I am a small farmer, and I am deeply concerned about the broad power Monsanto and other seed companies wield. Their patents on life, unfair business practices, and aggressive genetic engineering of seed for commercial farming are making farmers dependent on their very expensive seed and killing the millennia-old practice of saving seed.
Since I was a child, the cotton business has been radically changed by developments like Round-Up Ready cotton. Farmers are forced by market pressures to adopt new practices, like using Monsanto seed, that are locking them into annual tithes to a monopolistic seed company. Monsanto, in particular, has forced hundreds of small seed companies out of the business with litigation and threats of litigation, and it's no accident. Farmers are afraid to collect seeds at all, for fear that Monsanto will accuse them of patent infringement.
I hope you will rein in these companies and start to restore a sense of fair play to agribusiness. Family farmers have enough to deal with without big chemical and seed companies holding them hostage.
I have been an organic gardener for 35 years. Monsanto has always come up on the opposite side of what is good for people and good for the earth.
Just taking one example out of a sordid history, lets look at the bovine growth hormone rGBH. The scientific literature shows that it is not good for the cows, leading to a greater use of antibiotics that also comes through the milk to people. Monsanto used its might to try to prevent milk producers from labeling their milk.
Please do whatever you can to protect the people and the environment from Monsanto.
I am a small grower in Ohio and I appreciate you looking into the practices of Monsanto. I am affected by their products and their purchase of so many smaller seed companies. I rely on a bacteria to kill pests. This bacteria is now in Monsanto crops. The targeted pests will now develop resistance and and pest control will be more difficult for everybody. Monsanto GMO pollen prevents me from saving seed, creating more expense. Now the company I used to buy quite a bit from has been swallowed by Monsanto. It seems as there is no escape. Should one company hold so much power over so many people?
I was raised in DeKalb, IL, the home of DeKalb Ag, a well-known breeder of hybrid corn and chicken stocks. DeKalb Ag, along with many other smaller seed companies have been gobbled by the Monsanto giant. This has led to the unavailability of many of the seeds developed naturally. I, as an organic gardener, have noticed the reduction in varieties of seeds available for planting in my own garden.
In visiting my husband's family in Bangladesh, my brother-in-law complained about the lack of rice varieties available for consumption. In the past, hundreds of tasty varieties were available. Now only a very few with much less taste are on the market. These varieties, grown in the very unhealthy chemically dependent and unsustainable manner espoused by Monsanto to encourage the use of their many pesticides and herbicides, depletes the land and contaminate the waterways. Fish populations, on which the Bangladeshi population depends heavily for protein, are disappearing. Only the farm-raised varieties are in vast supply, those also being of less nutritional value and raised in polluted waters.
Monsanto's hold on the seed market is especially problematic in that they also manufacture the chemicals with which the seeds are grown. This is forcing many farmers to use GMO seeds and unsustainable methods whether they want to or not. Neighboring farms (specifically, organic or those choosing to use non-GMO seeds) are having their seeds contaminated by the GMO varieties. Native varieties and hybrids, grown for 10,000 years and adapted to optimize local growing conditions, are bought up by Monsanto and removed from the market, denying options to farmers and consumers. Those not bought up are in danger of contamination by Terminator genes, which would lead to their extinction. The same way we protect animal species from extinction, we should protect plant species, especially the tens of thousands of food varieties, from companies like Monsanto that are consciously eliminating them. Would we allow genocide to occur in any other circumstance?
GMO crops have not been tested properly for safety. In India, farmers allowed their cattle to graze on GMO cotton plant stubble as they had grazed their cattle for millennia; all those cattle died within a few days. Many GMO varieties are neither better yielding nor requiring less fertilizer or water. They are designed to increase the use of Monsanto chemicals. These varieties are more expensive to grow, and the farmers are not allowed to save seed for the next year or the seeds have "Terminator" or "Traitor" genes to make new seeds sterile, causing them added expense. Monsanto's methods are depleting the soil in areas already stressed.
International laws pushed by Monsanto's huge political machine are allowing large companies such as Monsanto to patent local plants all over the world to limit access to natural plants used in agriculture and for medicinal purposes for millennia. Such an attack has been made on turmeric (successfully defeated by India) and neem, another multipurpose natural insecticide, food, and medicinal plant. Each of these plants has been a part of local herbal and agricultural heritage for centuries. Imagine if Monsanto were to remove these from the general population in an effort to only use their artificial chemicals or to limit local farmers' ability to grow it from year to year from saved stock. It would be an environmental disaster and detrimental to the health and betterment of the local population. Many developing countries do not have the funds to fight these attacks, and many plants have been and are being sequestered by these huge corporations for their own gain. Profits at any cost??
Such actions by America's large corporations do not earn us any good will nor admiration across the globe. The greed of Monsanto for quick profit at the cost of long-term disaster is unforgivable. America should be a leader in the movement for fair and sustainable agricultural practices. By allowing Monsanto to grow to its present "too large to fail" stature, we are writing a script for global disaster.
I urge you to please include in your investigation a consideration of the importance securing seeds, the foundation of human life in the public domain where they truly belong.
I have been engaged in the growing of food organically both as a farmer/gardener and advocate of such for nearly eight years. The information that I have come across in those years regarding GMO's and the patenting of those seeds has kept me up countless nights while I contemplate the magnitude of what is happening. It is positively frightening.
I do not comprehend how it is allowable for a single company to so completely dominate and control the world food supply and choices we make regarding our food. Not only do they dictate what we eat, they have foisted upon us the biggest biological experiment in the history of mankind.
The Supreme Court made a grave error in allowing the patenting of seed. I believe they did not have a full understanding of Mother Nature's Soil Food Web, the effects of conventional and genetically-modified farming on global warming as well it's destruction of biodiversity and wildlife in the environment. Please go to the USDA and research just what the Soil Food Web is and it's vital importance to growing food, acting as a filter for our water supply. retaining carbon and fixing nitrogen into the soil. I urge the DOJ, President Obama, the heads of the USDA and FDA and every member of Congress to view "Dirt the Movie" to get an understanding about how we can heal our planet, improve our economy and protect the rights of American Citizens to "pursue life"by protecting the Soil Food Web. What is life without the ability to grow your own food without being liable for "patent infringement" from any corporation?
Antitrust? Indeed - on so many levels!!! It is wrong. Period. It is Un-Constitutional. This technology has not been adequately tested for human consumption. Rats won't eat genetically-modified potatoes. What does that tell you? Our entire food system needs to be overhauled to make the patenting of seed illegal, the genetic altering of seed illegal, subsidizing crops instead of the independent farm illegal. The DOJ, USDA and FDA should and must support organic growing practices to reduce global warming by as much as 40% within a short period of time, improving air and water quality and lessening dependence on fossil fuels which are required to produce pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. Restore America's topsoil and restore the environment and the economy. If President Obama is serious about change, the he needs to firmly establish this Administration on one side or the other. There is no "middle-ground" on this issue. It's like saying there is a middle ground to slavery or child prostitution. His legacy will be he was either part of the problem or part of the solution. End of story.
Thank you for your time. An organic family gardener on Cape Cod.
All my children had slight neurological damage and my 4th and final child has full blown autism. I now read all labels. I caused this damage to my children by NOT questioning. I don't believe anything "official" anymore. I am only 44 years old, but I will NEVER trust the conventional food industry, medical industry, ANY industry EVER again.
I will NEVER trust "experts" again.
If you really are going to try and stop Monsanto then Bravo, good for you. I personally don't believe your intentions are moral or real. Prove me wrong.
The ground water, where I live, in previously pristine north-central Minnesota is now extensively polluted with nitrates and pesticides due to corporate agriculture's irrigation of its lands over this shallow and fragile aquifer.
I have talked to small farmers in Nicaragua who are loosing their farms because of GMOs. They save some of their corn each year to plant the next. When GMO gets into their crop the next year a stalk grows but no corn. They have to buy new seed from Monsanto. They do not have the money to do this and the crop they expected to grow didn't so even less money and food for their families.
In Colombia I have lived and accompanied communities try to keep their homes/land. Now with Pres Uribe buying enough Roundup from Monsanto to fumigate through 2012 they are afraid. I have seen what the fumigation has done since Plan Columbia. Their crops, water, and health are contaminated by Roundup. The paramilitaries brought them coca after Plan Columbia and told them they had to grow it or will be taxed but would be taxed less if they grow it. What choices do they have? Would this be happening to them if they did not live on a gold mine that multinationals want?
In El Salvador, Monsanto has brought the largest seed company from an ex-president. My friend is so upset because GMOs will be coming and the same thing in Nicaragua will be happening there.
This is not saving Columbia, Nicaragua or El Salvador. More people are going hungry and loosing their farms and Monsanto does not see the poor.
I feel hopeless and helpless because of Monsanto's control in my government such as Clarence Thomas and many more lawyers, and now Rajiv Shah and Islam Siddiqui. There is no way I or any organic farmer can compete with Monsanto.
I also wonder, Why so much cancer? Could it be pesticides, all the fertilizer, and GMO's from Monsanto and other companies? I have seen the people dying in Nicaragua that work for our banana companies. They have no voice but death.
Please listen to the poor.
As a graduate student, I studied biotech foods and could not believe the lack of prudence & caution that is given to this industry -- allowing new foods ("phoods") into the market without any real precaution or testing, the monopolizing powers of Monsanto, and the true environmental threats that biotech poses.
Genetic engineering is like polluting our gene pool. Unlike tires and trash that can be removed from a polluted river, though, we cannot simply pick out any "polluting genes" later. The work of evolution is threatened by these novel gene combinations. And the potential public health threat is simply unknown.
The Precautionary Principle as I understand it is in order here: Until it is known to be absolutely safe (which may not ever be truly determined), this technology should be not allowed.
We can feed the planet without biotech despite what its proponents claim. What we need is ORGANIC, SMALL-SCALE farmers to be supported so that they can take care of the land AND feed the people.
As a parent of two young children, I am appalled by the diet that is offered to the majority of people, young & old in the society where they grow up. We are fortunate enough to be able to eat an almost 100% organic diet but this is largely because we save money to do this and don't spend it on other things.
Americans that aren't educated on the topic (as is the case for most) simply believe that what is on the grocery shelves is food -- i.e., nourishment that helps support life and foster good health. This is truly not the case.
What I ask of you--the policy-makers--is to:
- Reign in the biotech companies, namely Monsanto but others as well such as Cargill. Don't let them determine the issue or the legalities.
- Take actions to push our food industry so that it supports and fosters local, organic food. Let's make jobs and public health win here.
- Save our seeds that have been developed by farmers in the manner that nature intended: through generations of breeding, NOT shooting new genes into things to make novel organisms.
It is increasingly unsettling how Monsanto is deciding the future of "food products" for the majority of people with no concrete evidence proving their products & methods are safe for humans and the environment. Alarming statistics are surfacing to the contrary. Monsanto proudly admits it's not their job to determine the safety of their products.
Their incredulous tactic is to change laws by lobbying elected officials, demanding unprecedented patents for their seeds because they are so revolutionary and different, yet oddly enough, they need no scientific studies for safety because they are basically the same as traditional seeds.
GMO's are widely rejected throughout the world, including Africa.
Detroit for example, could be a MODEL for a new sustainable city - urban & local farm production of quality food for local consumption as well as export. Big Agri is plotting to undo the work of thousands of dedicated people who have worked for years to help restore dignity & health to the people of the long- struggling region of Detroit. Big Agri shuns small organic farming as "old fashioned." Giving local sustainability a chance to work would TRULY be NEW & EXCITING!!!!
Monsanto should not be allowed to kill competition to such a degree as they are now. The fact that their seeds can cross-pollinate and ruin an innocent farmer's crops... then that innocent farmer faces legal fees to prove they didn't knowingly violate a patent... perfect example of how Monsanto kills it's competition.
And now they're going after seed cleaners - a perfectly legal function and profession - by bankrupting them with legal fees required to defend themselves against accusations of encouraging patent violation.
Please, please, please: stop Monsanto before it's too late. They are controlling way too much of our seed supply and it's impossible for anyone to compete with them.
Please remember the American consumers. We don't have lobbyists and expensive consultants speaking for us. We are counting on you to protect us.
It is very demoralizing, as the average American facing the hardships of this recession, to see a company get away with so many crimes just because they have the money.
From the deliberate patent of genomes to the massive wasting of ecosystems and clear correlation to compromises of human health ethics, companies like Monsanto, Sygenta, Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill have deteriorated the general welfare of the Citizens of the United Sates, and the world. They have denied, through lobbying the Congress and Senate, the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness for millions of Americans in the last 30-40 years. They control as much as 85-90% of food production and distribution chains in the USA, and the integrated nature of these corporations is a breach of antitrust laws.
The loss of farms and farmers in the United States, well documented by the census, is not an accident or natural progression; it is in fact the result of corporate strategies to dominate the very market which led the United States to be a world power. As such, their actions should be considered a threat to national security. To allow the sublimation of the very Constitution of the United States to their corporate personhood and charters is unthinkable. It will result in continued increases in human and environmental diseases, devastation of ecosystems, and increasing accessibility issues for millions of US citizens in their effort to attain even minimum daily nutrient recommendations as set forth by the office of the Surgeon General and the USDA.
We have become a nation of overweight, diseased weaklings due to lack of connection to our source of nourishment. No Company or Person is entitled to stand between a person and their chosen, legal source of nourishment. The patenting of seeds, the creation of urban food deserts by monopolization of distribution chains, and the gross breach of social trust entailed in the massive ecological wasting of landscapes by these corporations is more of a danger to this country than terrorism, as over 5000 people die annually from diet related causes; the vast majority of those deaths are attributable to the quality of foods available to the poor in the US's ever growing "food deserts." No law should enforce their breach of the public trust.
If we are to curb diabetes, heart disease and other illness related to the consumption of highly processed, low nutrient foods, we must allow small producers and local distribution networks to develop without unfair competition. Farm Direct Sales, Community Supported Agriculture, Farmers Markets and other small, localized food systems provide fresh, healthy, organic, locally grown whole foods to consumers. In the current market these options are widely marginalized by multinational corporations and the unfair edge of subsidized production and distribution chains. This is most often a result of the massive inequities of the Farm Bill provision to the multinational companies, and places local, small business at clear disadvantage; this is the precise reason that the number of farms and farms has decreased, and its direct result is the devastation of the ecosystems, degradation of human health and erosion of economic equity.
This can and must be stopped. Please consider the feasibility of doing to Monsanto, Cargill, ADM, Syngenta and other multinational companies that control our foods systems what was done to Ma Bell from 1974-1982. It will be a Herculean effort, but you will be doing the Nation a great service if you pursue this.
I'm an organic consumer. I'm a firm believer in protecting our natural resources on this planet and encouraging sustainability in agriculture.
Besides the fact that Monsanto has a death-like grip on our legislators, they're strangling small farmers, too.
Did I forget to mention the thousands of tons of pesticides they happily produce every year?
This all boils down to one big impact: Life on this planet. Monsanto is making every effort to poison the planet via agribiz, but no one seems to care.
It's astounding that this country just sits by idly and watches it all happen.
One step in the right direction is to get this power-hungry company off the backs of small farmers, whether it's GMO seeds, rBGH, or shoving pesticide use down their throats.
Please, make the year 2010 one of reversing the course of rampant pillaging and looting of our nation's agriculture and environment.
How is it that companies like Monsanto are allowed to have a monopoly on our seed supply? Since when is it OK for companies to patent life?
As an organic, local food consumer, I am concerned that companies like Monsanto are harming local farmers and their businesses. They encourage mass food production and discourage small scale operations that are better for people and the animals and plants they eat.
Monsanto is contributing to the obesity epidemic in America and costing us millions of dollars in health care spending every year. When is the government going to step in and put a stop to this?
I think that it is a shame that one company is controlling what we as Americans get to put into our bodies. With the obesity crisis, increase in cancers and other health-related diseases, it makes me furious that we have not looked to what is being stocked on the shelves of our grocery stores. You have an obligation to the American public to help protect them. The monopoly of seeds and farmland and use of pesticides and GMOs actually puts our health in jeopardy. With the health care crisis, it would help to look at what we eat and determine what health effects it is having on us. Please, take the time to protect local farmers and the health of Americans.
Which is more important, a single company and/or industry being able to operate as they please and make as much money as they can, or the sustainability of life on our planet? If you think I'm being overly dramatic, think of the potato famine that wiped out much of Ireland. Its cause was growing only one type of potato; when that one type caught a disease, it spread like wildfire. That's what's happening to our seed supply - over 90% of the species we had 100 years ago are now extinct, thanks in large part to Monsanto and its ilk.
The idea that Monsanto would release GMOs into the environment and then sue innocent farmers who have been victimized by wind-carried GMOs crossing with their plants is an insult to everything this country stands for.
The idea that a private company also could get a stranglehold on our food supply is revolting and disgusting. Any society that would allow such an idiotic thing to happen deserves what that rapacious and despicable corporation is going to do to it.
Its going to be just like the derivatives crisis, only its going to involve our food supply instead of our dollar.
Genetic modification (GM) contamination is virulent, spread by wind, bird, insect, animals and traveling human beings. Co-existence with GM is completely impossible, only fools or liars would say differently.
GM has contaminated crops in areas of North America which dwarf the UK and even Western Europe. Planetary contamination is inevitable, if we don't stop it.
The biotechnology corporations know oh-so-well how contamination spreads and spreads and spreads.
Through their political influence, these Corporations have been able to acquire the obscene, sacrilegious, and indeed revolutionary PATENTS on LIFE-FORMS.
Before these revolutionary patents on life, a farmer could have sued -- successfully without any doubt -- the biotechnology corporation for having contaminated, poisoned his crops.
However, given these patents on life (here, on the seeds), the corporation can -- and DOES, successfully -- sue the victimized farmer for (Hold your nose) "infringement of patent".
[Our tainted, corrupted political systems allow this monstrosity.]
GM Contamination + Patents on Life-Forms equals Corporate Ownership Rights in the crops of victimized farmers.
This formula spells the serfdom and ruin of all small family farmers on this planet. (They are the majority of the population in Asia, Africa, and Latin America).
The Chemical-Drug-Biotechnology syndicate and its Enforcers (corrupted governments in the West and Third World, corporation-dominated organizations like the WTO, World Bank, IMF) have started a WORLDWIDE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION.
They want to destroy small family farming, and have only gigantic Corporate GM Plantations with farmers working as serfs.
[This process is underway, especially in South America where the U.S. Military has begun to intervene on behalf of GM Plantations to crush farmer opposition.]
Already, according to the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE) in New Delhi, 40,000 farmers in India have committed suicide primarily as a result of the Corporate Enforcers' so-called "free trade" policies --- dumping heavily-subsidized Western farm produce onto glutted Indian markets, pushing GM crops, insisting that Patents on Life-Forms be accepted so farmers must sign contracts with GM Corporations and can no longer save seeds, etc.
We MUST OUTLAW GM and PATENTS on LIFE-FORMS -- or else !!
(e.g. No more organic, healthy food --- you and your children will only be able to eat unsafe GM.)
There has been quite a bit of research indicating that genetically modified foods may be deleterious to health. Sometimes, this is contested, but it leads me to wonder just how safe these products are for the market. Some studies have indicated that it causes allergies, liver damage, and other strange results. What's more, these genetically modified crops often can cross pollinate with normal plants, thus perpetuating the questionable plants.
Today, consumers eat these foods daily without knowing the potential health risks. In 2003, Jeffrey Smith explained them in his book titled "Seeds of Deception." He revealed that efforts to inform the public have been quashed, reliable science has been buried, and consider what happened to two distinguished scientists - Ignacio Chapela and Arpad Pusztai. They were vilified, hounded, and threatened for their research, and in the case of Pusztai, fired for doing it.
Pusztai believed in the promise of GM foods, was commissioned to study them, and conducted the first ever independent one on them anywhere. Like other researchers since, he was shocked by his findings. Rats fed GM potatoes had smaller livers, hearts, testicles and brains, damaged immune systems, and showed structural changes in their white blood cells making them more vulnerable to infection and disease compared to other rats fed non-GMO potatoes. It got worse. Thymus and spleen damage showed up; enlarged tissues, including the pancreas and intestines; and there were cases of liver atrophy as well as significant proliferation of stomach and intestines cells that could be a sign of greater future risk of cancer. Equally alarming, results showed up after 10 days of testing, and they persisted after 110 days -- that's the human equivalent of 10 years.
Later independent studies confirmed what Pusztai learned, and Smith published information on them in his 2007 book called "Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods." The book is encyclopedic in depth, an invaluable comprehensive source.
Shouldn't new foods be regulated and tested rigorously before experimenting on a populace?
Monsanto created agent orange, and is responsible for 50 "Super Fund" sites in the United states alone. These are very hazardous toxic waste sites.
Monsanto even employed child labor in in India. What makes this all the more horrifying is the fact that these children must handle poisonous pesticides and are barely paid.
I have just read the following regarding GMOs: "In the most comprehensive study yet of the health effects of three of Monsanto's genetically modified corn varieties, researchers from CRIIGEN and the French universities of Caen and Rouen have highlighted a number of new side effects linked with their consumption. Their study of Monsanto's 90-day feeding trials clearly underlines adverse impacts on kidneys and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, as well as damage to the heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system."
Given the huge amount of corn products in processed foods (well documented in "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollen), I am extremely concerned about the direct impact these GMOs could have on my body and health. Naturally, I am just as concerned about the impact on those I love, as well as on humanity in general. Our bodies co-evolved with our diet over millennia and now we are gambling with our future.
But this is just one issue of concern. I'm concerned that we do not know enough about the long term effects of introducing GMOs to the environment. There is no doubt in my mind that the success of Monsanto dramatically and negatively impacts biodiversity. Mono-cultures result in greater risk of famine or crop failure, increased success of pest populations, and greater use of pesticides and fertilizers that then get into the soil, water and even the air. It also gets into the very foods being produced.
It's not right for companies to have the kind of power that Monsanto has at the expense of the consumer's right to choose our diets and avoid health dangers.
Also, it's not right -- in fact, it's downright perverse -- that Monsanto can effect regulations to prohibit farmers from labeling their products as hormone free, etc., or that they can turn around and sue small farmers whose crops they've contaminated.
Monsanto's success using bully tactics, monopolizing the industry, and impacting regulations that should be in place to protect the consumer and the environment -- these are all indicators of what's wrong in this country. Please take a good hard look at Monsanto's business practices, as well as it's products. Consider the full life-cycle of the products Monsanto puts out. Consider the impact on fair and free trade, especially as it impacts small farmers and organic producers. And then follow your conscience.
Please stop Monsanto from destroying diversity which is life itself!
GM foods make mice sterile in laboratory tests.
Patenting crops is probably one of the few things stupider than software patents.
Reducing biodiversity though the commercialized establishment of GMOs reduces overall ecosystem stability.
Help preserve seeds and food varieties as they were given to us naturally by our earth.
If Monsanto continues unchecked, we are going to lose seed diversity - and we don't know the long-term effects of these genetic manipulations, not to mention pesticides. Think about the future please!
Please stop Monsanto from their practice of patenting seeds. It is an immediate threat to the food system in this country and across the world.
Anyone who knows anything about Monsanto knows how massive they have become and how dangerously aggressive their tactics are. Good luck in taking them down, you're going to need it.
I am so afraid of allowing any corporation the power to control our food sources. Monsanto has bullied and tried to control small farmers and will take over our natural right to grow diverse kinds of foods. Please don't let Monsanto or any corporation profit by ruining our food supply forever.
Monsanto scares the crap out of me. Please reign in their power over our food supply.
Monsanto is ruining peoples lives. Farmers in India kill themselves when they realize they can't afford to buy more seed and contractually can't use their OWN seeds because Monsanto owns the intellectual property they contain!
If a farmer plants Roundup Ready soybeans and they cross-pollinate his neighbor's crop, Monsanto can sue the neighbor for copyright infringement. This needs to be stopped!
Anyone who knows anything about Monsanto knows how massive they are and how pure evil their tactics are. I hope you guys can succeed without becoming corrupted yourselves, because Monsanto may be too big for you guys to take down. Good luck and may honor be with you.
Terminating seeds will spell the destruction of our food supply and thus the human race. The mere thought of it is something out of a sci-fi doomsday film but it seems to be a possible future if we do not do something about it now.
Life itself cannot afford to let Monsanto continue this abomination of nature. The goal for them is obviously money and control, but I wonder how they justify to themselves and others doing this.
What good can come of Monsanto's seed patents & food-source monopoly? Other than private gain?
Let's admit that it is a mistake to attempt to patent life. This permission was legally granted; it can and must be legally rescinded.
Monsanto has ruined agriculture in India and contributed to the suicide of thousands of farmers there.
They have criminalized seed saving - a natural agriculture practice from the beginning of time and poisoned the natural world with GMO's which are killing our bee populations.
Their corporate charter should be revoked and their CEO and stockholders should be fined for environmental pollution.
The monopoly Monsanto has obtained over genetically modified food has reached a ridiculous level. This must not be allowed to continue. They have a history of exploitation and do not have the interest of the American people in mind.
I am concerned about Monsanto's control over the seed supply. The food crops that farmers have improved upon over the last 10,000 years should not be allowed to be terminated through sterility by cross-pollination with GMO crops.
This should be outlawed, period.
For the collective good, all patents made on GMO's in the past should be rescinded and no future patents should be granted. Seeds are the basis of life and our entire food production chain is at risk.
I have been aware of Monsanto's aggressive attempts to control all seeds used for agriculture since 2002, when I read about it in National Geographic. Since then, I have seen Food, Inc. I also researched gene patents and, in my opinion, they should be made to last for a greatly reduced term (say 2-5 years).
If the things I hear about Monsanto are remotely true, they need to stopped from bullying farmers.
The fact that Monsanto hasn't been shut down a dozen times by now is all the evidence I need that the Justice Department is either impotent or corrupt. Throughout the US the EPA considers roughly 75 locations unfit for human life, Monsanto is responsible for the majority of them, yet their corporate wing remains in their suites instead of behind bars.
I implore you to do the job you should have long since done.
Monsanto is controlling who uses what seeds and contaminating pure seeds by windblown cross-pollination. This threatens the food supply of the whole world, just for the sake or their profits!
How can we talk of freedom if our personal decisions about what we ingest are taken from us -- such a basic issue. Michelle Obama planted an organic garden, what if that choice was taken from her, her children and grandchildren. I am very disturbed by the way that Monsanto is attempting to ruin our food supply and our freedom of choice.
"Then GOD said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." Gen 1:29
GOD has given us choices for natural food on earth. The food belongs to ALL OF US. No one person/company should be able to own our food.
We are to leave this earth better than it was when we entered it. We lived with free choices. Is it right to take that away from future generations?
By gobbling up seed companies to controlling seeds in this country, Monsanto will destroy organic seeds and small seed companies. What it is doing to the Indian farmers is legendarily criminal, although it has probably paid off the insanely corrupt Indian politicians to get away with it. The attack on the American Farmer by monitoring its genes is bully capitalism at its worst, not to mention the Frankenfoods it is forcing on the American Diet, which is likely to have major consequences on health care costs. Monsanto is clearly the biggest corporate criminal in business now, and should be stopped!
I do not feel it is ethical nor beneficial to patent seeds like Monsanto is doing as it is a private company with a private agenda that is not serving public health or environmental interests.
Too much power is given to corporations. They have no right to control plant species, seeds, or any information relating to any research regarding public health.
I feel food should come from local sources only, and people should adapt to only consuming what produce is in season and is organic.
Please consider revising regulations regarding corporations, they are taking advantage of us and endangering the ecosystem and humans.
As a citizen who sure would like to eat breakfast, lunch and supper without having to worry about how my food might be either genetically modified or outright poisoned, I'm writing to say that I'm VERY MUCH AGAINST the Monsanto corporation's control over this nation's seed supply.
Monopoly - exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices.
I urge you to do all that is within your power to stop Monsanto from taking control of the worlds seed supply.
There exists extremely diverse variations of food crops and seeds, and yet Monsanto's patenting and control over seeds and their emphasis on specific crops threatens to destabilize the natural diversity. It is completely inappropriate that such an entity could be in such a situation to have this degree of impact.
If I could have just one wish it would be to wipe Monsanto off the face of the earth -- unless it commits to Truth and caring for the well-being of all people. It is so embedded in our Department of Agriculture that all opposition is silenced by their power. It is even a threat to peace with other nations because of the havoc their products can cause for farmers everywhere. Their power and greed is insatiable.
A return to organic methods is necessary for the health of all people as well as for the health of the earth itself.
No ONE company should be able to threaten and bankrupt farmers and therefore the rest of us while receiving green lights from the U.S. government.
Europe is miles ahead of us in recognizing caution and research into the ethics of this company as well as it's products.
Seeds travel with the wind and the birds and the bees so that makes controlling their products impossible.
Allowing Monsanto (and other large food conglomerates) to control the food supply is degrading our cuisine and, in turn, our culture.
I urge you to please include in your investigation a consideration of the importance keeping seeds, the foundation of human life, un-patentable. The public domain remains the last, best hope for the human species.
Monsanto is an evil company and should definitely be investigated for fraud due to falsified and suppressed research data and knowingly endangering countless millions of people with their products, intimidation tactics against journalists, filing frivolous lawsuits against farmers in bad faith after framing farmers by planting GM seed on their property without a license.
But the one that takes the cake is.... Aspartame. ~30% methyl ester, which immediately turns to methanol in the gut. Methanol is a potent neurotoxin. Aspartic acid is also a neurotoxin. Then you have the phenylalanine, which is a precursor to certain neurotransmitters and this upsets brain chemistry, especially in "phenylketonurics" (people with neurological sensitivity to it). But overall aspartame affects everyone who drinks it, negatively.
And again, Monsanto's internal research showing negative side effects was suppressed and a major political scandal took place in the FDA to approve that poison as a food additive.
So my hats off to the DOJ for even considering taking on Monsanto. You'd be doing a great service to this country by investigating if scientific fraud, inappropriate lobbying, filing law being suits in bad faith,. etc has occurred.
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