{"id":35863,"date":"2013-05-24T10:59:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T09:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/challenging-monsanto-over-200000-in-40-countries-expected-to-rally-against-gmo-amid-media-blockade\/35863\/"},"modified":"2013-05-24T10:59:50","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T09:59:50","slug":"challenging-monsanto-over-200000-in-40-countries-expected-to-rally-against-gmo-amid-media-blockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/challenging-monsanto-over-200000-in-40-countries-expected-to-rally-against-gmo-amid-media-blockade\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenging Monsanto: Over 200,000 in 40 countries expected to rally against GMO amid media blockade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Activists around the world are gearing up for a weekend of rallies to protest Monsanto, the biotechnology company that has been accused of genetically engineering agriculture and food while turning a blind eye to potentially deadly health ramifications.<\/p>\n

Organized by March Against Monsanto movement, the massive
\ncampaign will include an estimated 200,000 activists, spanning six
\ncontinents and more than 40 countries, and at least 48 US
\nstates.<\/p>\n

Angered at the lack of action from governments, activists in
\nhundreds of cities – including New York, Chicago, Montreal, Berlin,
\nParis, Brussels, Moscow and Melbourne – will unite to protest
\nagainst Monsanto and demand a ban on Genetically Engineered and
\nGenetically Modified Organisms (GE\/GMOs).<\/p>\n

Initially a grassroots event, the March has turned into large
\norganized movement thanks to efforts of local activists and
\nenvironmentalists. The protest is being organized via Facebook
\nsocial networking service and an open Google Document, where users
\ncan find events close to their locations and join the
\nprotest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nick Bernabe, a director from March Against Monsanto, told
\nNatural Society that the genetically-engineered food could affect
\neveryone, even the apathetic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is bring awareness to GMOs and the
\nhealth effects that they\u2019re causing and bring about some solutions
\nabout what people can do to take back their food supply<\/i>,\u201d he
\nsaid. \u201cThey\u2019re expecting more than 15,000 people in San
\nFrancisco alone\u2026We want to get people working together in their
\ncommunities<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calling results of numerous researches on the effects of GMO
\ncrops “inconclusive<\/i>,” Monsanto has lobbied hard in
\nWashington and around the globe to be able to continue
\nmanufacturing lab-made foods without the oversight that many have
\ndemanded.<\/p>\n

In March, Congress passed a biotech rider dubbed the \u201cMonsanto
\nProtection Act,\u201d which essentially allows that company and others
\nthat use GMOs to plant and sell genetically-altered products even
\nif legal action is taken against them.<\/p>\n

Up until it was signed, \u201cthe USDA [US Department of
\nAgriculture] oversaw and approved (or denied) the testing of
\ngenetically modified seeds, while the federal courts retained the
\nauthority to halt the testing or sale of these plants if it felt
\nthat public health was being jeopardized. With HR 933 now a law,
\nhowever, the court system no longer has the right to step in and
\nprotect the consumer,\u201d<\/i> explained James Brumley, a reporter for
\nInvestor Place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey own the largest share of the agribusiness, pesticides
\nand seeds<\/i>,\u201d Joanne Montana, who organized a protest in Florida,
\ntold the Gainesville Sun. \u201cThey\u2019re transnational, in food behind
\nthe scenes and a big conglomerate<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Protesters<\/p>\n

The so-called Monsanto Protection Act was co-authored by a
\nsenator that has received thousands of dollars<\/a> in campaign
\ncontributions from the company \u2013 a revelation that did not surprise
\nmany given that another important figure in Washington, Justice
\nClarence Thomas, served as an attorney for the corporation before
\nhe was nominated to the high court only to eventually preside over
\na case involving his former employer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, according to Food & Water Watch, the relationship
\nbetween Monsanto and the government extends beyond Congress and the
\nSupreme Court. In a statement published accompanying a health
\nreport, Food & Water Watch wrote that communication uncovered
\nby WikiLeaks details \u201chow the US State Department lobbies
\nforeign governments to adopt pro-agricultural biotechnology
\npolicies and laws, operates a rigorous public relations campaign to
\nimprove the image of biotechnology and challenges commonsense
\nbiotechnology safeguards and rules \u2013 including opposing genetically
\nengineered (GE) food labeling laws<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, as the protest approaches, the organizers have accused the
\ncompany of going on the offensive and took to their event\u2019s
\nFacebook page to explain the event had not been cancelled,
\ndebunking a false rumor that they suspect comes from Monsanto
\nsympathizers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvents are disappearing, posts are being put on city event
\npages that say events are being cancelled<\/i>,\u201d said Tom Canal, an
\nadministrator for March Against Monsanto\u2019s Facebook page, as quoted
\nby The Organic Prepper blog. \u201cIn no way, shape or form, has any
\nevent been cancelled. I believe Monsanto is behind this. Some of
\nthe people on the page that are commenting have newly made profiles
\nand seemingly those profiles were made strictly to cause problems
\nand get a rise out of our participants on the page<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Jane<\/p>\n

Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant, during an interview with Bloomberg
\nearlier this month, tried to portray those who do not agree with
\nhis business tactics as snobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is this strange kind of reverse elitism: If I\u2019m going
\nto do this, then everything else shouldn\u2019t exist<\/i>,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIn the US, we\u2019ve got a system that works<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Desperately struggling to reach wide audience through the
\nmainstream media, anti-GMO activists have outlined a number of
\nsolutions they advocate and goals they march for.<\/p>\n

Among the listed demands were “labeling of GE\/GMOs so that
\nconsumers can make those informed decisions easier<\/i>,”
\n“calling for further scientific research on the health effects
\nof GE\/GMOs<\/i>,” and \u2014 perhaps most importantly \u2014 “taking to the
\nstreets to show the world and Monsanto that we won’t take these
\ninjustices quietly<\/i>.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Check back with RT through the weekend for the most extensive,
\nup-to-the-minute coverage on the global demonstrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on: RT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Activists around the world are gearing up for a weekend of rallies to protest Monsanto, the biotechnology company that has been accused of genetically engineering agriculture and food while turning a blind eye to potentially deadly health ramifications. Organized by March Against Monsanto movement, the massive campaign will include an estimated 200,000 activists, spanning six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}