The Hague, 16 October 2016: Monsanto and the Poison Cartel are guilty of crimes against our planet and humanity. This is the verdict from the People’s Assembly organized in the Hague alongside the Monsanto Tribunal.
The voices of the soil, of the seeds, of farmers, consumers, and of people from all over world converged and reverberated in a new unity across diversity. The poison making industry is destroying life on Earth, our health and our democracies. The Peoples assembly resolved to end a century of ecocide and genocide.
Poisons are not feeding us – rather, they are killing both ourselves and our planet. The poison cartel, which includes toxic makers such as Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, etc are together destroying both our bread and our freedom. They are corrupting governments, violating nations’ sovereignty and imposing on our planet a model of greed, poison and corruption. To steer our planet away from this destructive path, a Planetary Alliance for Earth Democracy has been formed under the People’s Assembly. Thousands of people from across the world have already joined us in this Alliance and a further one billion people will join in the next two years to reject patents on seeds, and poisons in our food and soil. Through this initiative, people worldwide are working to reclaim their basic right of seed freedom and to promote poison-free organic farming and agro-ecology.
In celebration of World Food Day, on the closing day (October 16th), we baked a special organic bread from native wheat varieties and shared it as a ‘bread of freedom’ with participants of the People’s assembly along with a serving of organic olive oil.
The Alliance is born to stop the crimes of Monsanto and of the Poison Cartel and block their attempts to hijack our democracy all over the world. The new generation of free trade agreements such as TTIP, TPP and CETA are proving to be means that Agri-business corporations have devised to control our life and dismantle our democratic systems and institutions. They have also invested in propaganda campaigns to confuse the public about science. They are using pseudo-scientific evidence to disguise their crimes. This corporate propaganda is directly attacking independent eminent scientist like Dr Gilles-Eric Seralini, Dr A Putzai whose research exposes the real impacts of industrial agriculture and toxic pesticides.
GMO seeds and poisonous products such as Round Up (Glyphosate) & Basta (Glufosinate) led to the destruction of soils, to desertification, to the extermination of bees (75% in industrial agriculture-dominated areas), to the rise in health epidemics such as cancer, birth defects, et al. They are contaminating people by polluting areas and poisoning our food systems. The People’s Assembly represented the platform through which to share independent studies and real experiences of farmers and consumers across the world. Argentinian photographer Pablo Piovano exhibited glimpses of rural Argentina, which has over time been overwhelmed with Monsanto and other corporations’ poisonous technologies, challenging Monsanto crimes from an artistic perspective.
But Monsanto abuses are not limited to Argentina, they have repeatedly attacked the legal protection systems of countries such as Brazil, Mexico, India and the even threatened the European Parliament with undemocratic free trade agreements that aim to dismantle safety regulatory frameworks that protect the people.
Bart Staes, Member EU Parliament from the Green Party speaking to the People’s Assembly said, “We have to democratize the decision-making process, especially in the European Union parliament and we need to examine more carefully how the decisions are being made, especially when is comes to Agriculture; GMO seeds represent a huge problem for democracy; in fact the EU has under a lot of pressure to sign trade treaties that are deemed to have negative consequences on the environment and ecosystems. “
Ronnie Cummins, Founder of the Organic Consumer Association speaking on the closing day said, “ We need to globalise hope! We need to break down the walls that divide us and to express solidarity with one another. In order to survive as a species and planet, we need a transnational alliance for the Earth. We need to combine all farmers movements from India to Mexico for the survival of our planet.”
Dr Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya and renowned environmentalist, stated “ At this People’s Assembly, and at hundreds of others happening all over the world, people have passed their verdict. The poison cartel is guilty. They have destroyed life, plant and human health alike. They have disregarded all laws of nature and countries national legislation with the result of destroying biodiversity of our fields and our foods systems.
As part of the Planetary Alliance for Earth Democracy we shall continue to resist attempt of these poison makers to control our food, our life and democracy.
#MonsantosCrimes
1. Crimes against biodiversity, integrity and intrinsic worth of species by defining seeds and plants as their invention. Crimes against species and biodiversity
2. Crimes against biodiversity of pollinators – 75 % bees gone in industrial ;bees endeared species
3. Crimes against the Soil – Destruction of soil fertility and desertification.
4. Crimes against farmers – With over 300,000 farmers from India along have committed suicide because of Monsanto and they have been already spoken.
5. Propaganda and Lies: Monsanto are spread pseudo-scientific propaganda and lies to misguide the public and cover up their crimes.
6. Attack on Scientists – They have aggressively attacked independent scientist like Dr Eric Seralini and Dr A Putzai et al who have stood for real science and independent research.
7. Attack on Democracy – Monsanto has repeatedly attacked national governments in India Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, etc.
8. Right to Know: They are taking way from us the right to know what goes in our food.
9. Attack on democratic institution – In countries around the world they have attacked Anti-trust bodies, judiciary and government welfare institutions.
10. Attack on biosafety and Convention on Biological diversity- Monsanto with its genetic contamination and pollution tactics have blatantly transgressed the CBD and all biosafety regulations.
11. Crimes against the Earth/ Gaia – Monsanto and the poisons cartel at the biggest the contributors to Climate change. They are putting us on the path of annihilation.
Resources for journalists
www.peoplesassembly.net
www.monsanto-tribunal.org
www.seedfreedom.info
For more information, audiovisual material, for accreditation and to interviews with the president of Navdanya, Vandana Shiva and other speakers
Please contact
Navdanya International
press [@] peoplesassembly [.] net