Benson begins: "If you have ever wondered how the biotechnology industry has been able to develop the cozy and unquestioning relationship with the federal government that it has today, you need not look much further than Big Biotech's lobbying expenditures."
A farmer holding Monsanto's Roundup Ready Soy Bean seeds at his family farm in Bunceton, Mo., 12/14/09. (photo: AP)
Monsanto Spends Big on Lobbying
07 January 12
f you have ever wondered how the biotechnology industry has been able to develop the cozy and unquestioning relationship with the federal government that it has today, you need not look much further than Big Biotech's lobbying expenditures. According to a recent Bloomberg Businessweek report, biotech giant Monsanto spent a whopping $2 million just in the third quarter of 2011 lobbying the federal government to support its agenda.
One of its loftiest lobbying seasons on record, Monsanto's Q3 payoffs to our so-called public servants in Washington has kept the wheels greased, so to speak, for expanding its monopoly on patented agriculture. This multi-million dollar bribe from the world's most evil company (http://www.naturalnews.com/030967_Monsanto_evil.html) will help ensure that genetically-modified (GM) alfalfa, for instance, avoids running into any more regulatory roadblocks, even though the crop is useless, and will only serve to contaminate the entire food supply (http://www.naturalnews.com/GM_alfalfa.html).
According to a disclosure filed by Monsanto on Oct. 18, the company has been lobbying both Congress and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to weaken regulatory requirements for both GM sugar beets and alfalfa, which have been a primary focus for the company throughout the past year. Monsanto is also spending millions to ensure that its patents on various other GM crops remain in place for years to come.
Back in the first quarter of 2010, Monsanto spent nearly $2.5 million lobbying the federal government to craft patent law changes in its favor, rather than in the public's favor. This hefty sum also conveniently arrived on the doorsteps of lawmakers in Washington not long after the time when the US Department of Justice (DOJ) began an investigation into Monsanto's business practices to determine if the company was in violation of federal antitrust laws. Monsanto actually gave the federal government a record $2.53 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 right after the DOJ first began the investigation (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9GFL8780.htm).
According to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks corporate lobbying practices, Monsanto has spent more than $5.1 million in 2011 lobbying the federal government. In 2010, Monsanto spent over $8 million, and in 2009, over $8.6 million. Monsanto's largest lobbying year was in 2008, when it spent nearly $9 million bribing the federal government to betray the people (http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000000055).
Sources for this article include:
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Today my husband and I were at an indoors Farmers' Market starting up today, to go through winter into summer. It was mobbed. Everyone wanted their fresh beets, carrots, etc. not transported from the West coast to the East coast, but grown locally. It was wonderful. Local musicians on three instruments - samples out, what more could one want? Well, we all can want Monsanto-free food in our lives.
Too many journalists act as if lobbying is a normal and non-evil thing. It may be legal, but it is legal bribery. It would not be legal if anyone just admitted what we all know -- that votes are bought and policies are changed for the money the briber spends.
There's hardly any need to lobby the USDA. Its secretary is a former Monsanto employee. In fact, the government is filled with executives who go back and forth between Monsanto and government.
Also good point about Monsanto GM Alfalfa. It was launched for no other purpose than contaminating all alfalfa on earth. Alfalfa is the privary feed crop of livestock, so humans will be eating animals raised on GMOs. Studies are now being released that show negative effects of eating GMO. But Monsanto wants to pollute the world and then claim that they own it. They can't own nature, but the can own pollution. So their goal is to replace nature with pollution.
Capitalism as work.
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