Monsanto and at least one of the Two Democratic Candidates

[truedelphi]

DU-ers:

Having begun my political life as an anti-pesticide warrior during the Bill Clinton
administration, I have never had any cobwebbs shielding me from the disastrous allowances that the Clintons made to Big Pesticide interests. (My education here at DU woke me to the corruptive hold that the DLC held over the Clintons - now I understand why the Clintons folded on every thing they proposed, and how they ended up supporting so very very much of what the Repugs wanted at that time.)

Obama is very much an unknown quantity to me - I have no idea as to where he stands on any of this. If anyone in the Obama camp has close ties to his advisors, and can dig around freely and find out, please PM me with the results.

But I have just been sent this "Letter to Hillary" and want to share it.

Before you read it, I also ask that you google "The Corporation" a Canadian-produced movie divided up into many parts. The film explains further the destructive nature of much of this letter's main subject. (Without the Hillary references - just the impact of the industrial sabotage of life as we know it.) OR LOOK SEVERAL POSTS BELOW THE OPP TO JOHNNY CANUCK'S URL - he says the link to "The Corporation" is there

Let me repeat my main refrain - Monsanto and those who allow Monsanto EQUALS the industrial sabotage of life as we know it.

Dear Friends; Read below...Bill and Hillary on Monsanto and GMO...never mind NAFTA


An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton from Another Wellesley College Alumna

From: GayleMarie Bradshaw
www.InternalAwareness.com
916-485-6961
The Future of Food, http://www.thefutureoffood.com/curriculum.htm It will shock you, and why we can't stop Monsanto -- you guessed it - Because of the HilliaryClinton. A dear client Maria Low, lives in Canada and has been to India, has witnessed the devastation of the people, sickened by eating foods from these seeds. She also witnessed farmers losing their farms because of Monsanto


An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton from Another Wellesley College Alumna



Hillary, Will You Renounce Your Ties to Monsanto?

By LINN COHEN-COLE


Dear Hillary,

By polling logic, I should be your supporter -- Democrat, woman, white, liberal. But this past summer I saw a News Hour show on farmers committing suicide in Maharastra, India, which affected me deeply. I started learning what was happening to farmers and to food and how the Clintons are connected.

The News Hour piece said Monsanto, a US agricultural corporation, hired Bollywood actors to sell illiterate farmers Bt (genetically engineered) cotton seeds, promising they'd get rich from big yields. The expensive seeds needed expensive fertilizer and pesticides (Monsanto's) and irrigation. There is no irrigation there. Crops failed. Farmers had immense debt and couldn't collect seeds to try again because Monsanto seeds are "patented" as "intellectual property").

"Genetic Engineering is often justified as a human technology, one that feeds more people with better food. Nothing could be further from the truth. With very few exceptions, the whole point of genetic engineering is to increase sales of chemicals and bio-engineered products to dependent farmers."

David Ehrenfield: Professor of Biology, Rutgers University.


Monsanto has a $10 million budget and 75 person staff to prosecute farmers.

Since the late 1990s (as industrial agriculture took hold in
India),166,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide and 8 million have left the land (P. Sainath, The Hindu). Farmers in Europe, Asia, Africa, Indonesia, South America, Central America and here, have all protested Monsanto and genetic engineering.

What does this have to do with you?

Your Orwellian-named "Rural Americans for Hillary" were Monsanto's lobbyists. My greater concern, though, is you former-employer, Rose Law Firm, representing Monsanto, world's largest GE (GE - genetic engineering) corporation; Tyson, world's largest meat producer; Walmart, the world's largest retailer. Rose is home to Industrial FOOD.

Rose's cozy connections: Jon Jacoby, senior at the Stephens Group - one of the largest shareholders of Tyson, Walmart, DP&L - is C.O.B. of DP&L, arranged the Wal-Mart deal. Jackson Stephens' Stephens Group staked Walton, financed Tyson. Monsanto bought DP&L. Walmart's board invited you on, Tyson executive helped you do $100,000 trade just before Bill' governorship, Jackson Stephens backed Bill for Governor, then President (donating $100,000).

Monsanto made Agent Orange, PCBs, nuclear weapons components, pesticides, and with that diverse background in death, are now "doing" food.

Bill in office:


USDA immediately significantly weakened chicken waste/contamination standards, easing Tyson's poultry-factory expansion.

1. Monsanto people were put in charge of food, ...


2. FDA okayed Monsanto's rBGH (bovine growth hormone), first GE-product ever approved.

3. Despite bovine illness/death, FDA didn't recall or warn.

4. When dairymen labeled milk "rBGH-free," USDA threatened confiscation.

5. Organic food was the last way around unknown danger. FDA tried to close that escape with new "organic" standards, to include: genetic engineering of plants/animals, food irradiation , sewage sludge fertilizer. USDA backed down from public response 20 times greater than to anything before American food:

Oils: Indian sheep died eating from Bt cotton fields. NOTE: Our children
eat Bt cottonseed oil in peanut butter, cookies.

Grains: 49 per cent of corn acreage planted in Bt corn in 2007. A
French study indicates it causes kidney and liver toxicity. .
Monsanto controls US's two main crops, soy (90% GMO, 90% of traits "belong" to Monsanto) and corn, the largest crop (60% GMO, nearly 100% Monsanto "owned" traits).

Edited: BTW If you think that YOU don't eat soy, think again. It is in many food products - the oils are used in baked goods, from your loaf of bread to the crackers in your soup. It s extremely hard to avoid unless you are living only off the produce aisle of the groceries.

Meat: Steroids bulk athletes, Monsanto steroids fatten animals, our fattening children eat steroid-laced meats. FDA allowed "known TSE-positive (Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy Mad Cow Disease) material to be used in pet food, pig, chicken and fish feed." Monsanto's GE-hormone increases risk sick cows are entering US food chain

Poultry: USDA weakened waste/contamination standards. Waste from transnational poultry industry is now implicated as the source of bird flu. The poultry industry is using the crisis to push out small farmers.

Milk: Scientific studies indicate Monsanto's rBGH increases risks of breast cancer by up to seven-fold, increases colon, prostate cancers risks. Other nations have banned products we use here. Canada, 29 European nations, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa ban U.S. rBGH dairy products. Bill Clinton's USFDA put no restrictions, warning labels, or any labels on US foods. (Edited: and allowed legal prosecutioon of those small companies, like Ben and Jerry's, that did!.

*Control out of control.*

Monsanto's Terminator genes make plants sterile after one season, posing apocalyptic risk of breaking out into nature. GE breakouts have contaminated maize and weeds, already.

Monsanto, meat-packers, and the USDA are pushing NAIS (National Animal Identification System), a corporate database tracking small farmers' livestock.
Monsanto pushing state laws taking control from farmers, communities, over GE planting.

Cattle living in filth, 12,000-year-old seed loss, poultry industry
implicated in bird flu, Mad Cow disease, bee colony collapse, poisoned soil, depleted water, Superweed), lawsuits against farmers, loss of family farms throughout the world, ... farmers committing suicide.



Industrial agriculture.


*Bees and farmers, dead canaries in that mine.*

Your proposed "Department of Food Safety" centralizes control over food into whose hands? Tough talk on labeling "foreign" food but Bill degraded US food and prevented minimally sane labeling. You never objected.

Monsanto uses child labor in India.

You take Monsanto donations. In this country, blacks, our poorest group, have to eat Monsanto's steroid/hormone/antibiotic-filled GE food. You take Monsanto donations.

Who are you protecting? National Black Farmers Association, boycotting Monsanto? Babies drinking rBGH milk? Women fearing breast cancer?

Despairing farmers? Suffering animals? Children fed kidney-and-liver-toxic Bt-corn?

Or Monsanto?

I am a person before I am a woman. Hilary, your gender is irrelevant. Given deadly threats to my grandchildren's future by your corporate connections (Edwards was right), I don't believe your talk of "caring" about Blacks/women/children/health/farmers/food.

I will vote for someone committed to small farmers - our ONLY real food safety. Your friends, though, are the heart of an international industrial agricultural nightmare.


Linn Cohen-Cole
Atlanta

##################################################################################################

[mod mom]

1. ABC: "Rural Americans for Hillary" lunch held in DC @ Monsanto lobbying firm:

Yee-haw

October 18, 2007 10:06 AM

So later this month, according to THIS INVITATION, the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, is holding a "Rural Americans for Hillary" lunch and campaign briefing at the end of this month….

..but she's holding it in Washington, DC….

…at a lobbying firm…

… and specifically, though it's not mentioned in the invitation, at the lobbying firm Troutman Sanders Public Affairs…

…which just so happens to lobby for the controversial multinational agri-biotech Monsanto.

You read that right: Monsanto, about which there are serious questions about its culpability regarding 56 Superfund Sites, wanton and "outrageous" pollution, and the decidedly unkosher (and quite metaphoric) genetically-bred "Superpig."

-snip

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2007/10/yee-haw.html

WILL HILLARY DENOUNCE THEM? HECK NO SHE NEEDS THE CASH! WIN AT ANY COST.

[truedelphi]

2. Thanks for the advice and for taking time to

Post your reply all over.

[mod mom]

4. I couldn't believe it when I first read about "Rural Americans for Hillary". It's an insult

to the family farmers struggling with the giant corporate farms that are helping destroy this country-imho.

[blm]

5. Penn likely set up Rural Americans for Hillary as Rove and Delgaudio Bros used this tactic

throughout the 80s and 90s to set up front groups that would mask the actual intentions of those behind them.

Kinda like Environmentalists for WTI.

[mod mom]

6. or the "Clean Skies Initiative" Those neos love oxymorons-don't they?

[cascadiance]

16. Yup! "No Child Left Behind" actually means "No Child Military Recruit Left Behind"!

[cascadiance]

17. This guy got a new t-shirt to get more love from them!

:)

[mod mom]

21. lol! That would be a great shirt for Rush Limpballs as well with double meaning!

[mod mom]

3. Not to mention Monsanto is Chief Strategist Mark Penn's client:

-snip

Penn, who had previously worked in the business world for companies like Texaco and Eli Lilly, brought his corporate ideology to the White House. After moving to Washington he aggressively expanded his polling firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland (PSB). It was said that Penn was the only person who could get Bill Clinton and Bill Gates on the same phone line. Penn's largest client was Microsoft, and he saw no contradiction between working for both the plaintiff and the defense in what was at the time the country's largest antitrust case. A variety of controversial clients enlisted PSB. The firm defended Procter and Gamble's Olestra from charges that it caused anal leakage, blamed Texaco's bankruptcy on greedy jurors and market-tested genetically modified foods for Monsanto. Penn invented the concept of "inoculation," in which corporations are shielded from scandal through clever advertising and marketing. Selling an image, companies realized, was as important as winning a legislative favor.

-sniphttp://www.thenation.com/doc/20070521/berman



Business as usual for the corporate wing of the Democratic Party.

[truedelphi]

14. Your post makes a critical statement that must be noticed by activists everywhere

"Penn invented the concept of 'inoculation,' in which corporations are shielded from scandal through clever advertising and marketing. Selling an image, companies realized, was as important as winning a legislative favor."

If you watch TV ads for things like Glade plug ins, notice that you never ever hear the ads SAY that their product is safe. They use pictures and video of actions to get across that idea - I saw a Febreeze ad recently where the one person in the ad just directly sprayed the contents of the aerosol bottle into the face of the other.

For a long time, a long enough time that the Corporations wised up, Eliot Spitzer of New York, State Attorny General, would sue the pants off the companies that claimed their noxious products were safe. SPitzer actually got Monsanto to fork over $ 50,000 for its claims that ROundUp was safe.

So now we see cartoon butterflies flying around the bay's nurserty while Mom sprays and sparays the benzenes, formaldehydes and the other toxins.

[TexasObserver]

7. It's appalling. She has become the handmaiden of the powerful and corrupt.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

31. OBAMA's TOP Advisor is a LOBBYIST for MONSANTO....Moses Mercado

Moses Mercado joined the Barack Obama presidential campaign team and already he's making waves.

The waves are being generated by Mercado's other line of work -- as a lobbyist with Ogilvy Government Relations who is registered to represent several dozen big-name clients, including the National Rifle Association, the Carlyle Group, the Blackstone Group, Monsanto, Pfizer Inc., United Health Group, Sempra Energy and Constellation Energy.

Hmmm.. Obama has lobbyists for big Pharma, energy and the NRA working on his campaign.



Obama Brings on Top Lobbyist

The waves are being generated by Mercado's other line of work -- as a lobbyist with Ogilvy Government Relations who is registered to represent several dozen big-name clients, including the National Rifle Association, the Carlyle Group, the Blackstone Group, Monsanto, Pfizer Inc., United Health Group, Sempra Energy and Constellation Energy.

His resume seems to contradict one of Obama's central themes on the campaign trail -- that as an outsider he can fend of the powerful business interests that he has argued have contributed to the income gap between rich and poor and has frustrated attempts to address issues such as high prescription drug costs and global warming.

In a speech he gave in New Hampshire back in June, Obama singled out the role of lobbyists in the process. As the Chicago Tribune reported at the time, Obama "sought to make the case that the culture of influence in Washington affects the pocketbooks of Americans in myriad ways, from drug prices to student-loan interest rates -- both of which, he argued, are inflated through industry manipulation of public policy."

The story went on to quote Obama, saying: "What's most outrageous is not the morally offensive conduct on behalf of these lobbyists and legislators, but the morally offensive laws and decisions that get made as a result."

The Obama campaign said they have not settled on exactly what role Mercado will play, but he will not take on any job until he has ceased his lobbying work. Obama aides said yesterday no one can work on the campaign and still be registered on behalf of clients as a lobbyist, and Mercado will not be exempted from that requirement.

Mercado, who is close with Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, said his recent work as a lobbyist will not impede his ability to participate in a presidential campaign. He confirmed he would be taking a leave from Ogilvy, though the timing and temrs have not yet been ironed out.

"First and foremost, I'm an American and I participate in the process," he said. "That's the most important thing. I've always been involved in the process. That's why I'm going to be leaving , so that there isn't any question."

He said he was surprised anyone would take issue with his involvement. "I'm kind of honored that people are worried that I'm going to go work for Obama. It's good for the ego, I guess."





Why would they need to give money when they WORK FOR HIS CAMPAIGN?


"You've got to have a president in the White House who is not simply subject to the whims of corporate lobbyists" - Barack Obama

[truedelphi]

8. URL from Johny Canuck: The Canadian film "The Corporation" has its

Links here



http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2008/01/07/watch-the-c... /

With thanks to Johny Canuck

[autorank]

9. You bet I'll K*R this!

What a nightmare these guys are... spreading filth about as they do.

The old b.s. about taking both sides doesn't work anymore thanks to the internet.

Renounce, sever, and apologize... that's the drill. Or get tagged for what your are!

[truedelphi]

10. Thanks, Auto! n/t

[autorank]

18. Feeling Frisky

http://www.friskyradio.com/

[mod mom]

22. Hey you!

Do you like this music? Future Sounds of London was one of the last performers I saw before settling down to have kids. (Although my son's 1st concert (in utero) was Hole and now at 11 he's into Dave Grohl, Nirvana & Sub Pop bands). Those late night events are way too late for us old folks! ;)

[autorank]

34. I knew you were under the inflience;)

[truedelphi]

24. I can't say

One way or the other <blush>

[LaurenG]

11. Monsanto is evil incorporated

I despise them for their greed and lies. x(

[cascadiance]

12. Probably another reason she's pals with Rupert Murdoch, who also does favors for Monsanto!

Fox News had the courts legitimize their claim to be able to define the truth the way they want to define it!

Read more here on the famous overruling of the appeal by reporters at a freshly purchased Fox affiliate that were trying to do an investigative piece on Monsanto some years back.

http://www.primitivism.com/monsanto.htm

Some interesting quotes here:

...
At one point, their lawsuit claims, WTVT general manager David Boylan told them he "wasn't interested" in looking at the story himself and pressured them to follow the company lawyer's directions, adding, "Are you sure this is a hill you're willing to die on?" On another occasion, Boylan allegedly told them, "We paid $3 billion for these television stations. We will decide what the news is. The news is what we tell you it is." Boylan then notified them they would be fired for insubordination within 48 hours and another reporter would make the requested changes.

...

The result, of course, has been that attorneys rather than reporters are empowered to make journalistic decisions.

For its part, WTVT insists that this system of institutional self-censorship must be defended in order to avoid "chilling the give-and-take essential in any newsroom in getting the news on the air in a timely and responsible manner." In legal court filings, the station insists that its "editorial discretion and judgment should not and cannot be the subject of second-guessing by a judge or jury, consistent with the First Amendment."

WTVT also objects to the fact that Akre and Wilson "conducted two press conferences the day they filed their suit" and "have also created a web site to publicize their issues, where they have posted the complaint and exhibits and where they are soliciting public comments." Worse yet, the website includes two complete scripts of their controversial rBGH report--one version showing how they wanted to write the story, and the other showing how the network wanted it edited. Neither version has ever aired. In fact, its filings in court claim that by posting the scripts on their website, Akre and Wilson "have misappropriated . . . property. . . . This misconduct by Plaintiffs is in itself a material and serious breach of the employment agreements amounts to theft."

Theft it may be, in some strange legal sense, but Akre and Wilson don't care at this point. "I am risking my career by doing this, and I will probably never work in television again," Wilson said, "But we wanted to get this story out."

...

And we wonder why the mainstream media is the "tabloid" mess it is today! Jan Akre and Steve Wilson can certainly tell you why!

[truedelphi]

13. Agreed. I went from being a technical writer to being a

Staff reporter because of the MTBE gas additive story.

I found out the hard way that even after a CA governor-appointed, Blue Ribbon Panel of scientists examined MTBE and stated publicly that they were probably ony a few months away from being able to legitimately claim it was a serious carcinogen, M$M Newspapers reported this: "Blue Ribbon Panel states that MTBE is a non-carcinogen" The same article went on to read: "It poses no health dangers." The Associated Press article also FABRICATED the statements it ran as quotes from John Froines, who headed the panel.

Although I found it appalling, Froines thought it funny: "When you have been around a while, Carol, you learn to expect this from the press."

Sad but true. It's been nine years since Froines said that, and once in a while I find myself laughing out loud at the Big Lies the Press tells. Either I have gotten so used to it, or my skin is so thick now, that it doesn't surprise me.

And it is easier to laugh that get angry. You don't live as long if you stay angry.

And if you live long enough, once and a while you get to win!

[no name no slogan]

15. "The Corporation" movie web site: www.thecorporation.com

www.thecorporation.com

Lots of good info there

[Cha]

19. Thanks so much, truedelphi..

for your activism on behalf of stopping mansanto and the death it is inflicting on our Planet. I'm glad so many people are as against mansanto as I am!

[OzarkDem]

20. What's Obama's record on collusion with agrichem?

Coming from Illinois, home of Archer Daniels Midland, British Petroleum and many other chemical and ag companies, he no doubt has the same ties and obligations.

[truedelphi]

23. Someone mentioned earlier today that one of Obama's people

Had been a lobbyist for Monsanto, It's getting late and I can't remember more specifics.

But it does seem to me that maybe We can all get him educated and keep him that way.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

25. K&R

People need to know this.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

26. a page out of Orwell's book n/t

[truedelphi]

27. A very scary page. The sound byte on Monsanto's side is

"Our science will achieve the impossible: feed the world's hungry.

And to talk anyone who believes that sound byte out of that belief and that hope requires a great deal of time and explanation.

For many people Occam's razor theory - the new misconcept of Occam's razor - is that whatever is said that is the simplest of two statements about a reality is the reality's truth.

[PurgedVoter]

28. K&R

Not everyday I get to K&R something twice. Any politician in bed with Monsanto either is unaware of issues, or without compassion for people, plants or animals.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

29. Barack's top adviser is a lobbyist for Monsanto .....Moses Mercado.....

Moses Mercado joined the Barack Obama presidential campaign team and already he's making waves.

The waves are being generated by Mercado's other line of work -- as a lobbyist with Ogilvy Government Relations who is registered to represent several dozen big-name clients, including the National Rifle Association, the Carlyle Group, the Blackstone Group, Monsanto, Pfizer Inc., United Health Group, Sempra Energy and Constellation Energy.

Hmmm.. Obama has lobbyists for big Pharma, energy and the NRA working on his campaign.



Obama Brings on Top Lobbyist



Mercado, a veteran field man who organized Gephardt's primary operations in Arizona and New Mexico, and later John Kerry's general election operations there, confirmed he is finalizing plans to serve as a senior adviser to the Obama campaign.

The waves are being generated by Mercado's other line of work -- as a lobbyist with Ogilvy Government Relations who is registered to represent several dozen big-name clients, including the National Rifle Association, the Carlyle Group, the Blackstone Group, Monsanto, Pfizer Inc., United Health Group, Sempra Energy and Constellation Energy.

His resume seems to contradict one of Obama's central themes on the campaign trail -- that as an outsider he can fend of the powerful business interests that he has argued have contributed to the income gap between rich and poor and has frustrated attempts to address issues such as high prescription drug costs and global warming.

In a speech he gave in New Hampshire back in June, Obama singled out the role of lobbyists in the process. As the Chicago Tribune reported at the time, Obama "sought to make the case that the culture of influence in Washington affects the pocketbooks of Americans in myriad ways, from drug prices to student-loan interest rates -- both of which, he argued, are inflated through industry manipulation of public policy."

The story went on to quote Obama, saying: "What's most outrageous is not the morally offensive conduct on behalf of these lobbyists and legislators, but the morally offensive laws and decisions that get made as a result."

The Obama campaign said they have not settled on exactly what role Mercado will play, but he will not take on any job until he has ceased his lobbying work. Obama aides said yesterday no one can work on the campaign and still be registered on behalf of clients as a lobbyist, and Mercado will not be exempted from that requirement.

Mercado, who is close with Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, said his recent work as a lobbyist will not impede his ability to participate in a presidential campaign. He confirmed he would be taking a leave from Ogilvy, though the timing and temrs have not yet been ironed out.

"First and foremost, I'm an American and I participate in the process," he said. "That's the most important thing. I've always been involved in the process. That's why I'm going to be leaving , so that there isn't any question."

He said he was surprised anyone would take issue with his involvement. "I'm kind of honored that people are worried that I'm going to go work for Obama. It's good for the ego, I guess."





Why would they need to give money when they WORK FOR HIS CAMPAIGN?


"You've got to have a president in the White House who is not simply subject to the whims of corporate lobbyists" - Barack Obama

[truedelphi]

32. Thank St Elewheres Some people on DU

get upset when statements are made that with Kucinich and Edwards gone, the Corporatists will be in charge in Nov regardless of which Dem candidate is nominated.

But sadly it seems true.

[blm]

33. You get exercizes over small potatos whille you ignore the BIG POTATOS in front

of your eyes.

Like smalltime wannabe player Rezko gets your blood boiling but you are PROUD that Clintons protected the Bushes and Jackson Stephens and Dubai - and that Bill is collecting MILLIONS from Dubai now. As if some of us Dems are so stupid and uninformed that we wouldn't KNOW that those same Dubai $$$ helped START the biggest dirty bank of alltime - BCCI.

Funny - what happened to your sense of perspective, E_D? Small fry stuff triggers your outrage but the huge dirty dealings that LED to Bush2 and 9-11 don't even register with you.

[truedelphi]

35. Thanks, blm. Give 'em heck of a lot of

Righteous information.

[Recursion]

30. Hell is not hot enough for Monsanto

That company is quite simply the most evil corporation I have ever had any experience with. And ADM is a close second.

[fadedrose]

36. Kick

Okay truedelphi

[CorpGovActivist]

37. .