Aerial view of a crop circle made by local farmers and Greenpeace volunteers
There aren’t too many corporations more globally disliked than the sustainable agriculture company Monsanto. And by “sustainable agriculture,” they mean genetically engineering food crops with unknown chemicals leading to health and environmental risks including a jarring decline in global bee populations.
This Saturday, May 25, thousands of global activists will participate in marches against Monsanto in 250 cities around the world. Initially organized and created byTami Monroe Canal, mother of two young daughters, this global movement aims to fight back against a multinational corporation putting profit over human and environmental health.
If you’re debating finding an event near you this Saturday, here are 6 reasons to convince you to March against Monsanto!
6. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that one in three honeybee colonies were lost last winter. Scientists point to pesticides from companies like Monsanto, Bayer and Syngenta as the primary reason for the rapid decline. Honeybees pollinate 25 percent of the food Americans eat.
5. President Obama and the U.S. Congress recently passed a bill amendment that is now known as the “Monsanto Protection Act”, assuring that federal courts cannot halt the planting of GMO seeds from Monsanto.
4. Ex-Monsanto executives are at the helm of the FDA, the agency in charge of regulating our food.
3. The active ingredient on Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, sprayed on most genetically engineered crops, isglyphosate, linked to a lengthy scroll of diseases and chronic conditions including autism,cardiovascular disease, depression, cancer, cachexia, Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease and multiple sclerosis.
2. There is little left for subsidies to organic and small family farms once Monsanto gobbles all of them up. The last thing one of the largest and wealthiest multinational corporations needs is federal assistance.
1. You can take back your health, your food and your environment by joining this global rising tide against Monsanto, a company hiding behind the guise of “sustainable agriculture” while hijacking the safety of what we eat.
