Ronnie Cummins: How Monsanto Can Be Defeated!

The harder they come,the harder they fall, one and all. Jimmy Cliff, reggae classic After enjoying a year of maximum profits, record stock prices, the defeat of a major GMO labeling campaign in California, pro-industry court decisions, and a formidable display of political of political power in Washington, D.C. including slipping the controversial Monsanto Protection Act into the Federal Appropriations bill in March the Bionet Bully from St. Louis now finds itself on the defensive. It is no exaggeration to say that Monsanto has now become the most hated corporation in the world. Plagued by a growing army of Roundup-resistant super-weeds and BT-resistant super-pests spreading
across the country, a full 49 percent of American farmers are now frantically trying to kill these super-weeds and pests with ever-larger quantities of toxic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides including glyphosate Roundup, glufosinate, 2,4D Agent Orange, dicamba, and neonicotinoids insecticides linked to massive deaths of honey bees. Reacting to this dangerous escalation of chemical farming, toxic residues on foods and environmental pollution, over a million consumers and organic farmers have pressed the Obama administration to reject anew generation of GE "Agent Orange" and dicamba-resistant crops, forcing the USDA to postpone commercizalation of these crops, at least temporarily. According to the trade press thousands of US farmers, as well as farmers worldwide, are moving away from biotech crops and searching for non-GMO genetically modified organism alternatives. At the same time US and global market demand for non-GMO organic foods and crops is steadily increasing. Compounding Monsanto's super-weed and super-pest problems, scientific evidence earthopensource.org continues to mount that GMO feed and foods, laced with Bt toxins and contaminated with ever-increasing residues of Monsanto's deadly weedkiller, Roundup, are severely damaging animal and human health. As the June 24, 2013 issue of Green Medical News puts it: "within the scientific community and educated public alike, there is a growing awareness that Roundup herbicide and its primary ingredient glyphosate, is actually a broad spectrum biocide, in the etymological sense of the word: "bio" life and "cide" kill that is, broadly, without discrimination kills living things, not just plants. "Moreover, it does not rapidly biodegrade as widely claimed, and exceedingly small amounts of this chemical in concentration ranges found in recently sampled rain, air, groundwater, and human urine samples, have DNA-damaging and cancer cell proliferation stimulating effects."