Why Senator Bernie Sanders’ GMO Labeling Amendment to the Farm Bill Failed: Monsanto’s GMO Money

Last week corporate cash killed Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) GMO Labeling amendment to the Senate Farm Bill (S. 3240). The Genetic Crime Unit of Occupy Monsanto decided to cross-reference the Amendment’s vote tally with the last 10 years of Monsanto’s PAC contributions to U.S. Senators.

It’s not surprising that of the 73 Senators who voted against (‘Nay’) the amendment, 37 Senators, or over 50%, received a combined total of $237,500 in campaign contributions from Monsanto’s PAC. Only 2 Senators, Senator Inouye from Hawaii & Senator Leahy from Vermont, who received a combined total of $8,000 from Monsanto’s PAC, voted in support (‘Yea’) of the GMO labeling amendment.

Monsanto’s GMO Money is rampant in the halls of Congress and the corporation’s patented genes are becoming a biohazard to the health of American democracy. With nearly half of American U.S. Senators becoming genetically mutated, we must take action to remove Monsanto’s GMO Money from the currency supply. Do you have plans for the third week of September? Yea.

Note: These figures are only from Monsanto’s PAC. Congress receives millions of dollars from the biotech industry as a whole, undoubtedly influencing their vote against the people’s right to know if they are eating GMOs.

Monsanto’s Lobbying Expenses 2002-2012

Throwing around a few grand here & few grand there to buy off politicians is really nickels & dimes compared to the vast amount of money Monsanto has spent lobbying Congress.

Over the last 10 years Monsanto has spent over $52 million dollars making sure they get the most favorable legislation possible. Of that $52 million, nearly $11 million was paid to outside lobbying firms (listed below) to lobby on behalf of Monsanto, while the rest of the total (over $40 million) was spent on Monsanto’s staff lobbyists.

The results? More pesticides, more GMOs, and more of why we will Occupy Monsanto this fall!

Source: Center for Responsive Politics (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)
Note #1: When compiling this list it was shown that many of the lobbying firms no longer exist because many of the lobbyists merged their firms together. When a firm was found to have merged with another, the dirty money Monsanto paid them was added together in the table above.
Note #2: In 2000 Monsanto merged with Pharmacia & Upjohn and was later spun off into the “New Monsanto.” However, the data for 2002 includes Pharmacia as Monsanto’s parent company and show that there was lobbying money spent on the pharmaceutical industry. For the table above, only the lobbying money spent on Agricultural Services & Products was included.

Monsanto’s PAC Contributions to Members of Congress 2002-2012

When you’ve got billions of dollars in your coffers, you can afford to pay off political candidates & members of Congress. The tables below from the Center for Responsive Politics show donations to U.S. politicians from Monsanto’s Political Action Committee known as Monsanto Citizenship Fund between 2002 and the first quarter of 2012. If your Senator or Representative is on this list, contact them and say that you don’t support Monsanto’s efforts to genetically contaminate the world’s food supply. Combine the totals below with the $50 million dollars Monsanto spent on lobbying and it’s easy to see why Monsanto deserves to be occupied this fall.

Source: Center for Responsive Politics (2012, 2010, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2002)