RUSSIA: MON(STER)SANTO MUST BE STOPPED: PART ONE

Over the past few weeks, whenever the subject of GMOs and "agribusiness" comes up on this blog, I have been suggesting that the next foot to fall in the unfolding story would be a geopolitical one, that the BRICSA nations, as I like to call them, would be challenging the USA in one of its most vital areas, and one of the few productive businesses still left in North America: agriculture. I've been suggesting that, with growing worldwide opposition to GMOs in general, and to Mon(ster)santo and its own unique brand of mercantilism in particular, that the BRICSA nations had a golden opportunity to sell to the world so-called "heirloom" seeds, i.e., natural seeds without the genetic modifications (plants that produce their own pesticides, and so on).

It would be a geopolitical coup, for it would allow nations such as Russia, and China (no stranger to GMOs incidentally), to play the part of the "good guys", selling seeds not packed with  shabbily-tested genetic modifications, and allowing farmer to retain some seeds for replanting.

Well, in my surfing to follow this idea, I came across this story (and so, incidentally, did a lot of you who emailed it to me); Russia, it seems, is seriously fed up by what appear to me increasingly disastrous effects of GMOs on the environment:

RUSSIA Suggests that WAR May Be Necessary To Stop MONSANTO

Now like all such articles, a certain amount of skepticism is due. I have no idea if the article is genuine or not, but I suspect it is. Nor, I think, should we imagine that by "war" Mr. Putin is threatening to rain hydrogen bombs down on Mon(ster)santo's headquarters.

What interests me is the fact that Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is apparently tracking the Western alternative community's desperate attempts to at least raise the question of the safety of GMOs. Consider this statement:

"To how staggeringly frightful this situation is, the MNRE says, can be seen in the report issued this past March by the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) wherein they warned our whole planet is in danger...."

(As for whether there even is an American Bird Conservancy, there apparently is: http://www.abcbirds.org/).  Russia Today, as the article notes, has also got into the act, calling attention to the Mon(ster)santo protection act:

Even worse, after Russia suspended the import and use of an Monsanto genetically modified corn following a study suggesting a link to breast cancer and organ damage this past September, the Russia Today News Service reported on the Obama regimes response:

“The US House of Representatives quietly passed a last-minute addition to the Agricultural Appropriations Bill for 2013 last week – including a provision protecting genetically modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks.

The rider, which is officially known as the Farmer Assurance Provision, has been derided by opponents of biotech lobbying as the “Monsanto Protection Act,” as it would strip federal courts of the authority to immediately halt the planting and sale of genetically modified (GMO) seed crop regardless of any consumer health concerns.

The provision, also decried as a “biotech rider,” should have gone through the Agricultural or Judiciary Committees for review. Instead, no hearings were held, and the piece was evidently unknown to most Democrats (who hold the majority in the Senate) prior to its approval as part of HR 993, the short-term funding bill that was approved to avoid a federal government shutdown.”

And the end of the article, apparently the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment concludes the following:

"On 26 March, Obama quietly signed this “Monsanto Protection Act” into law thus ensuring the American people have no recourse against this bio-tech giant as they fall ill by the tens of millions, and many millions will surely end up dying in what this MRNE report calls the greatest agricultural apocalypse in human history as over 90% of feral (wild) bee population in the US has already died out, and up to 80% of domestic bees have died out too."

So exactly what kind of "war" is Mr. Putin pondering?

That will have to wait for tomorrow's blog...

...See you on the flip side.