Obama signs 'Monsanto Protection
Act' written by Monsanto-sponsored senator
Published time: March 28, 2013 19:04
Edited time:
March 30, 2013 04:11
United States President Barack Obama has signed a bill into law that was written in
part by the very billion-dollar corporation that will benefit directly from the
legislation.
On Tuesday, Pres. Obama inked his name to
H.R. 933, a continuing resolution spending bill approved in Congress days
earlier. Buried 78 pages within the bill exists a provision that grossly
protects biotech corporations such as the Missouri-based Monsanto
Company from litigation.
With the president’s signature,
agriculture giants that deal with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and
genetically engineered (GE) seeds are given the go-ahead to continue to plant
and sell man-made crops, even as questions remain largely unanswered about the
health risks these types of products pose to consumers.
In light of approval from the House and
Senate, more than 250,000 people signed a petition asking the president to veto
the spending bill over the biotech rider tacked on, an item that has since been
widely referred to as the “Monsanto Protection Act.”
“But Obama ignored [the petition],” IB
Times’ Connor Sheets writes, “instead choosing to sign a bill that effectively
bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of GMO or GE
crops and seeds, no matter what health consequences from the consumption of
these products may come to light in the future.”
James Brumley, a reporter for Investor Place,
explains a little more thoroughly just how dangerous the rider is now that biotech companies are allowed to bypass judicial scrutiny.
Up until it was signed, he writes, “the USDA [US
Department of Agriculture] oversaw and approved (or denied) the
testing of genetically modified seeds, while the federal courts retained the
authority to halt the testing or sale of these plants if it felt that public
health was being jeopardized. With HR 933 now a law, however, the court system
no longer has the right to step in and protect the consumer.”
If the president’s signature isn’t all
that surprising, though, consider the genesis of the bill itself. According to
an article published Monday in the New York Daily News, US Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) “worked with Monsanto to craft
the language in the bill.”
Sen. Blunt defended his bill to the News,
shrugging off suggestions that it set a startling precedent that will affect
all US
agriculture by firing back, “What it says is if you plant a crop that is legal
to plant when you plant it, you get to harvest it. But it is only a one-year
protection in that bill.”
One year could be all it takes to cause
catastrophic damage to the environment by allowing laboratory-produced
organisms to be planted into the earth without oversight. Under the Monsanto
Protection Act, health concerns that arise in the immediate future involving
the planting of GMO crops won’t be able to be heard by a judge. Blunt, a junior
senator that has held elected office since the late ‘90s, has good reason to
whitewash the very bill he helped craft. The Center for Responsive Politics
notes that Sen. Blunt received $64,250 from Monsanto to go towards his campaign
committee between 2008 and 2012. The Money Monocle website adds that Blunt has
been the largest Republican Party recipient of Monsanto funding as of late.
On the lawmaker’s official website, a
statement explains a little more as to why he favored HR 933 and the rider
within it.
“As the Ranking Member of the
Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, Senator
Blunt played a vital role in writing the fiscal year 2013 Agriculture
Appropriations bill. This legislation maintained vital support for research and
extension at land grant universities, capacity building grants for non-land
grant colleges of agriculture, and competitive funding under the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative
(AFRI). The bill also included funding for conservation activities, housing and
business loan programs for rural communities, domestic and international nutrition
programs.”
Nowhere does the senator’s site mention
the Monsanto Protection Act by name, although it claims Blunt “supports
continued investments in agricultural research and engineering.”
“Did Blunt not realize that Monsanto would
stand to gain significantly if section 735 survived and HR 933 was signed into
law?” asks Brumley. “Not likely,”
“There’s no way of getting around the fact
this is an abusive conflict of interest,” he says.
Clearly isn’t Brumley the only one that
feels that way either: Blunt’s Wikipedia page was vandalized this week to read
in the first paragraph, “His Senate seat was previously held by Republican Kit Bond, until Bond's retirement, and will be sold by Blunt
to Monsanto Corporation upon his retirement.”
Christopher S. Bond (Kit)
Christopher
S. Bond (Kit) was the Missouri state government governor, and the president of the Alfalfa Club.
Note: Jeb Bush
is a member of the Alfalfa Club,
and an advisory committee member for the Hispanic Leadership
Network.
Hispanic
Leadership Network in an offshoot for the American Action
Network.
Frederic
V. Malek is the founder & board member for the American
Action Network, a member of the Alfalfa Club,
and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think
tank).
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the Brookings Institution (think tank).
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to
Promote Open Society.
Madeleine
K. Albright is a trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank), and the president of the Truman Scholarship Foundation.
Roy Blunt
is a trustee at the Truman Scholarship Foundation,
a U.S. Senate senator, and a member of
the MO congressional delegation.
Daniel
R. Glickman is a director, Congressional Program for the Aspen Institute (think tank), and was the
secretary for the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
Henry A. Kissinger
was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute
(think tank), a member of the Bohemian Club, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
George H.W.
Bush is a member of the Bohemian Club, and a member of the Alfalfa Club.
James S.
Crown is a trustee at the Aspen Institute
(think tank), and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Lester Crown
was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute
(think tank), and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
R. Eden
Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and counsel at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Michelle
Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack Obama
was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Sidley
Austin LLP was the lobby firm for the Monsanto
Company, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
Valerie
B. Jarrett is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
the senior adviser for the Barack Obama
administration, and her great uncle is Vernon E.
Jordan Jr.
Cyrus
F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank).
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
J. David
Carlin is a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, and was the assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Daniel
R. Glickman was a senior adviser for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, and the secretary for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, a senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, an honorary
trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think
tank).
Richard C.
Blum is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and married to Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Dianne
Feinstein is a U.S. Senate
senator, and a member of the Alfalfa Club.
Christopher
S. Bond (Kit) was the president of the Alfalfa Club, and the Missouri state
government governor.
Mark
B. McClellan was a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and a commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews
was an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), is the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think
tank), a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think
tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview
with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for
population control by involving the United States in war)
Donald
Kennedy was a trustee at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and a commissioner
for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank)
was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank).
Margaret
A. Hamburg is the VP for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank), and the commissioner for the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA).
Michael
R. Taylor is the deputy commissioner for foods for the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA), and was the VP for public policy at
the Monsanto Company.
Sidley
Austin LLP was the lobby firm for the Monsanto
Company, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
Barack Obama
was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP, and is the
president for the Barack Obama
administration.
Newton N.
Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
R. Eden
Martin is counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
and the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory
A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Edward M.
Liddy is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and was the CFO for G.D. Searle & Co.
G.D.
Searle & Co. was acquired by the Monsanto Company.
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