specially-made seeds he obtained
second-hand without signing a contract with the company. That ruling,
however, came just days after the company was hit with comparably bad
news: on Friday, the US Department of Agriculture ordered an extra
round of tests for new GMO breeds being developed by Monsanto and
Dow, putting on hold plans to release to the public laboratory-made
crops that can withstand heavy dousing of dangerous pesticides. Both
companies want to make available crops that are resistant to the
chemicals 2,4-D and dicamba, a move that environmentalists fear will
prompt farmers to use more of these toxins.
"The
danger that 2,4-D and dicamba pose is a real threat to crops…nearly
every food crop,"
Steve Smith, director of agriculture at Red Gold, told Reuters last
year.
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