THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO: POLLUTION, POLITICS AND POWER -
AN INVESTIGATION INTO ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST CONTROVERSIAL COMPANIES [WINNER OF THE 2009 RACHEL CARSON PRIZE]
MARIE-MONIQUE ROBIN
[Translated from the French by George Holoch]
SPINIFEX PRESS, 2010: http://www.spinifexpress.com.au

To ngaki kai, te Tangaroa-meke, kei uta, kei tai te pakanga
Literally: While war rages on land and sea, you plant the food supplies of Tangaroa-meke
The meaning is that though one may plant, changes will come and another who is victorious will reap the harvest.[Maori whakatauki or proverb].

As an environmentalist and organic gardener and a person concerned about Kaitiakitanga, or how we look after and nurture all our natural resources on this planet, I have for some time being researching the antics of Monsanto, possibly one of the most corrupt companies that has ever been allowed to, quite literally, poison the planet with its products and its way of doing business. Its practices gave rise to a novel I wrote, Ao Toa, also published by Spinifex Press who have published this current translated edition of Marie-Monique Robin’s unparalleled expose of this company’s inherent corruption. In Ao Toa, Earth Warriors, I tried to conceive of the most shocking circumstances where genetic experiments could take place without the knowledge of the people, in this case the indigenous tangata whenua of Aotearoa New Zealand, Maori.

One of the most sacred places on earth is the burial cave where the spirit of our ancestors reside. This remains sacred even in cases, such as this, where the bodies have been removed. The site is tapu, taboo, sacred. Yet a multinational company decides to buy off the pakeha who now owns the land, who is himself keen to enact utu, revenge on the Maori wife who left him. This is her ancestral land and he now possesses it. By allowing a company like Monsanto to further desecrate or rape this site by trying to create new life through genetic engineering, who decorate the cave like a biblical scene turned into a nightmare with all the trappings of this gory experiment which goes sickeningly wrong, Tony gets his utu. But nature has the last laugh. She creates a [biblical] flood that destroys all their work and they are exposed and forced to admit defeat [1].

This may sound like a far fetched plot indeed. However, if you now read the detailed and convincing research about Monsanto, powerfully argued by Marie-Monique Robin and expertly translated by George Holoch, supported by solid written evidence, you may not find the plot of Ao Toa: Earth Warriors is far fetched at all. In fact, while still shocking, it is fairly mild next to the real and by now well documented antics of Monsanto. And even more chilling because, like the tobacco companies, evidence is produced by the author that shows the company always knew the full extent of its devastating products that collectively still have the power to pollute and destroy our land and seed stocks if we do not collectively expose and continue to challenge them.

The only glimmer of hope is that this book shows beyond doubt the graphic failure of Monsanto to produce products that the world actually wants and needs. Chapter by chapter, the author destroys the arguments for the need for their most destructive products, from Agent Orange which destroyed the land in Vietnam through to Roundup which still destroys arable land around the globe. Monsanto has excelled in convincing people, through their mass brainwashing advertisements, that round up is a totally safe and necessary poison that we all need. So much so that this land of Aotearoa New Zealand, which our government likes to hype as “100% pure” in its tourism ads, is one of the largest users of round up, from farmers through to backyard gardeners, many of whom spray the ground to rid it of grass before building an “organic” garden on top! I know of one very famous organic garden on show to the public that regularly used round up to get rid of kikuyu grass at the front which was on show to passing motorists! If you still think this poison is harmless, then read the chapter on round up in this book and you will wonder why you might protest spraying agent orange onto an entire country and then nuke your own kids with this poison.

The scope of this book is awe inspiring, from introducing Monsanto’s tactics to showing the way that governments and other agencies have played into their hype and invested our own tax payer funds into Monsanto products that often failed or proved to be unwanted. But by then, the governments and agencies had so much rotten egg on their faces that they could not be seen to uncover corruption which involved them in the first place.

From the white collar crime of PCB’s [chemical compounds/solvents in the manufacturing of medicines, plastics and colouring agents all derived from unwanted oil by-products] to the implication of the Pentagon in the Dioxin Disputes, the terrible price that farmers [and their cows] have had to pay for bovine growth hormones that the industry has now become dependant on, the massive seed patenting corruption, the transgenic wheat debacle, one of the most disastrous and stupid battles where Monsanto was, thankfully, forced into admitting failure, not a thing this company is keen to ever do to its shocking Food and Seed Colonisaion of countries like Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and India, the same pattern of colonisation, denial, corruption and continuing colonisation marks their brand of doing business no matter who the victim is. This is indeed an attempt to colonise the globe through controlling its food and energy resources, and the massive detail and arguments and evidence provided in this book make it clear that we are talking about no less than world domination by a corrupt capitalist coloniser.

Yet this is no dry research. The book is a page turner that would have any fan of crime novels on the edge of their seats waiting to find out the next corrupt move. The sheer audacity of the crime in broad daylight makes one gasp with shock. Will those so ready to point fingers at others for not realising that the holocaust was happening before their very eyes, for colluding with the enemy, be so willing to accept responsibility for being too busy to notice that a global multinational gradually eroded their human rights until they no longer had access to their own food and resources? Maybe it is easier to see crime when it so blatantly starves and manipulates and gasses people through mass genocide. But what is the Final Solution for Monsanto other than the move towards mass control and ultimately mass genocide. And for what? Not for an ideal, even. For raw capitalist greed, where even Monsanto executives who knew their own children were being poisoned failed to act and kept colluding for fear of reprisal from the Monsanto 4th Reich.

It is tempting to list the atrocities here to convince the reader of the vital importance that every citizen of the globe read this book before it is too late. However, atrocity listings seldom invite the world weary reader to spend their valuable time on such activities. Instead, I invite you in to perhaps one of the most compelling crime buster manuals ever written, a work of documented truth that far exceeds any Dan Brown novel as a page turner and a book that has the power to change the way you view the world forever.

Even better, a work that is empowering by its very convincing detail and truth, that shows us the possibilities for us as collective communities to resist this global colonisation of our food and resources before it is too late. Do not rely on governments or the World Trade Organisation [WTO] to protect you. For they too have fallen under the spell of the Monsanto Wizard. Why? Because absolute power is addictive and so many of those touched by it want more of the gold dust to fall upon their own shoulders. They are so intoxicated by this showering of power by those who think they can recreate the universe in their own image that they fail to realise that the gold dust is in fact coloured round up – simply poison that has been marketed as gold. Even the birth defects of their own relatives do not stop those addicted from wanting more because the lure of promised gold is always just around the corner.

Even though Monsanto products have been a disaster and lost money all around the globe and they are constantly chasing their own tails in litigation with law suits and funds going out to private detective companies making sure that even organic farms where genetically corrupted seed has invaded their fields are sued for using their seeds without permission, there are those in power or seeking further power, who still grasp onto the collars of the corrupt and support a company that has threatened life on this planet as we have known it.

For those still not convinced, take the time to read this book as I guarantee you will not be the same by the end of this process. For those, like me, who have researched and followed the trials of Monsanto over the years and even written about them in books, I can assure you there is information here that will be shocking. What the author so cleverly does is pull together all the documents and interviews and bits of knowledge that many of us know, into a well argued and utterly convincing book that stands as a warning to Monsanto and others who pursue this path that the world is watching. Already, the majority of the people on this planet do not want their products. Yet these same people still spray their back yard garden with round up before planting their ‘spray free’ [nearly] organic gardens! It is not until we collectively reject this poisoning and patenting of life and put laws in place to protect us in the future, that this will change.

Le Monde called this book “an alarming and uncompromising investigation” and it has been hailed as a vital text globally. Google both the book and dvd of the same name and make sure you share this knowledge with everyone you know who cares about the quality of life on this planet. Our shared future depends upon how we react to such corrupt colonisation of our food resources and our land. We cannot afford to say later that we did not know it was happening. This book is convincing and timely. Imagine if such a work resisting Nazism had appeared before your relatives were taken off to the death camps. What would you do?

It is up to us. Let us be inspired by those brave whistle blowers documented in the book who stood up to Monsanto despite often losing their jobs, their families, their incomes and their health. Let us make sure they did not sacrifice all this in vain. Do not think you are powerless. Grow your own organic garden in your kitchen or back yard and save your own seeds. Buy this book, tell others about it, write responses to it online, debate the issues, get involved, get the word out, resist and do not let their silencing of us work. If enough of us do this, like Wiki Leaks, we can become a threat and then a powerful force for change. Knowledge is power. Power from within. The kind of power that resists colonisation of our minds and bodies and earth. As kaitiakitanga, or guardians of our planet, we cannot stand by and allow this poisoning of the planet. We owe it to our mokopuna, our children, to leave the earth a better place than we found it.

And please remember the proverb of my ancestors:

To ngaki kai, te Tangaroa-meke, kei uta, kei tai te pakanga
Literally: While war rages on land and sea, you plant the food supplies of Tangaroa-meke
The meaning is that though one may plant, changes will come and another who is victorious will reap the harvest.

Do not let Monsanto steal and reap/rape your own harvest. Grow your own food and keep your own seed. Work communally to resist this food colonisation. Before it is too late. Do not let them patent your creativity, your mind, your soul, your resources or those of the planet. Act now so that we can celebrate our harvest together in the future. Kia kaha!

[1] AO TOA, EARTH WARRIORS, Cathie Dunsford, Spinifex Press: http://www.spinifexpress.com.au
Available in print or as an ebook.

Dr. Cathie Koa Dunsford [Te Rarawa, Nga Puhi Maori/Hawai’ian, Croatian & Pakeha ancestry] is author of 24 books in print and translation in USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Turkey, including the Cowrie eco-novel series featuring strong indigenous tangata whenua and issues of Kaitiakitanga from the Pacific region http://www.spinifexpress.com.au , http://www.amazon.com and
http://www.uspbookcentre.com Cath Koa is co-founder of Mohala Organic Gardens in Matakana, a community sub tropical and herb garden which makes herbal pestos for the Matakana Smokehouse and runs organic gardening courses in the community. Cath Koa was also Kaitiaki and Kaupapa Consultant for Rainbow Valley Farm, 2005-10. She was one of 28 chefs chosen globally to cook for athletes, officials and royalty at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch. Dr. Dunsford is director of Dunsford Publishing Consultants, which has brought 192 new and award winning Pacific authors into print internationally: http://www.dunsfordpublishing.com Cath Koa Dunsford is recipient of two literary grants from Creative New Zealand Arts Council and was International Woman of the Year in Publishing in 1997. She has taught writing and publishing courses at Auckland University since 1975.  She is on the Board of the Asia Pacific Writer’s Network and recently taught workshops at Artspeak Pasifika, 2010, funded by CNZ, NZ Arts Council. Cath Koa has performed her work at the Frankfurt, Leipzig and Istanbul Bookfairs. She was recently keynote speaker on Kaitiakitanga, International Oceanic Conference on Creativity and Climate Change, University of the South Pacific, Fiji: (http://www.usp.ac.fj/index.php?id=9020  A documentary of her work has been directed for Maori Television by Makerita Urale. She tours the world performing from the books with traditional Maori waiata and taonga puoro.
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) & http://www.dunsfordpublishing.com
[c] Dr. Cathie Koa Dunsford, 2010.

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