This is a Call to Action for a Non-Hierarchical Occupation of Monsanto Everywhere
Whether you like it or not, chances are Monsanto contaminated the food you ate today with chemicals and unlabeled GMOs. Monsanto controls much of the world's food supply at the expense of food democracy worldwide. This site is dedicated to empowering citizens of the world to take action against Monsanto & it's enablers like the FDA, USDA, EPA, GMA, BIO, and the processed food companies that use Monsanto's products.
Last month, members of Safe Food Action St. Louis met with the store manager of the Brentwood Whole Foods Market to share the outcome of their survey regarding labeling GMO-contaminated food. The survey was consistent with other surveys conducted across the US, with 96% of the 315 respondents calling for the labeling of GMO food. The survey also showed that the majority folks shopping at Whole Foods Market had no idea that the store carries GMO food at all; many of them were surprised and dismayed at the fact.
Taking a stand for public health and food democracy, Safe Food Action St Louis has strongly urged Whole Foods Market to label foods containing GMOs and requested that Whole Foods Market provide an answer to this request by May 15. As yet, Safe Food Action St. Louis has not received a reply from management at Whole Foods Market. It is now time for Whole Foods Market to hear from us, the consumers!
Please join Safe Food Action St. Louis on Saturday, June 9th, and let Whole Foods Market know how you feel about unlabeled GMOs being sold in their stores.
WHO: Safe Food Action St. Louis, Whole Foods Market customers, and concerned citizens WHEN: Saturday, June 9, 2012, 1-3pm WHERE: Brentwood Whole Foods Market, 1601 Brentwood Blvd., St Louis, MO 63144 (meet in the parking lot) WHY: It’s time for Whole Foods Market to hear demands from customers that want GMOs sold at their stores to be labeled!
There will be a pot luck dinner and sign-making event on Thursday, June 7th to prepare for the action. Please join us at 6pm at CAMP: 3022A Cherokee St, Saint Louis, MO 63118.
This entry was supplied to Occupy Monsanto to help spread the word about an upcoming action. If your organization has food democracy-related action in the works, please send details to incident@occupy-monsanto.com and we’ll do our best to post it here.
The multinational biotech giant Monsanto is the world’s leading producer of genetically modified seeds and crops, responsible for 90 percent of the genetically engineered seed on the United States market. Researchers found that consumption of GMO corn or soybeans may lead to significant organ disruptions in rats and mice-particularly in the liver and kidneys.
Monsanto, the company that brought the world Agent Orange, is also the creator of the best-selling herbicide Roundup, which has spawned over 120 million hectares of herbicide-resistant super weeds while damaging massive amounts of soil.
Monsanto has created several varieties of “superbugs”. Monsanto engineered genetically modified crops containing Bt, a toxin incorporated in GMO crops which has spawned insect populations which are resistant to bio pesticide. Insect populations have and are mutating to resist the bio pesticide. So far, at least 8 insect populations have developed resistance, with 2 populations resistant to Bt sprays and at least 6 species resistant to Bt crop as a whole. Farmers are therefore forced to use even more pesticides to combat the resistant bugs.
Monsanto may be destroying the planet’s soil. Certain bacteria essential as “food starters” such as L cremoris, used in raw and fermented dairy products have begun to disappear in certain geographic regions. The case has been found to be an element of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, glyphosate that is destroying and/or altering the microbial biodiversity of the soil, jeopardizing the fertility of the entire biosphere.
Monsanto has been caught running “slave-like” rings, holding off pay, and forcing undocumented workers to buy their food only from the Monsanto company store. The company not only “hired” all of the workers illegally, but also prevented them from leaving the farm premises and withheld their salaries.
Monsanto effectively owns most US diplomats, and is currently using this political capital to start “Trade Wars” against nations opposed to Monsanto’s destructive policies. France, Hungary, and Peru are a few of the countries that have decided to stand up to Monsanto, going as far as destroying 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with GMOs.
Peru has passed a monumental 10-year ban on modified foods and French legislatures are planning to launch new restrictions regarding the use of Monsanto’s 810 maize on French soil.
Monsanto poses one of the greatest threats on the planet to human health and the environment. NationofChange is teaming up with activists across the country for an ongoing campaign to fight back against one of the worst corporations in the world.
The first step: raise awareness about Monsanto’s crimes against human health and the environment.
Protesters who are part of a movement calling itself Occupy Monsanto hung banners throughout the region early Tuesday, a day after holding a march through downtown St. Louis and days after protests against the company were held in some 30 cities across the country.
Some of the signs read “FDA is Genetically Contaminated by Monsanto” and “Genetic Biohazard: Defend Yourself.”
By mid-day Tuesday, roughly half of the 13 banners, which were hung mostly on highway overpasses, had been removed by law enforcement, according to an Occupy Monsanto organizer.
Over the weekend the Creve Couer-based biotechnology giant told employees at a research facility in Davis, Calif., that they did not need to come to work, out of concern for their safety amid protests there.
A Monsanto spokesperson said 60 people work at the facility, but did not comment further.
The movement, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, is trying to urge people to take part in a one-day international protest on September 17, the one-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The group is calling on federal regulators to require mandatory labeling of foods containing transgenic ingredients, and is pushing to stop approval of new crops that would be genetically engineered to withstand applications of old-generation herbicides.
The company said it respects the rights of the protesters to voice their opinions, but did not comment beyond that.
The 99% Slams Genetically Modified Foods on Monsanto Company’s Home Turf
ST. LOUIS, MO – Occupy Monsanto’s agents of change with the Genetic Crimes Unit (GCU) hung 13 large banners over highways throughout St. Louis this morning calling out Monsanto for their genetic crimes and highlighting the danger of genetically modified foods (GMOs). The GCU opposes Monsanto’s bid to increase spraying of food with toxic weed killers like 2,4 D (the main ingredient in Agent Orange). Occupy Monsanto is also alarmed that one company has control of nearly 90% of the US seed supply, giving it undue influence over what food people get to eat. GCU Agents know Monsanto has successfully lobbied against the creation of public policy that would otherwise be in place to inform consumers about GMOs they are eating daily.
The banners hung today come after Occupy Monsanto banners began popping up across the Midwest last weekend over Interstate 70 in Ohio and Indiana. The banners hung today have messages including, ‘FDA is Genetically Contaminated by Monsanto’, ‘Genetic Biohazard: Defend Yourself,’ ‘The 99% VS. Mon$anto,’ and ‘Monsanto CEO = Millionaire; Monsanto Consumer = Lab Rat,’ amongst others. Each banner urges people to take part in Occupy Monsanto’s international call to protest on September 17, 2012, which is the one-year-anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Along with banners being hung on overpasses, one large banner stating ‘Mr. President Label GMO Foods Love Michelle‘ was staked onto the front lawn of Monsanto’s global headquarters.
Photographs and more specific locations of banners on the overpasses will be posted at Occupy-Monsanto.com as well as info on the worldwide day of action in September. Members of the media are free to use these images compliments of the 99%.
“Today’s action is part of a larger movement to stop genetically modified foods. Last Friday protests of Monsanto were held in over 30 cities throughout the US and in places all over the globe including Spain, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Canada. In Davis, California 150 people shut down a Monsanto facility and today Monsanto has felt the first impact of the Occupy Monsanto movement in their home city of St. Louis.
“We deserve to know what we are eating. Virtually every major country requires labeling of GMOs in foods so their citizens can make informed choices, including all of Europe, Japan and even China,“ said one GCU Agent. “By being in St. Louis, we are taking our message right to the source – we are telling Monsanto we will not tolerate GMOs and we are giving them a warning for what’s to come on September 17.”
To date more than 990,000 people have signed onto the www.JustLabelit.org citizens’ petition to the Food and Drug Administration for GMO labeling (the most to sign an FDA petition ever). Last fall over 100 people marched in the Right2Know March from New York to the White House to demand President Obama keep his campaign promise to label GMO foods. Video of the promise can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqaaB6NE1TI In California Monsanto faces a 2012 ballot proposition on GMO labeling. Today Monsanto was given a warning; on Sept. 17, 2012 Monsanto will be occupied in hundreds of locations internationally. Visit occupy-monsanto.com for more information.
