{"id":9140,"date":"2015-06-16T05:55:44","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T10:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=9140"},"modified":"2015-06-16T05:55:44","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T10:55:44","slug":"gmos-and-the-neoliberal-apologists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=9140","title":{"rendered":"GMOs and the Neoliberal Apologists"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"subheadlinestyle\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2015\/06\/16\/gmos-and-the-neoliberal-apologists\/\" target=\"_blank\">GMOs and the Neoliberal Apologists<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"subheadlinestyle\"><strong>Ignoring Reality, Subverting Morality<\/strong><\/div>\n<div class=\"subheadlinestyle\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mainauthorstyle\">Monsanto is often called one of the most \u2018evil\u2019 companies on the planet. It has a history of knowingly contaminating the environment and food with various poisons, cover ups and criminality (see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wakingtimes.com\/2014\/06\/20\/complete-history-monsanto-worlds-evil-corporation\/\">this<\/a>, outlining the company\u2019s appalling history). In recent times, there has been much focus on its promotion and patenting of GMOs, the deleterious impacts of its glyphosate-based herbicide\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/naturalsociety.com\/americans-suffering-chronic-disease-due-glyphosate-herbicides-new-study\/\">Roundup<\/a>\u00a0and how GMOs pose a threat to human and animal health, ecology and the environment (see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/earthopensource.org\/earth-open-source-reports\/gmo-myths-and-truths-2nd-edition\/\">this<\/a>, for example).<\/div>\n<div class=\"main-text\">\n<p>Campaigners and activists\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/indepth\/opinion\/2012\/02\/201224152439941847.html\">have described<\/a>\u00a0how global agribusiness players like Monsanto are threatening food security and food democracy. Monsanto and others have been able to capture or unduly influence government\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/rense.com\/general33\/fd.htm\">regulatory\/policy agendas<\/a>, important\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2006\/12\/13\/vandana_shiva_on_farmer_suicides_the\">trade deals<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalresearch.ca\/wto-gmo-and-total-spectrum-dominance\/2202\">global trade policies<\/a>\u00a0via the WTO. Monsanto is a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gmwatch.org\/gm-firms\/10558-the-worlds-top-ten-seed-companies-who-owns-nature\">major player<\/a>\u00a0and wields enormous political influence and receives\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alternet.org\/story\/152921\/why_is_the_state_department_using_our_money_to_pimp_for_monsanto\">significant political support<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Little wonder then that we now have campaigns specifically targeting Monsanto. While it is laudable and correct to highlight the actions of Monsanto and indeed its partners like The Gates Foundation, we should not be side tracked from developing a wider analysis to understand the underlying forces that drive companies like Monsanto.<\/p>\n<p>A recent piece by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/naturalsociety.com\/who-are-really-the-top-shareholders-of-monsanto\/\">Christina Sarich<\/a>\u00a0shows that any shares held by Gates or the individuals at the top of the Monsanto corporate structure like CEO High Grant or CTO Robb Fraley are dwarfed by those held by institutional shareholders, such as Vanguard, Capital Research and State Street.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GMOs and the Neoliberal Apologists Ignoring Reality, Subverting Morality Monsanto is often called one of the most \u2018evil\u2019 companies on the planet. It has a history of knowingly contaminating the environment and food with various poisons, cover ups and criminality (see\u00a0this, outlining the company\u2019s appalling history). In recent times, there has been much focus on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19,319,5608,373,6406,4131,6407,4470,6405,6404,896],"class_list":["post-9140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-agribusiness","tag-food","tag-genetically-modified-organisms","tag-gmos","tag-high-grant","tag-monsanto","tag-robb-fraley","tag-roundup","tag-the-gates-foundation","tag-world-trade-organisation","tag-wto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9141,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9140\/revisions\/9141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}