Monday May 20th 2013: Volkseten Vegazulu, Benefit Mobilization against Monsanto, 19:00 pm.
Monsanto is the biggest seed company in the world. They monopolise our food with GMOs and patents. They own 75% of the broccoli, paprika and tomato in Europe. 99% of the soy grown in Argentina is Roundup Ready from Monsanto. In The Netherlands Monsanto owns 2 mayor vegetable seed companies: De Ruiter and Seminis. They force farmers to buy their seeds and their Roundup pesticide year after year, by taking over the seed market.
GMOs are an important powertool for Monsanto and the other seed giants. 80% of the GMOs is resistent to herbicides like Roundup (glyphosate), causing the poisoning of our food and environment. An increasing number of scientific studies show that even in low quantities Roundup causes cancer, birth dificits and other health problems. Many farmers, authorities and private gardeners use it to kills weeds. Monsanto promotes their products with misleading commercials.
Monsanto bullies US farmers with threats of court cases to pay thousants of dollars of license fees for their crops, eventhough they did not use Monsanto’s patented seeds.
In India Monsanto took over the cotton seed market, pushing up the seed prices, driving small farmers into dispair and even suicide.
Monsanto has a inbelievably strong influence on government policies all over the world, buying up politicians, putting their people in governments and other kinds of lobby work. In the US they have prevented labeling of GMOs on food products. In Europe there still a strong resistance against GMOs but also here Monsanto influences patent and seed laws to meet its profit driven needs.
Monsanto has joined ventures with other agrochemical & seed giants like Syngenta and Bayer, whose insecticides contribute to the dying of bees.
WUR does many classificed studies for these companies, testing their products, p.e. field trials with Monsanto’s Roundup Ready maize, compromising its independence from agro industry. WUR is also an important adviser for Dutch government policies.
Albert Heijn, WWF and WUR contribute to the greenwashing of GMOs, promoting them as sustainable and therefore contribute to millions of tons of GMOs entering the market and ending up on your plate
What do we want?
We want to protect the future of our food. We want the people to have full control over the seeds, not farmers being dependent on a few big companies with a few GM crops. We need diversity of seeds to secure safe and healthy food now and in the future. Therefore we demand seed sovereignty. Join us in the March against Monsanto!
More info:
www.linkepost.nl – www.aseed.net – occupy-monsanto.com
Bus from Amsterdam to Wageningen and back: 11am @Victoria Hotel opposite Central Station. Reserve a seat to be sure you can come, we ask a contribution of about 10 euros to cover the costs. Reserve via: info [at] aseed [dot] net or 020-668 22 36.
Volkseten Vegazulu is a people’s kitchen, every monday and thursday, 19:00 PM, vegan food for 4€ or donation. All benefits go for social & political struggles. No reservation.
We’re always looking for cooks. Any help is welcome in the kitchen. Experience not required. Enjoying it is a must. If you want to know which days are still available in the schedule, send an email to joe[at]squat.net and book yourself the night. You can, of course, also participate by rolling up your sleeves and doing the dishes.
