Vanity Fair's Monsanto article

Smack dab on the heels of the DVD release of award-winning French journalist and documentary filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin's Le Monde selon Monsanto (aka The World According to Monsanto), first aired on the French-German TV network ARTE, Vanity Fair's May issue features a scathing and comprehensive article exposing agribusiness bully Monsanto. It contains everything from personal accounts of their harrassment of farmers to story after story of Monsanto's lengthy history of hiding facts from the public about the toxicity of its products. It needs to be read by anybody not actively avoiding and condemning their products. Now the world's largest seed producer, Monsanto is sytematically snapping up the rest of the competition, company by company.

(The Robin documentary is a must-see, by the way. It's widely available across the internet (e.g. Google video, on different environmental/organic websites, et al.), either in streaming format or for download. It's also available for sale on ARTE's website.)

US factory farming to be exempt from Clean Air Standards?

A friend over at a vegetarian forum posted a link to a story on the Organic Consumers' Association (OCA) website that sounds ludicrous enough that it may as well be straight out of The Onion. It seems that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States is proposing to eliminate the requirement that factory farms report (i.e. to local, state or federal agencies) hazardous substances they are releasing into the atmosphere that come from animal waste, except in emergency situations. Basically, according to the OCA, the government is proposing this because current legislation is a joke. It's seen by the EPA as a ''burden'' on the factory farms, and, it seems that the government isn't really doing anything to violators anyway, so imposing the regulations at all is just a lot of posturing. To quote the EPA, ''these reports are unnecessary because there is no reasonable expectation that Federal, state or local emergency responders would respond to such report(s)''.

The Sierra Club responded to news of this proposal back in December, pointing out the existing public health hazzard posed by factory farms and the toxins they release into the air and how illogical it would be to suddenly exempt them from having to continue to report what it is which they're releasing. According the the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), lack of regulation and enforcement has already proven to be disastrous in terms of what factory farms in the United States are currently permitted to do to the water and to the air.

The US government is accepting public feedback on this until March 27. The general docket info is available here and you can submit comments to them directly here.

The OCA has initiated a letter writing campaign by which they'll also forward your comments to the EPA. Take a few minutes to write in and express why compromising people's health and compromising the environment shouldn't be allowed to happen just because various levels of government are unwilling or unable to enforce existing legislation.

France bans its only homegrown GM crop

I read an article today that made me feel hopeful. It's the old drop in the bucket, I know, but it's still good to see someone standing up to international agri-bullies. France has decided to ban its only genetically modified crop, the MON810 strain of corn introduced to them by the friendly folks at Monsanto. The corn is used for animal feed. A few weeks ago, when France first expressed its intentions to impose a ban, the US-based Biotechnology Industries Organisation (BIO) released a statement calling on the US government and European Union to jump into the fray to intervene. According to BIO:

"This continued moratorium will negatively impact French farmers, consumers, and the environment. Biotech crops have tremendous potential to reduce the environmental impact of farming. By growing biotech crops, farmers reduce pesticide applications and the consumption of fuel and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as reduce the need for plowing to control weeds, which leads to better conservation of soil and water, and a decrease in soil erosion and compaction."

Ah... sure. However, according to Greenpeace, all is not cut and dried concerning MON810's effectiveness, or its possible impact on the insects and organisms (either beneficial or harmful) that are exposed to it. Sale of the seed was banned in Germany earlier last year and this ban has since been lifted, albeit with regulations imposed to purportedly curtail the possibility of cross-contamination of GM crops with conventional crops. Since France took its stance on MON810, over 300 scientists and environmental groups in Spain (Europe's largest grower of GMOs) have come forward with a petition calling for a ban on the cultivation of all GMOs in Spain. The United States' government will likely attempt to retaliate against France with trade sanctions at the WTO level, which it did a few years back in response to Austria's ban on the cultivation and use of MON810. Austria still refuses to lift its ban.

The Organic Consumers Association has a ton of information on GMOs in general, and on Monsanto, more specifically -- its products, its politics and its history. The one thing that is clear in all of this is that agribusiness has become less about consumerism and more about politics, where international trade regulations are now taking away the rights of elected governments to respond to the needs and concerns of their own people. What better way to circumvent consumers' rights to control what they eat than to force it into their stores and sneak it into their products?

As agribusiness continues to fight against the labelling of GMO products, this leaves consumers with the task of struggling to educate themselves about where their food comes from, and whether the manufacturers producing it are using genetically modified ingredients. When it comes to choices, it seems that the only uncomplicated option now left to consumers that doesn't involve doing your homework first is to choose to purchase organic products.