Community Corner

Group Plans "March Against Monsanto" Rally Saturday in Vallejo

Following is a "Letter to the Editor" sent to Napa Valley Patch from Erica Amy Martenson, Label GMOs Napa County, Coordinator, regarding Saturday's rallies against Monsanto in Vallejo, Sacramento and San Francisco:  

Dear Editor:

I would like to encourage readers to participate in one of the marches against the multinational agrichemical corporation, Monsanto, which are happening next Saturday, May 25, at 11 a.m. all over the world, including Sacramento and San Francisco, and the closest one happening in Vallejo.  

Why are there currently so many campaigns against Monsanto, including the Organic Consumers Association’s “Millions Against Monsanto” campaign, more recently the “Occupy Monsanto” campaign, and now this “March Against Monsanto?”  

 Public interest groups have targeted Monsanto due to its long history of developing and knowingly exposing people to dangerous products.  As a corporation, it has become a symbol of corporate greed and of using its lobbying power to influence governments here and abroad to put its interests over the public interest.  

Created in 1901, Monsanto’s first product was the artificial sweetener, saccharin, which was later found to cause cancer in lab rats yet is still sold today as Sweet’N Low. 

During World War II, Monsanto was heavily involved in uranium research leading to the development of the first atomic bomb.   

During the ‘40s, Monsanto also became a lead producer of synthetic fibers and plastics, including Styrofoam.  Monsanto created the “House of Future” at Disney’s Tomorrowland, which was made completely of plastic and was eventually torn down. 

It developed AstroTurf (fake grass).  It also produced the now-banned insecticide, DDT, now-banned industrial coolants called PCBs, and Agent Orange, the defoliant that was used during the Vietnam War, which had negative health effects on both the Vietnamese people and U.S. veterans.   

More recently, it has become the main producer of genetically engineered (GE) food products and seeds.  It produced the GE artificial sweetener, aspartame, sold under the trade names of NutraSweet and Equal, and recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST), a genetically engineered steroid injected into cows to increase milk production.  

Today, it is the main producer of genetically engineered seeds—seeds engineered to grow crops that can withstand sprayings of Roundup herbicide (which it also sells), produce their own pesticide (Bt crops), or both.  Not surprisingly, during the last election Monsanto was the main donor to the “No” on Proposition 37 campaign, which would have required the labeling of GE foods in California. 

Monsanto’s GE seeds are patented, and Monsanto has sued hundreds of American family farmers who unknowingly have had these patented seeds growing on their farms due to cross-pollination, seeds blowing onto their property, or them being co-mingled with conventional seeds in grain elevators.  Both the Canadian and US supreme courts have upheld Monsanto’s patent rights over farmers’ rights. 

In addition, hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers have committed suicide, because the Bt cottonseeds they planted have failed.   With its reputation for making products that are harmful to the environment and people, it is alarming that the US government has allowed Monsanto to dramatically alter the genetic makeup of the very basis of our food supply and life in general—seeds—without any safety testing or labeling required. 

These seeds are then planted and cross-pollinate with conventional and organic seeds never to be recalled.  Even if these seeds were to be banned today, like several of Monsanto’s other products, they will forever be in the environment self-replicating. 

For this reason, it is vital that people stand up to this corporation now and demand that the government provide some oversight.   Please join a march next Saturday, May 25 at 11 a.m. in Sacramento, San Francisco, or Vallejo.  For more information, please visit the March Against Monsanto website at http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/

To join up with us here in Napa and carpool to Vallejo, please join our Facebook group, “Label GMOs Napa County,” for an update about where we will be meeting and when.

Erica Amy Martenson Label GMOs Napa County, Coordinator    


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