RT
May 15, 2013
After US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks showed that the
State Department was lobbying worldwide for Monsanto and other similar
corporations, a new report based on the cables shows Washington’s
shilling for the biotech industry in distinct detail.
The August 2011 WikiLeaks revelations showed that American diplomats
had requested funding to send lobbyists for the biotech industry to hold
talks with politicians and agricultural officials in “target countries”
in areas like Africa and Latin America, where genetically-modified
crops were not yet a mainstay, as well as some European countries that
have resisted the controversial agricultural practice.
After a concerted effort to “closely examine five years of State
Department diplomatic cables from 2005 to 2009 to provide the first
comprehensive analysis of the strategy, tactics and U.S. foreign policy
objectives to foist pro-agricultural biotechnology policies worldwide,”
nonprofit consumer protection group Food & Water Watch published on
Tuesday a report showing in plain detail the depth of the partnership
between the federal government and a number of controversial biotech
companies that have slowly but surely pushed their GMO products on a
number of new countries in recent years.
At center stage in the report is Monsanto, the St. Louis,
Missouri-based makers of genetically-modified crops and
genetically-engineered seeds that has continuously generated criticism
as of late over its practices both on the growing field and in a court
of law. Monsanto is among the most valuable corporations in the US, yet
has relentlessly sued small-time farmers across the world over alleged
patent violations, often forcing independent agriculturists to go out of
business. Legislation signed into law last month provided litigation
immunity to GMO companies including Monsanto, and on Monday the Supreme
Court sided with the corporation when ruling on a landmark patent infringement case.
“The US Department of State is selling seeds instead of democracy,” Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter told reporters. “This
report provides a chilling snapshot of how a handful of giant
biotechnology companies are unduly influencing US foreign policy and
undermining our diplomatic efforts to promote security, international
development and transparency worldwide. This report is a call to action
for Americans because public policy should not be for sale to the
highest bidder.”
Food & Water Watch published their findings this week after
combing through the roughly 260,000 State Department cables that the
whistleblower website first began publishing in 2010, but notes that
their statistics specifically come from memos not classified as ‘secret’
or higher.
For the most part, wrote the nonprofit, “The State Department strategy sought to foist pro-biotech policies on foreign governments”
using a four-prong approach: promote biotech business interests; lobby
foreign governments to weaken biotech rules; protect US biotech exports
and press developing world to adopt biotech crops.
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