ALEC Members - Stealing the World's Food Supplies

I wrote an entry at the beginning of the year about how Monsanto was taking over our US food supply by suing farmers and demanding that they not harvest the seeds that the farmer had grown  for replanting – Why? Because the farmers seed stock had been cross pollinated (I use the phrase polluted)  by Monsanto’s genetically modified  plants and therefore contained patent protected technology – which Monsanto would not give them the rights to replant.

Today I ran into an article posted on Common Dreams that tells

the exact same story – in Iraq.

One of the links in the Common Dreams article took me to this webpage

Health Impact Daily

You REALY need to read the articles that are on the page I linked to.

Here’s some snips from various stories on the Health Immpact Daily webpage linked above:

The collapse of native Iraqi agriculture, and the prosper of US Biotech and GMOs in Iraq

One more war crime: Death of Iraqi agriculture

by Richard Brenneman

Now, thanks to the American military conquest of Iraq and the installation of an American Big Agra corporate executive as the region’s agricultural overlord, Iraqi farming has collapsed, and industrially farmed GMOs have replaced the small farms that once supplied all of the nation’s food needs.

U.S. Policies — GMOs and the Detrimental Effects of Order 81

In fact, Order 81 was written to promote the patenting of seeds and the sale of GMOs. Before the U.S. illegally invaded and occupied Iraq, it was not legal to patent seeds. Now, under U.S. decree, to patent varieties of seed, all that is necessary is to be the first to “describe” or “characterize” them. Even though technically, the Iraqi farmer is not being stopped from saving and sharing seed from traditional crops at this time, nevertheless there is now also nothing stopping Monsanto, Cargill, Dow, Syngenta, Bayer and other multinationals from “describing” or “characterizing” those traditional seeds, and thereby patenting those seeds in the future. And, when they do, the Iraqi farmer then will be prohibited from saving and sharing those seeds that have been passed down from generations, and will have to buy them from “the company store,” “trapped into a high-cost cash crop economy from which he will find it impossible to escape.”9

Iraqi farmers can be sued now by Monsanto “if their non-GMO crops are polluted by GMO crops planted in their vicinity.”10 A Canadian farmer, Percy Schmeiser (http://percyschmeiser.com/), was sued for such. No one came to his aid, and so Monsanto was able to win judgment, even though the court waived monetary damages. So it is important that people defend small farmers against the corporations. And, if Iraqis ever get their country back, they must immediately repeal the 100 Orders of Paul Bremer.

Order 81 was not written to rejuvenate Iraq’s agriculture nor protect biodiversity, but to protect the “intellectual property rights” of U.S. biotechnical and agribusiness corporations, such as Monsanto and Cargill. Iraqis were blocked from having any input regarding the language of Order 81. To compound this injurious legislation, the Bush administration issued an “executive order” to indemnify corporate looters from prosecution.

Cargill and Monsanto

Taking over the food supply in the United States and around the world – doesn’t this terrify any one else?

Patenting the food supplies – doesn’t this terrify any one else?

All we will have left are GMO's - doesn't that terrify any one else?

Both ALEC members - past or present it doesn't matter to me - once an ALEC member always an ALEC member. 

Why am I not surprised?

Every organzation that has supported ALEC is an accomplice in the crimes that ALEC is perpretrating around the world in the name of "education".

AND we still don't know which corporations are financing ALEC.

And we know from the story that I wrote yesterday about ALEC interference in Australia - that ALEC is all about protecting the inteleectual property of the profit sector members.

AND

Did you know that ALEC went to Iraq in 2009?

Yes, they did!

Endnote:

Cargill also disputed MinnPost’s reporting in an e-mail asking that we correct a story reporting that Common Cause had called on Cargill and several other Minnesota companies to withdraw from ALEC. Cargill was never an ALEC member, according to a corporate spokeswoman.

In response, Common Cause supplied us with a copy of what appears to be the program for ALEC’s 1998 annual meeting listing Cargill as a "director-level" sponsor and a new member. We forwarded the document [PDF] to Cargill, which again replied that it has never been an ALEC member.

We called ALEC and asked whether it could confirm or deny any Cargill association, but got no reply.

I have the same ALEC document:

Annual Meeting Sponsors

ALEC would like to offer its appreciation to the

following 1998 Annual Meeting sponsors

for their generous support!

DIRECTOR

Cargill , Inc

ALEC Private Sector Members

Cargill , Inc*

               *New Members in 1998