The awesome folks from Field Good Farms in Cache Bay Ontario.
Biotech giant Monsanto has announced it is giving up on plans to sell genetically modified (GM) maize in France, despite winning a key court ruling last year.
In November, France’s highest court overturned the 2008 ban on cultivating Monsanto’s MON810, an insect-resistant strain of maize which is grown in several European countries. The court ruled that the Government had not produced enough evidence to back its claims that the GM crop posed a significant risk to health or the environment.
That ruling was prompted by a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in September, in a case brought by Monsanto.
But earlier this month French environment and agriculture ministers revealed that, despite the ruling, they were planning to reintroduce the moratorium on MON810 maize before spring sowings start.
This has proved to be the final straw for Monsanto, which said this week that it had no longer had any plans to market its GM maize in France.
On January 31st, family farmers from across the county will take part in the first phase of the OSGATA et al. v. Monsanto court case filed to protect farmers from genetic trespass by Monsanto’s genetically modified (GMO) seed, which can contaminate organic and non-GMO far…mers’ crops and open them up to abusive lawsuits.
As a result of aggressive lawsuits against farmers with contaminated crops, Monsanto has created an atmosphere of fear in rural America and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy.
But farmers are fighting back!
The Federal District Court judge has agreed to hear oral arguments in this landmark case to decide whether or not this case will move forward.
Occupy Wall Street Food Justice, Occupy Big Food and Food Democracy Now! will assemble in solidarity with farmers on the front lines of the struggle against corporate domination of our food system.
#J31 #StopMonsanto
For more info on the case, check out:
www.fooddemocracynow.org
www.osgata.org
http://www.pubpat.org/monsanto-seed-patents.htm
The Farmer & The Horse trailer
(Source: youtube.com)
