Monsanto's weekly PR newsletter 'The Advantage' is full of stories connecting its products to the South. For example, this week we have: Farmers in Zimbabwe Begin Zero Tillage Trials South Africa Moves In Favor Of Biotechnology GM Cotton May Provide Indonesian Farmers with Increased Income
Of course, there is no mention of the fact that GM cotton could only be brought into Indonesia, in the teeth of intense opposition, with the military riding shotgun and an attempted press black out. Nor is there mention of the recent arrest of an Indonesian activist who raised questions about the safety of this GM cotton.
The following story from the Philippines says much about Monsanto's real relationship with the South.
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Agri department cries foul over firm’s genetic corn test
Posted: 1:58 AM (Manila Time) | August 16, 2001
By Juan Escandor Jr.
Inquirer News Service
http://www.inq7.net/reg/2001/aug/16/reg_4-1.htm
NAGA CITY -- The controversial trial planting of Bt corn, a genetically modified corn variety resistant to corn borers, was pushed [ahead with] by Monsanto Philippines in a village in Tigaon, Camarines Sur, without prior approval from the Department of Agriculture and the town's officials.
Emily Bordado, DA Bicol communications unit chief, said her office confirmed last week that the Bt corn trial planting in Barangay Palayon, Tigaon, was done on July 26 without DA consent.
The DA regional office here earlier said the trial planting was postponed indefinitely because of opposition from farmers' groups in Bicol.
Bordado said Monsanto saw Bicol as another site for trial planting because corn farms in the region are small compared with those in other areas in the Philippines. But a group of militant farmers reported last week that the Bt corn trial planting pushed through on a five-hectare farm in Barangay Palayon.
Responding to the report, the DA regional office verified it and found that Monsanto had contacted the DA quarantine office in Legazpi City and then pushed through with the trial planting.
Willy Marbella, Kilusan ng Magbubukid sa Pilipinas-Bicol chair, said Monsanto's maneuver exposed the tactics that the giant agrochemical company employs to proceed with the multi-location field trial of Bt corn. Marbella said this recent development in the field trial of Bt corn duplicated the experience of the barangay council of Lagao in General Santos City in 1999 when the National Committee on Bio-Safety of the Philippines approved the application by Cargill-Agroseeds to test Bt corn. He said the barangay council of Lagao passed a resolution that expressed grave concern over the field testing of Bt corn.
Marbella said Cargill-Agroseeds pushed through with the tests on Dec. 15, 1999 inside Barangay Lagao despite a rejection of the tests by the barangay council.
Elmo Bombasi, Tigaon town mayor, said the local government has not approved any application from Monsanto Philippines for the trial planting of Bt corn. Bombasi said he was aware that Monsanto had proposed a demonstration in his town but he said he still had to wait for the study conducted by the local agriculture office. He said he was informed only on Wednesday of the existence of the trial planting in his town.
Bombasi said if he confirms that Monsanto pushed through with the trial planting of Bt corn in his town, he would order the plants' destruction.
Marbella expressed alarm that the trial planting could contaminate other corn species and wild life that might cause irreversible damage to the environment. He claimed that an independent research conducted for three years in Jena University in Germany had shown that genetically modified crops contaminated the genes of bacteria inside the hives of bees. Marbella said pollen from the genetically modified crops fed to young bees changed the genetic composition of bacteria inside the hives.