Who owns nature?: Monsanto & biotech companies move to monopolize biodiversity
From article:
New report warns of corporate concentration, commodification of nature; highlights global resistance grounded in 'Food Sovereignty.'
ETC Group today releases a 48-page report, 'Who Owns Nature?' on corporate concentration in commercial food, farming, health and the strategic push to commodify the planet's remaining natural resources.
In a world where market research is becoming increasingly proprietary and pricey, ETC Group's report names names, discloses market share and provides top 10 industry rankings up and down the corporate food chain. Not all the corporations identified in ETC Group's new report are household names, but collectively they control a staggering share of the commercial products found on industrial farms, in our refrigerators and medicine cabinets.
An international advocacy organization based in Canada, ETC Group has been monitoring corporate power in the industrial life sciences for the past 30 years. The report reveals that:
From thousands of seed companies and public breeding institutions three decades ago, 10 companies now control more than two-thirds of global proprietary seed sales From dozens of pesticide companies three decades ago, 10 now control almost 90% of agrochemical sales worldwide From almost 1,000 biotech start-ups 15 years ago, 10 companies now account for three-quarters of industry revenues The top 10 pharmaceutical companies control 55% of the global drug market
With collapsing systems - eco, climate, food and financial - as the backdrop, Who Owns Nature? warns that, with engineering of living organisms at the nano-scale (a.k.a. synthetic biology), industry is setting the stage for a corporate grab that extends to all of nature.
'About one-quarter of the world's biomass has already been commodified, explains ETC Group's Pat Mooney.'With extreme genetic engineering, we're seeing new corporate strategies to capture and commodify the three-quarters of the world's biomass that has, until now, remained beyond the market economy.'
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Who Owns Nature? reports on daunting trends in corporate concentration and technology convergence, but it also points to a very different reality and a powerful contrast to the corporate-controlled life sciences. Although a single company - Monsanto - accounts for almost one-quarter of proprietary seed sales, about three-quarters of the world's farmers routinely save seed from their harvest and grow locally-bred varieties. Wal-Mart may be the world's largest buyer and seller of retail food, but 85% of global food is consumed close to where it is grown - much of it outside the formal market system.
'There is vast and growing resistance to the dislocation and devastation caused by the agro-industrial food system,' points out Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group. 'In the global struggle for Food Sovereignty, the playing field isn't level, but the scope of resistance is massive - peasant farmers, fisher people, pastoralists and allied civil society and social movements are fighting for locally controlled and socially just food and health systems.'
To download the full report:
http://www.etcgroup.org
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- JanforGore
- added this
- added November 14, 2008
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Monsanto goes to any extreme to put small farmers out of business to control the seeds. Percy Schmeiser fought back. American farmers need to follow suit.
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- JanforGore
- 8 months ago
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Janfor - Great!! Get angry. Get very angry. Tell everyone to get angry. Get very angry. Genetically modifying crops in order to ensure no viable seeds for replanting, should be a criminal offence.
www.strategicbookpublishing.com/ZEROGreenhouseEmissions.html
Get very angry!
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- ZEROGreenhouseEmissions
- 8 months ago
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Monsanto is a world leader in Genetically Engineered & Genetically Modified food sources upon which all humans subsist. As they go global with this strategy, they are truly one of the most dangerous companies in the world as they attempt to monopolize the very essence of survival - legal ownership of patented single use seeds to grow our food, and unbelievably, must be purchased from Monsanto every year in order to plant your next crop. BOYCOTT ALL MONSANTO PRODUCTS AT ALL COSTS!
If you haven’t seen the documentary “The Future of Food” (or even "The Corporation") yet, I strongly urge you to do so. If I didn’t know that Monsanto’s goal of global food manipulation, distribution & ultimately complete crop control is perfectly legal, I would have thought this reaching the level of science fiction. However, this is one powerful & evil company that has Washington D.C.’s politicians, regulatory agencies & lobbyists in all their pockets.
Don’t be fooled or misled, Monsanto is one of the biggest scum-sucking parasites ingratiating its way further into everyone’s daily life whether you are aware of it or not. Their logo should be the CEO with horns, a pointy tail & carrying a pitchfork in order to prod you into becoming a consumer of their products. Do not underestimate or do business with this company-you will only empower them to overpower us.
Try to SHOP LOCALLY with as much awareness as possible, thinking about who ultimately gets your money, because it’s truly the only immediate defense we have until the right people are in the right positions to stop this evil empire. They will stop at nothing to keep any competitive products-usually organic & safe-off of store shelves in order to push their own toxic products on a society too busy to notice, in most cases, without the publicity of well meaning organizations & CURRENT’s contributors relentless search for the truth.
I avoid GMOs at all costs & those who say there is no danger. Processed foods, particularly those with flour or sugar, are becoming dangerous to consume by not knowing exactly what processes & specifically what ingredients are being used. The human body has been forced to quickly undergo a digestive revolution in a few decades after slowly developing for eons, explaining why many healthy people have become unhealthy for no apparent reason. Too many people needlessly suffer from mystery ailments, environmental toxicity & an overall reduction in the quality of their life, unknowingly from their diet, ultimately resulting in poorer health than one might otherwise have.
Labeling is now becoming the next hurdle to conquer so that consumers will more easily be able to decide which products to purchase based on the ingredients & whether or not they’re organic. If you’re able to grow any of your own food or join an organic farm co-op, you’re taking the necessary steps to insure your food source is as wholesome as can be expected from this wonderfully healthy & overdue trend.
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Monsanto is the Anti Christ
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- starsymmetric
- 8 months ago
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I'm scared.
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- DeliaTheArtist
- 8 months ago
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Important and alarming information. We need a raising of consciousness in order to change our systems and prevent the pernicious effects of unchecked capitalism.
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- unimatrix0
- 8 months ago
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Who owns nature? Well if they build it themselves they do.
Open source GMO is the way to go.-
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- Dmitri_Molotov
- 8 months ago
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I think that the courts will soon be so bogged down with so many intellectual and genetic property cases that they will be forced to streamline the laws and how they are interpreted, or drop them altogether.
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A new law should tackle all this, the public is mature now to support such a decision.
Yes we can -
Stop them!
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- uppityprogressive
- 8 months ago
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I wonder what's next...a body (organization) that controls global food supply for its own purposes. So no one will be able to get supplies without belonging to the system, oh such a Revelation seems so Orwellian. Hmm, where have I heard this before? Indeed Monsanto is evil. Don't we just love Corporations? Specially when they destroy people's life at home and ABROAD. Oh well let's get the sickle out raise in protest. History just keeps repeating itself. Sadly our money craving governments (mine from Mexico too) seems eager to approve such measures, and instead of supporting the peasants it takes their land from them, only so they can get that same land and plant those Monsanto seeds that commit harakiri after one harvest. Man! Government gets stupid when greedy and money is more important than the well being of their citizens and their land.
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These Guys are scary!!
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805-
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- seanblossom
- 8 months ago
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Yes, and Monsanto also with other companies controls the seeds in the "seed vault' as well. Just what are they planning for?
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- JanforGore
- 8 months ago
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the reason why? because they want us to be their slaves and make us work for food like animals.
I love when people say globalization is the future
yeah you morons .........you are slaves ...you dont see the writing on the wall.
Keep watching american idiot the show, that will help you understand globalization.-
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- Tayllerand
- 8 months ago
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one goverment
one currency
one army
one religion
one president
sounds to me like globalization but the reality is anticrist.
HELLO ANYBODY HOME ! EARTH CALLING MORONS WHO BELIEVE IN GLOBALIZATION.
WAKE UP BEFORE IS TOO LATE!
I like, when people say no country is an island.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
see you suckers.-
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- Tayllerand
- 8 months ago
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The clip you showed is actually part of a documentary entitled The Future of Food. I watched the entire documentary on Google Video. It will BLOW YOUR MIND!!!
And yes, I agree we should GET ANGRY, but only if we are going to DO something.
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- ruggedflower
- 8 months ago
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Dennis Kucinich Introduces Three Bills Regarding Genetically Modified Food Safety.
We do have an advocate in the Congress. We need to support him and the three bills he has introduced. It would be a start.
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The three bills are titled, respectively,
H.R. 6636, The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act,
H.R. 6635, The Genetically Engineered Safety Act, and
H.R. 6637, The Genetically Engineered Farmer Protection Act.
H.R. 6636, The Genetically Engineered Food Right To Know Act, would require mandatory labeling of all foods that contain or are produced with genetically modified material. A legal framework to ensure labeling accuracy without significant economic hardship would also be established.
H.R. 6635, The Genetically Engineered Safety Act, would require that genetically engineered foods follow a food safety review process to prevent contamination of food supplies by pharmaceutical and industrial crops. This Act would also require that the FDA screen all genetically engineered foods to ensure they are safe for human consumption.
H.R. 6637, The Genetically Engineered Farmer Protection Act, places liability from the impacts of genetically engineered organisms on the biotechnology companies that created the GMOs, and protects farmers from law suits by biotechnology companies
We are eating genetically engineered foods every day. Farmers are sowing genetically engineered seeds every day. Yet, we have never studied the long term effects of genetically modified organisms on our health, our children or our environment. Congress must take steps to maximize the benefit and minimize the risks of biotechnology.
Congressman Kucinich has used his position as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Domestic Policy to examine food safety issues and the rights of farmers. A Subcommittee hearing held by Rep. Kucinich in March examined the impact on farmers caused by contamination of conventional crops by genetically engineered plants significantly influenced these bills.
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- JanforGore
- 8 months ago
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Codex Alimentarius, food, and Monsanto.
This could go into effect as early as December 31, 2009. Your right to keep yourself healthy is at risk. This is an infringement on our liberty as well as our environment.
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- JanforGore
- 8 months ago
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They'll stop at nothing, so they have to be STOPPED.
