Monsanto El Veneno Del Diablo Soja Argentina
The Monsanto Company is a multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation which is particularly famous for its genetically modified products and herbicides. It is also notable for its involvement in high profile lawsuits, where fines and damages have run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Most of them were related to health damage caused by Monsanto’s products.
Monsanto is one of the most powerful and controversial Agricultural and Biotechnology Corporation on the globe. Monsanto allegedly controls 90% of the world wide food market and is a key promoter of genetic modified food products as well as lead producer of pesticides.
Given the fact that Argentina is a major agricultural producer and exporter, the strong presence of Monsanto in Argentina must raise concerns, for the corporation is known for its lack of moral and controversial use of Biotechnology especially in genetic manipulated food products and chemicals used for pesticides. Most of the lawsuits are related to health problems connected to genetically manipulated food products and side effects of pesticides.
Currently Monsanto is engaged in countless legal battles and controversies around the globe, a frightening fact, given the power and political influence the corporation has. Some of the current controversies and lawsuits involving Monsanto are:
MONSANTO GUILTY OF CHEMICAL POISONING
Via Reuters
A French court ruled that a controversial US biotech company Monsanto is guilty of unintentional chemical poisoning of a French farmer. The verdict sets a French precedent for pesticide-poisoning and more cases are expected to follow.
Grain farmer Paul Francois, says he suffered a number of neurological problems, including memory loss, stammering and headaches, after inhaling Monsanto's Lasso weed killer in 2004. He blamed the company for failing to provide adequate warning labels on its products.
The present case is not the first of its kind. All previous health claims have reportedly failed because of the difficulties with proving the links between health issues and exposure to pesticides and other chemicals. Francois’s claims appeared to be easier to substantiate because he could describe a particular incident – the inhaling of a particular pesticide while cleaning the tank of his crop sprayer. The man was only able to obtain his work invalidity status after a court appeal.
300K FARMERS HOPE FOR LAWSUIT AGAINST MONSANTO
Via RT
Around 300,000 organic farmers think that Monsanto, the biotech giant known for genetically modifying Mother Nature’s handwork for profit and pushing over the little guys all the while, is pretty seedy. Now a judge in New York is debating if Monsanto’s questionable methods will go before a jury.
FOGGY PATENT CLAIM ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED SEED
Last year, 270,000 organic farmers from around 60 family farms tried to take Monsanto to court over issues pertaining to a genetically-modified seed masterminded by the corporation. Not only were the smaller farms concerned over how the manufactured seeds had been carried by wind and creature alike onto their own plantations, but the biggest problem perhaps was that Monsanto was filing lawsuits themselves against farmers. Monsanto went after hundreds of farmers for infringing on their patented seed after audits revealed that their farms had contained their product as a result of routine pollination by animals and acts of nature.
SMALL FARM GRABBING TACTICS BY MONSANTO
Unable to afford a proper defense, competing small farms have been bought out by the company in droves. As a result, Monsanto saw their profits increase by the hundreds of millions over the last few years as a result. Between 1997 and 2010, Monsanto tackled 144 organic farms with lawsuits and investigated roughly 500 plantations annually during that span with a so-called “seed police.”
MONSANTO’S INCREASING REIGN OVER THE WORLD’S AGRICULTURE WILL SURPASS ANYTHING IMAGINABLE
Farmers have been concerned that unless Monsanto is stopped, their reign over the world’s agriculture will surpass anything imaginable. They are seeking pre-emptive protection from those questionable lawsuits and next month Judge Buchwald will weigh in on if the matter should go to trial. Her honor recently listened to oral arguments on Monsanto’s Motion to Dismiss, which the corporation hopes to win to cease the charges being brought by a total of 83 plaintiffs representing now over 300,000 organic farm-affiliated businesses. The legal team for the small-time farmers also offered their arguments.
ARGENTINA SAYS MONSANTO CONTRACTOR ABUSES WORKERS
The Associated Press January 16, 2012
Argentina's tax agency has raided a Monsanto Co. contractor and found what it calls slave-like conditions among workers in its cornfields.
The AFIP tax agency says Rural Power SA hired all its farmhands illegally, prevented them from leaving the fields and withheld their salaries. They had to de-tassel corn 14 hours a day and buy their food at inflated prices from the company store. AFIP says it will hold the American agro-giant responsible for its contractor's slave-like labor conditions.
Monsanto didn't immediately respond to calls Monday to its headquarters in Buenos Aires and in St. Louis, which was closed for the Martin Luther King holiday. Argentina's congress last month gave farmhands an 8-hour day and other benefits long denied under a dictatorship-era law.
Thursday,July 8th 2010
EU COURT RULING FAVOURS ARGENTINA IN DISPUTE WITH MONSANTO OVER SOY-SEED PATENT
MONSANTO’S HARVEST OF FEAR
Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805MONSANTO VS. CANADA
After an 8 year review, Canada rejected Monsanto's request for the approval of their genetically modified milk hormone, rBGH. This drug has been shown to make dairy cows produce 10% more milk than normal. This rejection was a major setback for the GE Giant because it was Monsanto's first GE product, and Monsanto had hoped that it's international exceptance would help lead the way to the approval of their other genetically engineered products, most notably crops like cotton, tomatoes, potatoes, rice, corn , and soybeans.
Canada dissaproved of the rBGH drug because, as the product label acknowledges, it can cause udder infections, very painful, debilitating foot disorders, and reduced life span in treated cows. There is no doubt that bigger issues of genetic engineering in general also played a big role in the final decision.
ARGENTINA BE WARY OF MONSANTO
ROUNDUP READY SOYA IN ARGENTINA
The GM soya, Round Up Ready (“RR”), which is resistant to spraying of Monsanto’s weed killer Round Up, took only a few years to become established in Argentina. This crop swept onto the market as financial crisis hit Argentina in 2001.
While soya cultivation represented only 3700 hectares in 1971, it had risen to 8.3 million hectares in 2000, 9.3m by 2001, 11.6m by 2002 and by 2007 had reached 16 million hectares or 60% of the land in cultivation, giving rise to the phrase “SOYISATION OF THE COUNTRY”. Of the total, 14 million hectares were sown with GM soya, representing a 37 million tone harvest, of which 90% was exported, mainly to Europe and China.
ARGENTINE LAND GRABBING - MONSANTO STYLE
Due to the economic crisis in 2001, land prices had shot up in value, encouraging small landowners to sell up and concentrating land ownership. In the course of a decade the average landholding in the Pampas grew from 250 to 538 hectares while the number of farms fell by 30%. What’s more 16 million hectares of cultivable land were owned by foreign agribusinesses. This caused a profound reorganisation from what had been a diverse and self-sufficient agriculture, to a model of virtual monoculture.
Argentina’s leaders preferred to substitute an intensive industrial model of agriculture, open to exploitative practices, for traditional family farms. As Argentina’s Secretary of Agriculture remarked, soya was seen at the time as a lifebelt for an Argentine economy in danger of drowning. The State was raising taxes of 20% on oils and 23% on grains, representing 10 billion dollars a year, or 30% of the national revenue. Another boost to the growing of GM soya was that Argentina had refused to grant Monsanto a patent for the GM seeds, so the small farmers were able to replant RR seeds without having to pay the firm from St Louis to use them. To make sure they grabbed the whole market, Monsanto didn’t hesitate to sell its seed three times cheaper than in the US.
The new seed was seen as a “miracle” by many Argentine farmers allowing them to save on weed killers but also to spare the soil from too frequent spraying. After a few years of using RR soya however many of them were disillusioned by the reality.
THE GREAT LET-DOWN: THE HIDDEN FACE OF GM SOYA
The surge in GM soya, and what experts casually refer to as “the rush for green gold” drove down production of crops that were needed to feed Argentineans. Thus from 1996-7 to 2001-2, the number of dairy holdings dropped by 27% and for the first time in its history Argentina had to import milk from Uruguay. In the same period, Argentina recorded a decline of 44% in rice production, 44% in sunflowers and 36% in pork. This was accompanied by a rise in the price of basic foodstuffs, so that in 2003 flour rose by 162%, lentils by 272% and rice by 130%. The irony of this situation is that Argentinians were being encouraged to substitute soya milk and soya steaks for the traditional milk and meat that had always formed part of the culinary heritage of their country.
“VOLUNTEER” SOYA: TOWARDS A STERILE SOIL
Before the advent of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready (“RR”) soya, Argentine farmers used four or five different herbicides on the same land, including very toxic ones like 2-4D (an ingredient of “Agent Orange”), atrazine or paraquat (all banned in the European Union). But alternation of the different products stopped the weeds from developing resistance to any one of them.
Now, the exclusive use of Roundup had caused biotypes to appear. At first these were “tolerant” of glyphosate and farmers had to increase the doses of Roundup to get rid of them. But tolerance was followed by resistance and the appearance of “volunteer” soya which became ever more widespread in the Pampas. Before the arrival of RR, Argentina used on average a million litres of glyphosate a year, but by 2005 that had grown to 150 million, with a considerable financial boost in consequence for Monsanto.
Increasing spraying with Roundup was weakening soils because it destroys the microbial flora that it is essential to their fertility. As the soil becomes progressively more sterile, it becomes less productive, farmers are forced to use more fertilizer and so their costs of production rise. The claim that using GMOs will increase profits is therefore somewhat in doubt.
CONSEQUENCES FOR HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Rural populations are the first to be affected by the damage to their environment from massive use of Roundup. Twice a year, crop dusters or “mosquitos” spray the herbicide across the whole countryside right up to people’s doorsteps. No precautions are taken in Argentina to reduce the impact of contamination by glyphosate, which affects the environment, the air and the ground water and in turn the population.
According to Dario Gianfelici, an Argentine doctor working in the countryside, “Along with several other colleagues in the region, we have recorded a significant increase in birth abnormalities, like miscarriages or early fetal death, thyroid dysfunction, respiratory dysfunction - like pulmonary oedema – kidney and endocrine dysfunction, liver and skin diseases and serious sight problems”.1 These are direct observations from the ground and not scientific proof.
Furthermore the increase in land area given over to growing soya has had an associated effect on deforestation which has increased to provide new terrain. The region of SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO has shown one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world with an average of 0.81% of the forest torn away each year, against a global rate of 0.23%. According to Jorge Menendez, Director for Forests with the Environment Ministry, between 1998 and 2002, that represented 800,000 hectares of forest in this region gone up in smoke to make way for soya. In the same period, 118,000 hectares were lost in the CHACO and 170,000 in SALTA. This is a veritable ecological tragedy for the primitive forests which shelter a biodiversity found here and nowhere else on the planet.
MONSANTO VERSES ARGENTINA
In order to dominate the market for GM soya, Monsanto hasn’t hesitated to extend a number of privileges in Argentina, like the bargain prices for RR soya seed, the lack of a patent and its undertaking not to sue farmers who replant part of their harvested seed.However Monsanto is in dispute with the Argentine government at the moment because the firm is claiming royalties on the sale and export of its GM soya. The firm is demanding three dollars per tonne of soya grain or flour leaving Argentine ports or 15 dollars on arrival of the cargoes in European ports. That represents a potential financial boost of 160 million dollars a year for Monsantosimply from Argentine soya exports destined for the EU. Currently no agreement has been reached between Monsanto and the Argentine government.
MONSANTO TARGETS LATIN AMERICA FOR SEED BUSINESS GROWTH
Via Dow Jones Newswires 12/22/2011
Monsanto claims more than 40% of Brazil's GMO seed market and more than half of Argentina's.
The big farms of Brazil and Argentina have become a key battleground for Monsanto Co. (MON) as the agribusiness heavyweight seeks to maintain its market leadership in genetically modified seeds in Latin America.
As growth of Monsanto's GMO seeds outside the U.S. is expected to outpace the domestic market for the first time during the upcoming crop season, Latin America has taken on new importance for Monsanto. The momentum is expected to accelerate in 2012 in Latin America. Furthermore it is expected the ramp-up of the corn opportunity in Brazil and Argentina will be one of the single largest sources of new growth in the next few years according to Monsanto.
While the U.S. has a finite amount of cultivatable crop lands, there are still massive amounts of land available to expand production in Brazil and Argentina. (http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2012/01/latam-economic-downgrading-tactics-by.html)
Moreover, the benefits of GMO seeds -- including increased resistance to pests and herbicides -- have won them increased usage by farmers in those nations. Monsanto claims more than 40% of Brazil's GMO seed market and more than half of Argentina's. Last year, the company's sales to Argentina totaled over $600 million out of Monsanto's overall global seed sales of $10.5 billion.
Brazil and Argentina are primed to boost Monsanto's top line as farmers adopt biotech seeds and trade up to more advanced and higher-margin seeds.
With 120 million acres of soybeans in South America versus 75 million in the U.S. it is a significant growth opportunity for Monsanto and the next blockbuster product, with a big opportunity for investors in South America.
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MONSANTO – “GLOBAL MONSTER CORPORATION”? Updated at :
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Saturday, February 18, 2012
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