Monsanto Set to Halt GMO Push in Europe

The march against Monsanto, Germany. (Image from twitter user@@HarvestPM)

from RT

Monsanto plans to halt lobbying for its genetically modified plant varieties in Europe due to low demand from local farmers, a representative from the US agricultural giant told a German daily.

“We are no longer working on lobbying for more cultivation in Europe,” Brandon Mitchner a representative for Monsanto’s European branch, Tageszeitung, said in an interview set to be published on Saturday.

“Currently we do not plan to apply for the approval of new genetically modified crops. The reason is, among other things, low demand of the farmers,” he continued.

A spokeswoman for Monsanto Germany, Ursula Luttmer-Ouazane, admitted that Monsanto recognizes that GMO crops were currently not embraced on the European market.

Brazilian Tribe Reoccupies Farm After Deadly Clash

from BBC

Hundreds of indigenous Brazilians have re-occupied a ranch in the western state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

The Terena indigenous group says the ranch, which belongs to a local politician, lies on their ancestral land.

On Thursday one of their members was shot as police evicted the group from the site, which it had occupied for two weeks.

The police said the Terena had attacked them with bows and arrows.

The officers say they were executing a court order to evict the group but the Indians reacted violently to their approach.

Federal police spokesman Francisco Moraes said the group returned to the ranch on Friday.

Mr Moraes said the situation continued to be “tense”, but that there had been no violent incidents since the re-occupations started.

Indigenous activists say farmers in Mato Grosso do Sul frequently use violence and threats to force them off their ancestral territory, and that the local authorities do little to protect them.

The state, which borders Bolivia and Paraguay, is one of the main soya producers in Brazil.

Unapproved Monsanto Crop Found Growing in Oregon

from RT

A genetically modified strain of wheat that was never approved by the United States Department of Agriculture as been discovered growing in Oregon, triggering a federal probe that is now spanning several states.

Investigators with the USDA want to know why the GMO crop, made by biotech company Monsanto but never approved for use, sprouted up in a field in the Pacific Northwest.

Triangular Cooperation and the New Great Game

by Sasha / Earth First! Newswire

Millions Against Monsanto

The global March Against Monsanto took place in more than 50 countries last Saturday, with more than 430 simultaneous protests chanting down the walls of the 1%. The numbers are staggering: an estimated two million protestors turned out world-wide. Las Vegas saw over 2,500 protestors coursing through its arid streets. Five hundred marched in Anchorage, Alaska; thousands thronged the state capitol of California; rallies broke out throughout the US, raising the voice of dissent: “No more lies! No more greed! We don’t want your toxic seed!” From Vancouver to Buenos Aires; Durban to Stockholm; exuberant protestors danced and shouted for the downfall of Monsanto’s global empire.

The current round of protests in the US are linked to the recent “Monsanto Protection Act,” which makes it legal for Monsanto to sell potentially unsafe seeds in spite of judicial injunctions. But internationally, Monsanto is generating attention for increasing its stake in global agro-development. Monsanto has inserted itself into the new Scramble for Africa like a knife in the back of the starving poor. Its seeds have become the continent’s new blood diamonds.