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At least 60 protests to target makers of genetically engineered foods on anniversary of Occupy Movement
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/27/4760978/at-least-60-protests-to-target.html
ST. LOUIS - An expanding network of concerned individuals known as Occupy
Monsanto has emerged over the past 8 months staging numerous protests at
companies connected to the global trade of genetically engineered foods, also
known as GMOs. The network announced today that on September 17, 2012 protests will begin for an entire week in St. Louis, home of the Monsanto Corporation, and across the US including California where voters will decide if they will label GMOs this election and worldwide in Argentina, Canada, Germany, India,
Philippines, and other countries where concern over GMO impact on the
environment and human health is growing.
The protests will vary in size and nature but are unified in pushing back GMO
food into the lab from which it came. An interactive map with times, dates and
locations of the 60+ protests can be found at http://occupy-monsanto.com/genetic-crimes-unit/.
Occupy Monsanto means to confront the industrial agriculture system head-on.
Some protests could result in widespread arrests of people who choose to engage
in non-violent civil disobedience. Despite the peaceful nature of these planned
protests, organizers are concerned about surveillance of Occupy-Monsanto.com by
the US Department of Homeland Security and law enforcement agencies worldwide.
Nevertheless Occupy Monsanto protests will feature costumes made of bio-hazmat
protective gear that can also protect against pepper spray from police who have
routinely attacked occupy protests in the past year.
"There is something wrong when a chemical manufacturer, the same company who
made Agent Orange, controls the US food supply," says Jaye Crawford, a member of the Genetic Crimes Unit in Atlanta, Georgia that has planned a week of events.
Info: http://occupy-monsanto.com/atlanta-gcu-schedule-of-events/.
"Wall Street and the American political elite have underestimated and even
ignored our potential to effect rational policy change on GMOs which would
include labeling for GMOs and restrictions on GMO cultivation," says Gene Etic,
an anti-GMO campaigner based in Washington, DC. "If Occupy Monsanto's anti-GMO actions are successful, after September 17 the media and increasingly more voters will ask tough questions about these experimental GMO crops especially within the context of the Presidential election, as that office holds the power to determine American food policy," says Etic.
"People are stirred by the evidence that GMO foods compromise human health,"
says Rica Madrid, a member of the Genetic Crime Unit of Occupy Monsanto.
"Politicians and their sponsoring corporations ignore public outcry over GMOs to
protect huge profits over health. Since GMOs' introduction to the food supply in
the mid 1990s, food allergies have expanded according to Center for Disease
Control data," says Madrid.
"By purchasing influence via massive campaign donations, Monsanto ensures the
essential duties of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are neglected. One
example of this corporate coup is President Obama's appointment of Michael
Taylor, former Monsanto Vice-President and legal council for the chemical
company, to head the FDA's food safety efforts despite his obvious conflict of
interest," says Ariel Vegosen, a member of the Genetic Crimes Unit. She adds,
"Monsanto is the biggest maker of genetically engineered crops so it must be
stopped before it is too late to shift to healthy organic agriculture practices
as a result of widespread genetic contamination by GMOs. 'Coexistence' as
defined by the USDA of Organic and GMO crops is a myth."
"At the US State Department it's apparent Monsanto has duped leaders in Africa
to ask the US for foreign aid in the form of GMO technology and equipment," says
Monsanto shareholder Adam Eidinger who last year walked from New York to the
White House in Washington, DC with hundreds of other food activists to demand
labeling of GMO foods.
"The generous use of US tax dollars, endorsed by the likes of rock-star Bono and
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a former legal council for Monsanto, is
actually another taxpayer funded subsidy for Monsanto's pesticide and herbicide
hungry crops."
Occupy Monsanto will be heard at the offices and facilities linked in the GMO
food system.
In St. Louis a major anti-GMO conference will take place in the same location as
the '12th International Symposium on GMO Safety.' A lead organizer of the
conference is Barbara Chicherio who believes, "'Monsanto's push to control
agriculture and what people are eating poses a great threat not only to
consumers in the US, but to farmers and communities throughout Latin America,
Africa and Asia." Info on the conference is at http://gmofreemidwest.org/.
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