On the eve of the “March Against Monsanto,” the United States Senate shut down the GMO labelling bill that a large majority of states within the U.S. are calling for. The bill would have allowed individual states to decide if genetically modified food products should be labelled without any mandating action. This bill wasn’t controversial as it simply gave individual states the option to allow their citizens to know whether or not they are eating genetically modified foods or not. Unfortunately the vote was abolished in an overwhelming fashion, the Senate voted 71 to 27 against it on Thursday, right before today’s global protests.

How can we be governed by an illusion, that introducing a toxic gene is creation of life – Vandana Shiva
The reason given for not labelling GMO’s was that it runs counter to what we ‘know’ about them. If we know GMO foods are safe (which in fact we don’t), and pose no serious threat then what is the point? The United States is clearly ignoring all the research that shows how GMO crops are harmful and hazardous to human health. Vermont and Connecticut recently decided to label their foods, but Monsanto is preparing to sue them, especially in light of this recent decision by the senate. They are completely ignoring everything, even the research that recently showed GMO-fed rats developing mass tumours that resulted in death. Animal testing is not needed to determine if GMOs are harmful, we already know they are.
The vote also occurred just two days before 200,000 people in 40 countries and 48 US states are expected to take to the streets to rally against the biotech giant. The global “March Against Monsanto” will occur in cities including New York, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Moscow, and Melbourne. Protesters will demand a ban on GMOs, which many believe have detrimental health effects. They will also rally against Monsanto’s patenting rights, which allow the corporation to monopolize the seed industry.

Is there not a conflict of interest here? Who owns Monsanto? Major financial institutions like Fidelity Investments, and the State Street Corporation do. Who owns the Major pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer? The answer doesn’t change, the same major financial institutions do, Fidelity Investments, and State Street Corporation, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs to name a few(1)(2). These are the major shareholders, and we all know that financial institutions that control these multinational corporations are dictating governmental policy.

Many studies have linked GMO crops to poor health. You can read more about that in our science/technology section or do some of your own research. Recently, scientists found GMO crops damage red blood cells, and Monsanto roundup has now been linked to Autism, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. You can read more about that here and here. If you have done even a little bit of research on GMOs, and not believed everything the T.V tells you, you will see that there are clear health risks that are associated with them as well as the fact that we truly do not know the very long term effects of GMOs.
Regardless of whether you think GMOs are harmful or not, don’t we have a right to know what is going inside of our bodies? It seems corporations like Monsanto want to completely eliminate choice from the equation, and that’s not fair. It goes against our free will. There was also a hidden viral gene recently discovered in GMO crops that weakens the immune systems, you can read more about that here.
It is no wonder why Obama signed the Monsanto Protection Act, all of this seems to be moving pretty fast. The Monsanto Protection Act allows Monsanto to override United States federal courts on the issue of planting experimental genetically engineered crops all across the US. The government has no power whatsoever to stop Monsanto and other biotechnology corporations from planting and harvesting. After Obama signed H.R. 933, the provision was final, there can be no litigation against these corporations at all. Corrupt food corporations are now allowed to plant and sell their genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically engineered (GE) seeds. You can read more about it here.