I am assuming that everyone knows who Monsanto is. If not, suffice it to say they are the largest company that produces the chemicals for our food and the genetically modified seed for the fruits and vegetables we eat. At this point, almost 80% of all nonorganic processed foods including those labeled “natural,” contain some type of genetically engineered organism. They pretty much run our food source in the USA and it is only going to get worse as you will see.
On March 24, the pro-Monsanto “Farmer Assurance Provision, Section 735” rider was quietly slipped into the Agricultural Appropriations provisions of HR 933, the Continuing Resolution spending bill designed to avert a federal government shutdown.
For the next six months after President Barack Obama signed HR 933 on March 29, it allows Monsanto to promote and plant GMOs and genetically engineered (GE) seeds, free from any judicial litigation that might decide the crops are unsafe.
This rider, which was written by Monsanto by the way, states that the U.S. Department of Agriculture “shall, notwithstanding any other provisions of law, immediately grant temporary permits to continue using the [GE] seed at the request of a farmer or producer [Monsanto].” So basically, what this says according to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack is that “It appears to pre-empt judicial review of a deregulatory action which may make the provision unenforceable.” This means that once the USDA deems these GMOs and GE seeds to be safe, if they are later found to be harmful, they can ignore any court rulings and continue to produce and grow them.
If you are a betting person, you can probably be sure that for the next six months, at least, Monsanto will be pushing these GMOs and GE products hard.
This bill was signed into law even though there was a petition signed by 250,000 people against this. Most of the congress say they didn’t know anything about it. That’s pretty scary since they signed the bill. This bill will expire on September 30. We need to make sure that this is removed from the next law. Our health is seriously at risk. Please take the time to read these articles I have included below. To understand the full extent of the law and all that is at stake, and to better understand who Monsanto is, read the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ article first. Then, to lighten it up a little and get a condensed and humorous version, check out the video from Jon Stewart…
Jon Stewart explains the ‘Monsanto Protection Act‘ | MNN – Mother …
Stewart has a knack for getting things across in a way that can get our food blogger’s teen to pay attention.
‘Monsanto Protection Act‘: Chemical monopoly writes its own law …
On March 24, the pro-Monsanto “Farmer Assurance Provision, Section 735” rider was quietly slipped into the Agricultural Appropriations provisions of HR 933, the Continuing Resolution spending bill designed to avert a …