More on why you too should say F U to GMOs:

From Grist: The next generation of GMOs could be especially dangerous
From PlanetSave: Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Maize Fields
From Organic Consumers Association: Millions Against Monsanto
From Cornucopia Institute: More on GMOs

By the way, my cartoon website (and any other website speaking truth to corporate power) may get shut down if the SOPA legislation passes. It’s internet censorship. It kills the freedom of speech and today is the day to take action.

Joe’s cartoon archive, twitter ramblings and StumbleUpon page…

More on “No to GMO month” and GM HFCS…

From EatDrinkBetter: Non-GMO Month & New GMO Report
From HuffPo: Genetically Modified Foods: 4 Reasons to Celebrate Non-GMO Month
From GMO Watch: High-fructose corn syrup.

Follow the rest of the Hank D and the Bee series at JoeMohrToons.com. For cartoon updates and other green goings-on, follow Joe on Twitter @GreenCartoons.

More on Monsanto’s Broccoli, etc…

From Grist: Busting Monsanto’s ‘better’ broccoli
From EatDrinkBetter: October Unprocessed and Non-GMO Month
From me: My collection of Monsanto (GMO) cartoons

Joe’s cartoon archive, twitter ramblings and StumbleUpon page…

The company’s toxic and deadly past is enough to make any Monsanto supporter turn coat. Yet it’s the case of the PCB cover up in Anniston, Alabama that highlights their lowlights and scares me most:

(excerpt from SourceWatch “Monsanto’s Global Pollution Legacy”)

“In 1966, Monsanto managers discovered that fish submerged in a creek (in Anniston, Alabama) turned belly-up within 10 seconds, spurting blood and shedding skin as if dunked into boiling water. They told no one. In 1969, they found fish in another creek with 7,500 times the legal PCB levels. They decided “there is little object in going to expensive extremes in limiting discharges.”"

“Sylvester Harris, 63, an undertaker who lived across the street from the plant, said he always thought he was burying too many young children. ‘I knew something was wrong around here,’ he said.”

There was a 1969 Monsanto directive to “a committee the company formed to address controversies about PCBs”, it was to have “only two formal objectives: ‘Permit continued sales and profits’ and ‘protect image of . . . the corporation’”. “We can’t afford to lose one dollar of business”.

The next year Monsanto secretly agreed that “any written effluent level reports [on PCBs] would be held confidential by the Technical Staff and would not be available to the public until or unless Monsanto released it”. And that was apparently the final word because nothing changed for decades. According to the Washington Post article (2002) the public did not become fully aware of the problem until 1993 when, “after a local angler caught deformed largemouth bass [in a local creek] … the first advisories against eating fish from the area” were issued. This was “27 years after Monsanto learned about those bluegills sliding out of their skins”.

Monsanto’s PCB monopoly had been netting them $22 million dollars a year.

Enough said.

More info on Monsanto’s past, present, and future (sources for the infographic)

From Sourcewatch (and ALEC Exposed):
Monsanto company profile
Monsanto’s Global Pollution Legacy
Monsanto and the Campaign to Undermine Organics
From the Organic Consumer Association:
Agribusiness, Biotechnology and War
SOS Campaign (Safeguard Organic Standards)
From Sierra Club: CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE (Monsanto’s PCB cover up)
From PublicIntegrity.org: The Superfund document (pdf) sited in the infographic
From Cornucopia Institute: Take action to safeguard organic standards
…Oh, I almost forgot this from Grist: (Monsanto’s) Roundup weed killer is showing up in air and water
Awesome! No weeds in my lungs, EVER!

Joe’s cartoon archive, twitter ramblings and StumbleUpon page…

If the weed infestation keeps growing apace the approximately 37 billion acres of Earth’s land will be infested in about 15 years and the 9 trillion acres of ocean would take another 25. I just rounded my projection in the cartoon’s title up to the year 2100 because, hey, I’m an optimist.

Obviously my math projections above are in jest, but with studies linking RoundUp to cancer, cell-damage, birth defects, soil depletion, groundwater pollution and more, I’d say it’s time to start looking for a RoundUp-resistant-weed resistant planet.

More on Monsanto

From Organic Lifestyle Magazine: Monsanto Company Profile
From The Organic Consumers Association: Millions Against Monsanto
From Me: More Monsanto Cartoons

Joe’s cartoon archive and twitter ramblings…

Read Tom Philpott’s article on Grist, for more information on Monsanto’s latest victory: USDA moves to let Monsanto perform its own environmental impact studies on GMOs

Joe’s cartoon archive and twitter ramblings…

More info on organic farmers vs. Monsanto

From EatDrinkBetter: Organic Farm Group Sues Monsanto, Seeking Protection From GMO Contamination
From Monsanto’s home newspaper: Farmers, seed companies sue Monsanto
From The Cornacopia Institute: Farmers and Seed Producers Launch Preemptive Strike against Monsanto
From Sourcewatch: Monsanto and the Roundup Ready Controversy

Joe’s cartoon archive and twitter ramblings…

Joe’s cartoon archive and twitter ramblings…

US Ag Secretary, Tom Vilsack tells us to eat more natural foods a few days after fully deregulating GMO alfalfa…I’m confused.

Confused as well? Read the links below and try to figure out this mess.
From The New York Times: Government’s Dietary Advice: Eat Less
From Elephant Journal: The USDA caves to Monsanto. What now?
From the Millions Against Monsanto campaign: Calling all organic activists!

The rest of Joe Mohr’s cartoons, and cartoon updates and other green news on Twitter @GreenCartoons.

Unlike the former Monsanto cartoon on this subject, this version shows a bit more clearly who surrendered the future of organic agriculture to Monsanto.

There’s been a lot of talk from both sides (organic and biotech) about compromise. That is misleading and almost laughable (read: cryable).

Dear Monsanto,
You poisoning us (consumers of organic food) and us allowing you to poison us, is NOT a compromise!

A recent large-scale Swedish study found that spraying Roundup doubles farm workers’ and rural residents’ risk of getting cancer (more offenses, here) . However, according to Phil Angell, Monsanto’s fromer director of corporate communications, “Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA’s job.” And with so many pro-Monsanto men and women (many, former Monsanto employees) well embedded in our government, one can only conclude that the higher up decisions are not made with the safety of the people, animals, or the environment in mind.

Back to the missing panel… Why would Whole Foods Market, Stonyfield Farms, and Organic Valley cave to pressures from Biotech?

From Organic Consumers Association:

According to informed sources, the CEOs of WFM and Stonyfield are personal friends of former Iowa governor, now USDA Secretary, Tom Vilsack, and in fact made financial contributions to Vilsack’s previous electoral campaigns. Vilsack was hailed as “Governor of the Year” in 2001 by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and traveled in a Monsanto corporate jet on the campaign trail. Perhaps even more fundamental to Organic Inc.’s abject surrender is the fact that the organic elite has become more and more isolated from the concerns and passions of organic consumers and locavores. The Organic Inc. CEOs are tired of activist pressure, boycotts, and petitions. Several of them have told me this to my face. They apparently believe that the battle against GMOs has been lost, and that it’s time to reach for the consolation prize. The consolation prize they seek is a so-called “coexistence” between the biotech Behemoth and the organic community that will lull the public to sleep and greenwash the unpleasant fact that Monsanto’s unlabeled and unregulated genetically engineered crops are now spreading their toxic genes on 1/3 of U.S. (and 1/10 of global) crop land.

WFM and most of the largest organic companies have deliberately separated themselves from anti-GMO efforts and cut off all funding to campaigns working to label or ban GMOs. The so-called Non-GMO Project, funded by Whole Foods and giant wholesaler United Natural Foods (UNFI) is basically a greenwashing effort (although the 100% organic companies involved in this project seem to be operating in good faith) to show that certified organic foods are basically free from GMOs (we already know this since GMOs are banned in organic production), while failing to focus on so-called “natural” foods, which constitute most of WFM and UNFI’s sales and are routinely contaminated with GMOs.

From their “business as usual” perspective, successful lawsuits against GMOs filed by public interest groups such as the Center for Food Safety; or noisy attacks on Monsanto by groups like the Organic Consumers Association, create bad publicity, rattle their big customers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Kroger, Costco, Supervalu, Publix and Safeway; and remind consumers that organic crops and foods such as corn, soybeans, and canola are slowly but surely becoming contaminated by Monsanto’s GMOs.

(full article)

Contamination is inevitable. More GMO’s in our environment and in our food is inevitable. The road to an organic-free future is becoming inevitable, more so with this decision. However, knowledge and people are power. Read some of the links below and form your own opinion on the goings-on of GMO giant, Monsanto. Then, take action, spread the word, and be a part of the solution!

More on Monsanto
From Twilight Earth: The World According to Monsanto–documentary
From Organic Lifestyle Magazine: Monsanto Company Profile
From The Organic Consumers Association: Millions Against Monsanto
From me: Monsanto cartoons

The rest of Joe Mohr’s cartoons, and cartoon updates and other green news on Twitter @GreenCartoons.