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Why Does Monsanto Always Win?
July 31 2012

By Dr. Mercola

If you've ever wondered how Monsanto―a company that admits it wants to own the world's food supply through its patented genetically engineered seeds―gets away with not having to label its products, all you have to do is follow the trail of money leading from their coffers into the pockets and campaign funds of well-placed politicians and regulators.

According to OpenSecrets.org1, Monsanto basically lives at the doorsteps of legislators in Washington, where it spent $5.3 million last year lobbying the nation's lawmakers, and has already spent $1.4 million in the first three months of this year.

Needless to say, they can afford it. According to OpenSecrets.org, Monsanto had an annual revenue of $11.8 billion last year, so a $5.3 million lobbying investment is far less than one percent of one percent of their revenues.

The influence they're trying to buy doesn't stop in Congress, though. Monsanto's legislative agenda also includes the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); all of which have a say in whether or not you get to know whether the food you're eating has been genetically engineered.

Can You Trust a System Powered by Lobbying?

The power of Monsanto can be seen through its contributions to Rep. Frank D. Lucas, who's received the most money so far from Monsanto. Lucas just happens to be chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, through which every farm-related piece of legislation must pass. But he's certainly not the only one wheel getting greased by this biotech giant.

According to OpenSecrets.org:

"'...So far this election cycle, Monsanto's PAC has given $77,500 to 17 members of the House agriculture committee, or their leadership PACs.'" ...Monsanto's interests in Washington are diverse.

It lobbied bills ranging from the American Research and Competitiveness Act of 20112, which would extend tax credits for companies doing research, to several bills that would change the way the Department of Homeland Security handles security at chemical facilities -- chemicals being a big part of Monsanto's product portfolio.

... Another upcoming matter of great interest to Monsanto: the new farm bill, an omnibus piece of legislation that sets the nation's agricultural policy and deals with nearly every aspect of the country's farming and food industries. The current bill expires in 2013; when it went through Congress, Monsanto filed more lobbying reports on it than any other organization. The process of piecing together a new proposal is already well under way."

Such lobbying efforts can, and do, have a tremendous impact on the lives and health of every American, not to mention the environment. It directly impacts the food you end up with on your plate, and whether or not you're allowed to know what's in the food you eat to begin with. Monsanto and other biotech companies involved with genetic engineering of crop seeds are currently fighting tooth and nail to prevent labeling of genetically engineered foods, knowing full well that such a label has the potential to destroy their burgeoning industry.

Why Monsanto Always Wins

Last year, Monsanto lobbied Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture concerning regulations that would affect genetically engineered crops such as the company's Roundup Ready soybeans and alfalfa. As a result, genetically engineered alfalfa was deregulated, despite strong opposition from the organic industry and massive public outcry.

An interesting article from last year by Mike Ludwig, titled "Why Monsanto Always Wins," sheds light on the shady approval process of genetically engineered crops3.

According to Ludwig, there's evidence of "cooperation" between federal regulators and the biotech industry that crosses the line of acceptable involvement during the regulatory review. He also cites Bill Freese, a policy analyst with CFS, who told Truthout that "the approval process for controversial genetically engineered (GE) crops like Roundup Ready alfalfa is basically a 'sham' designed to increase consumer confidence in the controversial GE crops," and that in his years of battling against biotech, "he can't remember a single case when regulators failed to eventually grant approval of a GE crop."

To get an idea of just how broad and deep Monsanto's reach is, take a look at the following chart. Over the years, this biotech giant has successfully infiltrated an ever increasing number of high-level federal regulatory positions in the U.S. government; many of which are positions meant to protect your food safety...

Crazy Patent Laws Prevent Independent Researchers from Studying GE Hazards

To give you another example of how Monsanto has been able to carefully position itself and its wares into a near-invincible position, consider this: The reason why genetically engineered food hazards have never been studied beyond 30 days, nor are currently being studied, is because the corporations controlling the patented seeds, such as Monsanto, are allowed to prevent independent studies per current patent laws.

That's right, genetically engineered foods are patented inventions protected under copyright and proprietary information laws. And the corporations controlling the seeds only allow them to be studied under very limited conditions, and rarely (if ever) do they permit them to be studied for safety by anyone but the USDA—which conveniently has not yet seen the need to conduct rigorous long-term safety studies on genetically engineered foods.4

How Monsanto is Now Positioned to Potentially Decimate Africa

Monsanto's political influence clearly reaches far beyond our U.S. borders. Most recently, in an effort to "end hunger in Africa," the Obama administration drafted some of the world's largest food and finance companies to invest in projects all over the continent5. Much of the $3 billion effort will go toward developing seeds and fertilizers and building silos for storage. To do this, the President has rounded up the usual suspects, which includes Monsanto.

However, unlike the U.S., some donor countries are insisting that their money be spent on traditional food handouts instead of genetically engineered monoculture, such as that offered by Tanseed, a Tanzanian seed company that will spend $11 million buying certified seed to be sold in little packets to small farmers.

Still, the evidence tells us genetically engineered crops cannot coexist with organic or conventional crops. They usually end up contaminating nearby fields, turning those farmers into patent-infringing criminals in the process—a scenario no farmer on any continent could ever have imagined a couple of decades ago.

Another project seeking to establish genetically engineered crops in Africa is the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Through this alliance, heavy-weights like Monsanto and other biotech companies, along with the Gates Foundation, are foolishly promoting GE crops as the answer to Africa's hunger problem.

But donating patented seeds, which takes away the farmers' sovereignty, is not the way to save the third-world poor.

The Gates Foundation has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to AGRA, and in 2006 Robert Horsch was hired for the project. Horsch was a Monsanto executive for 25 years. In a nutshell, the project may be sold under the banner of altruism and 'sustainability', but in realit
y it's anything but. It's just a multi-billion dollar enterprise to transform Africa into a GE-crop-friendly continent.

In the end, such "humanitarian" efforts are doomed to fail while allowing Big Biotech to make obscene profits at the poor's expense. African farmer's will likely encounter the same problems as those in India, where farmers growing genetically engineered crops have been committing suicide due to financial hardships at a rate of one farmer taking his own life every 30 minutes...

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/07/31/monsanto-powerful-influence.aspx?e_cid=20120731_DNL_artNew_1