Monsanto's Huge Role in The Trans Pacific Plan

[truedelphi]

Apparently one of the top "advisers" for this "free trade agreement" happens to hold connections to Monsanto.

This informative article is brand new on the "nation of change" website. It underlines the connections between the GM Big Ag Corporation, Monsanto, and the TPP.

One question: how is it that Obama spent the entire summer of 2009, ducking away from the issue of whether or not the public option would be included in the Health reform Efforts? He continually recited how separation of powers precluded him from developing any sort of bully pulpit on such an important matter. Yet over the past year, Obama has been heavily instrumental in dealing with the shape of this monstrosity of a trade agreement, and heavily involved in shaping up the legal language of the TTP. Some consistency, there, Mr President, would be greatly admired. As well as some transparency (Many of the meetings and discussions related to the TPP are being done in secret.)

This article is a much read if you want to be able to provide healthy and organic food to your family:
http://www.nationofchange.org/trans-pacific-partnership-and-monsanto-1372074730
From, the article linked above:
The chief agricultural negotiator for the US is the former Monsanto lobbyist, Islam Siddique. If ratified the TPP would impose punishing regulations that give multinational corporations unprecedented right to demand taxpayer compensation for policies that corporations deem a barrier to their profits.

There appears not to be a specific agricultural chapter in the TPP. Instead, rules affecting food systems and food safety are woven throughout the text. This agreement is attempting to establish corporations’ rights to skirt domestic courts and laws and sue governments directly with taxpayers paying compensation and fines directly from the treasury.

(Snip)

Legacies of other trade agreements that serve as a warning about the TPP have a history of displacing small farmers and destroying local food economies. Ten years following the passage of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) 1.5 million Mexican farmers became bankrupt because they could not compete with the highly subsidized US corn entering the Mexican market.

[Catherina]

1. We've become a government of corporations for corporations.

DOJ Mysteriously Quits Monsanto Antitrust Investigation
—By Tom Philpott
| Sat Dec. 1, 2012 4:03 AM PST


There's an age-old tradition in Washington of making unpopular announcements when no one's listening—like, you know, the days leading up to Thanksgiving. That's when the Obama administration sneaked a tasty dish to the genetically modified seed/pesticide industry.

This treat involves the unceremonious end of the Department of Justice's antitrust investigation into possible anticompetitive practices in the US seed market, which it had begun in January 2010. It's not hard to see why DOJ would take a look. For the the crops that cover the bulk of US farmland like corn, soy, and cotton, the seed trade is essentially dominated by five companies: Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer, and Dow. And a single company, Monsanto, supplies nearly all genetically modified traits now so commonly used in those crops, which it licenses to its rivals for sale in their own seeds.

What's harder to figure out is why the DOJ ended the investigation without taking any action—and did so with a near-complete lack of public information. The DOJ didn't even see fit to mark the investigation's end with a press release. News of it emerged from a brief item Monsanto itself issued the Friday before Thanksgiving, declaring it had "received written notification" from the DOJ antitrust division that it had ended its investigation "without taking any enforcement action."

A DOJ spokesperson confirmed to me that the agency had "closed its investigation into possible anticompetitive practices in the seed industry," but would divulge no details. "In making its decision, the Antitrust Division took into account marketplace developments that occurred during the pendency of the investigation," she stated via email. I asked what precisely those "marketplace developments" were. "I don’t have anything else for you," she replied. Monsanto, too, is being tight-lipped—a company spokesperson said the company had no statement to make beyond the above-linked press release.

Diana Moss, vice president and senior research fellow of the American Antitrust Institute, told me that the DOJ's information blackout on the case is unusual—and frustrating. "To have a two-year investigation and close it without a peep in our view does a disservice." Moss is the author of a 2009 paper concluding that the GM seed market "requires antitrust enforcement and/or legislative relief."

...

http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/11/dojs-monsantoseed-industry-investigation-ends-thud

DOJ Investigation dropped just like that. And now they're practically leading the TPP. This deal isn't for you, me or any working person.

[truedelphi]

2. That is one mother lode of very scary information.

But I am no longer shocked by it. It is what I have come to expect out of our government ad the bought and paid for crowd that call themselves "leaders."

[KT2000]

3. Monsanto's power is unbelievable

Are they paying people off? Are they threatening people? Do they have something on a lot people? Are there really that many individuals in our government who are without any morals and ethical compass? It is really beyond reason that they are so in control of so many in our government.

[L0oniX]

4. Monsanto's agenda is to hold the world captive to its products.