by Ellen Brown
Bayer as well as Monsanto receive got a long history of collusion to toxicant the ecosystem for profit. The Trump direction should veto their merger non exactly to protect competitors but to ensure human as well as planetary survival. Two novel studies from Europe receive got found that the number of farm birds inwards French Republic has crashed yesteryear a 3rd inwards exactly xv years, amongst around species existence almost eradicated. The collapse inwards the aeroplane population mirrors the uncovering terminal October that over 3 quarters of all flight insects inwards Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany receive got vanished inwards exactly 3 decades. Insects are the staple nutrient source of birds, the pollinators of fruits, as well as the aerators of the soil. The master copy suspect inwards this volume extinction is the aggressive exercise of neonicotinoid pesticides, particularly imidacloprid as well as clothianidin, both made yesteryear German-based chemic giant Bayer. These pesticides, along amongst toxic glyphosate herbicides (Roundup), receive got delivered a one-two punch against Monarch butterflies, honeybees as well as birds. But rather than banning these toxic chemicals, on March 21st the European Union approved the $66 billion merger of Bayer as well as Monsanto, the US agribusiness giant producing Roundup as well as the genetically modified (GMO) seeds that receive got reduced seed form globally. The merger volition brand the Bayer-Monsanto conglomerate the largest seed as well as pesticide fellowship inwards the world, giving it enormous ability to command farm practices, putting person profits over the world interest.
As Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D.-Mass.) noted inwards a speech inwards Dec earlier the Open Markets Institute, massive companies are merging into huge market-dominating entities that invest a portion of their profits inwards lobbying as well as financing political campaigns, shaping the political scheme to their ain ends. She called on the Trump direction to veto the Bayer-Monsanto merger, which is soundless nether antitrust scrutiny as well as has yet to live approved inwards the US.
A 2016 survey of Trump’s voter base of operations found that over one-half disapproved of the Monsanto/Bayer merger, fearing it would number inwards higher nutrient prices as well as higher costs for farmers. Before 1990, at that spot were 600 or to a greater extent than small-scale independent seed businesses globally, many of them household unit of measurement owned. By 2009, alone virtually 100 survived; as well as seed prices had to a greater extent than than doubled. But reining inwards these powerful conglomerates is to a greater extent than than exactly a enquiry of economics. It may live a enquiry of the survival of life on this planet.
While Bayer’s neonicotinoid pesticides wipe out insects as well as birds, Monsanto’s glyphosate has been linked to over twoscore human diseases, including cancer. Its GMO seeds receive got been genetically modified to live this toxic herbicide, but the plants absorb it into their tissues; as well as inwards the humans who eat them, glyphosate disrupts the endocrine scheme as well as the residue of gut bacteria, damages deoxyribonucleic acid as well as is a driver of cancerous mutations. Researchers summarizing a 2014 report of glyphosates inwards the Journal of Organic Systems linked them to the huge increment inwards chronic diseases inwards the United States, amongst the pct of GMO corn as well as soy planted inwards the US showed highly pregnant correlations amongst hypertension, stroke, diabetes, obesity, lipoprotein metabolism disorder, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, hepatitis C, destination phase renal disease, shrewd kidney failure, cancers of the thyroid, liver, bladder, pancreas, kidney as well as myeloid leukaemia. But regulators receive got turned a blind eye, captured yesteryear corporate lobbyists as well as a political agenda that has to a greater extent than to attain amongst ability as well as command them protecting the wellness of the people.
The Trump direction has already approved a merger betwixt one-time rivals Dow as well as DuPont, as well as has signed off on the takeover of Swiss pesticide giant Syngenta yesteryear ChemChina. If Monsanto/Bayer gets approved equally well, exactly 3 corporations volition dominate the bulk of the world’s seed as well as pesticide markets, giving them enormous ability to move on poisoning the planet at the expense of its living inhabitants.
The Shady History of Bayer as well as the Petrochemical Cartel
To empathise the magnitude of this threat, it is necessary to delve into around history. This is non the initiatory of all fourth dimension Monsanto as well as Bayer receive got joined forces. In both earth wars, they made explosives as well as poisonous gases using shared technologies that they sold to both sides. After World War II, they united equally MOBAY (MonsantoBayer) as well as supplied the ingredients for Agent Orange inwards the Vietnam War.
In fact corporate mergers as well as cartels receive got played a key role inwards Bayer’s history. In 1904, it joined amongst German linguistic communication giants BASF as well as AGFA to flat the initiatory of all chemic cartel. After World War I, Germany’s entire chemic manufacture was merged to move I.G. Farben. By the initiatory of all of World War II, I.G. Farben was the largest industrial venture inwards Europe, the largest chemic fellowship inwards the world, as well as business office of the most gigantic as well as powerful cartel inwards all history.
A cartel is a grouping of companies saltation yesteryear agreements designed to confine contest as well as hold prices high. The night history of the I.G. Farben cartel was detailed inwards a 1974 volume titled World Without Cancer yesteryear G. Edward Griffin, who equally good wrote the best-selling Creature from Jekyll Island on the shady history of the Federal Reserve. Griffin quoted from a volume titled Treason’s Peace yesteryear Howard Ambruster, an American chemic engineer who had studied the unopen relations betwixt the German linguistic communication chemic trust as well as certainly American corporations. Ambruster warned:
Farben is no mere industrial enterprise conducted yesteryear Germans for the extraction of profits at dwelling as well as abroad. Rather, it is as well as must live recognized equally a cabalistic scheme which, through unusual subsidiaries as well as cloak-and-dagger tie-ups, operates a far-flung as well as highly efficient espionage machine - the ultimate move existence earth conquest . . . as well as a earth superstate directed yesteryear Farben.109
The I.G. Farben cartel arose out of the international fossil oil industry. Coal tar or unsmooth fossil oil is the source stuff for most commercial chemic products, including those used inwards drugs as well as explosives. I.G. Farben established cartel agreements amongst hundreds of American companies. They had lilliputian selection but to capitulate later on the Rockefeller empire, represented yesteryear Standard Oil of New Jersey, had done so, since they could non promise to compete amongst the Rockefeller/I.G. combination.
The Rockefeller group’s greatest influence was exerted through international finance as well as investment banking, putting them inwards command of a broad spectrum of industry. Their influence was peculiarly heavy inwards pharmaceuticals. The directors of the American I.G. Chemical Company included Paul M. Warburg, blood brother of a manager of the rear fellowship inwards Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany as well as a master copy architect of the Federal Reserve System.
The I.G. Farben cartel was technically disbanded at the Nuremberg War Trials next World War II, but inwards fact it exactly dissever into 3 novel companies - Bayer, Hoescht as well as BASF - which rest pharmaceutical giants today. In guild to conceal its checkered history, Bayer orchestrated a merger amongst Monsanto inwards 1954, giving rising to the MOBAY Corporation. In 1964, the US Justice Department filed an antitrust trial against MOBAY as well as insisted that it live broken up, but the companies continued to piece of employment together unofficially.
In Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation (2007), William Engdahl states that global nutrient command as well as depopulation became US strategic policy nether Rockefeller protégé Henry Kissinger, who was Secretary of State inwards the 1970s. Along amongst fossil oil geopolitics, these policies were to live the novel “solution" to the threats to US global ability as well as continued US access to inexpensive raw materials from the developing world. Kissinger notoriously declared:
“Control fossil oil as well as yous command nations. Control nutrient as well as yous command the people."
Global nutrient command has nearly been achieved, yesteryear reducing seed form as well as establishing proprietary command amongst GMO seeds distributed yesteryear alone a few transnational corporations led yesteryear Monsanto; as well as yesteryear a massive taxpayer-subsidized propaganda stimulate inwards back upwards of GMO seeds as well as neurotoxic pesticides. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 de facto cartel of giant chemical, drug, oil, banking as well as insurance companies connected yesteryear interlocking directorates reaps the profits at both ends, yesteryear waging a really lucrative pharmaceutical onrush on the diseases created yesteryear their toxic agricultural chemicals.
Going Organic: The Russian Approach
In the end, the Green Revolution engineered yesteryear Henry Kissinger to command markets as well as ensure US economical authorisation may live our nemesis. While the US struggles to maintain its hegemony yesteryear economical coercion as well as armed services force, Russian Federation is winning the battle for the wellness of the people as well as the environment. Vladimir Putin has banned GMOs as well as has laid out to brand Russian Federation the world’s leading supplier of organic food.
Russian families are showing what tin live done amongst permaculture methods on unproblematic garden plots. In 2011, 40% of Russia’s nutrient was grown on dachas (cottage gardens or allotments), predominantly organically. Dacha gardens produced over 80% of the country’s fruit as well as berries, over 66% of the vegetables, almost 80% of the potatoes as well as nearly 50% of the nation’s milk, much of it consumed raw. Russian writer Vladimir Megre comments:
Essentially, what Russian gardeners attain is demonstrate that gardeners tin feed the earth - as well as yous attain non postulate whatever GMOs, industrial farms, or whatever other technological gimmicks to guarantee everybody’s got plenty nutrient to eat. Bear inwards heed that Russian Federation alone has 110 days of growing flavor per yr - then inwards the US, for example, gardeners’ output could live substantially greater. Today, however, the surface area taken upwards yesteryear lawns inwards the US is ii times greater than that of Russia’s gardens - as well as it produces null but a multi-billion-dollar lawn help industry.
In the US, alone virtually 0.6 percent of the full agricultural surface area is devoted to organic farming. Most farmland is soaked inwards pesticides as well as herbicides. But the postulate for these toxic chemicals is a myth. In an Oct 2017 article inwards The Guardian, columnist George Monbiot cited studies showing that reducing the exercise of neonicotinoid pesticides truly increases production, because the pesticides harm or kill the pollinators on which crops depend. Rather than an international merchandise understanding that would enable giant transnational corporations to dictate to governments, he argues that nosotros postulate a global treaty to regulate pesticides as well as require environmental behave upon assessments for farming. He writes:
Farmers as well as governments receive got been comprehensively conned yesteryear the global pesticide industry. It has ensured its products should non live properly regulated or even, inwards real-world conditions, properly assessed. . . . The profits of these companies depend on ecocide. Do nosotros allow them to grip the earth to ransom, or attain nosotros admit that the survival of the living earth is to a greater extent than of import than returns to their shareholders?
President Trump has boasted of winning awards for environmental protection. If he is serious virtually protecting the environment, he needs to block the merger of Bayer as well as Monsanto, ii agribusiness giants bent on destroying the ecosystem for person profit.
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