Originally published August 28 2013
Anti-GMO activists hoax mainstream media with mock Monsanto press release
by Lance Johnson
(NaturalNews) Why is Monsanto's Chief of Community Relations scrambling to defend the mega biotech giant that employs her?
Why is the chief overseer of Monsanto's worldwide research and technology justifying his actions at major press conferences?
It's all because of a group of Anti-GMO activists from Mexico named Sin Maiz No Hay Vida.
The activists created a webpage called "Monsanto Global" with the intent to bring awareness to Monsanto's control of agriculture worldwide.
So how did they rattle the global Monsanto juggernaut?
The activists used their Monsanto Global site to send a press release to the email inbox's of media organizations all over the world. In their hoax press release request, the activists wrote that "Monsanto had received approval from Mexico's Secretariat of Agriculture to plant a quarter million hectares of GMO corn in Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Durango." Their email also announced that Monsanto was funding a new seed bank that would preserve Mexico's 246 native strains of corn. They mentioned a new museum was being funded by Monsanto to promote Mexican culture, established for the mission of "never again will the wealth of this region's culture be lost as social conditions change."
Activists hoax media
Their hoax caught the attention of many media moguls, especially since Monsanto was in fact in the process of being approved by Mexico's Secretariat of Agriculture to plant GMO corn in three new states.
The activists group says that they hope to alert people around the world about what Monsanto is doing to the biodiversity and sustainability of their corn. We want "to raise consciousness about Monsanto's current application to seed genetically modified corn on a commercial scale in three states in Mexico, a huge expansion of their current projects in Mexico. We wanted remind [sic] the Mexican officials who have the power to make this decision, that activists are paying attention. We urge them not to grant Monsanto the permit to seed commercially."
Activists' tactics have Monsanto public relations up in arms.
Once Monsanto public relations caught wind of the fake press release, they scrambled to come up with one of their own. Monsanto's Chief of Community Relations, Janet M. Holloway, pronounced, "The action of the group is fundamentally misleading. The initiatives they put forth are unfeasible, and their list of demands is peppered with hyperbolic buzzwords like 'sustainability,' 'culture,' and 'biodiversity.'"
While the activist group is honest in their intentions to protect crop sustainability and biodiversity in their native culture, Monsanto obviously pretends to to be about "sustainability and biodiversity."
Dr. Robert T. Fraley, worldwide Monsanto chief, backs up Monsanto's mission, "Only ecologists prioritize biodiversity over real-world concerns. Commercial farmers know that biodiversity means having to battle weeds and insects. That means human labor, and human labor means costs and time that could be spent otherwise."
In a nutshell, Fraley is justifying the use of genetically modified seed that is engineered to withstand the company's own chemical Roundup. By helping big agriculture save time from pulling weeds, Fraley believes his cause is noble.
Activists say GM corn is not a necessity in the modern world
While Monsanto executives believe that their biotech efforts help feed world hunger, the health community is proving otherwise. Glyphosate in Monsanto's Roundup, for one, destroys the microorganism in human gut flora, welcoming a host of health issues. http://www.naturalnews.com
The modified crop strains seem to feed more, but the spliced seed DNA is replacing organic food that truly promotes life.
When the activist group was asked what the alternative is to growing GM corn, they responded, "This question assumes that genetically modified corn is a necessity, and it's not. Monsanto and other producers of GMOs want us to believe that these crops are necessary to sustain a growing population, but in fact, Monsanto is just trying to grow their bottom line by privatizing staple crops around the world. This hurts all of us: farmers, the environment, and just about everyone who eats food."
The activists mentioned that their awareness site, Monsantoglobal.com has been taken down. The activists can be contacted on their personal website. They are especially interested in linking up with activist groups in Mexico and the United States who are fighting Monsanto. http://sinmaiznohayvida.org
Sources for this Article include:
http://www.policymic.com
http://sinmaiznohayvida.org
http://www.organicconsumers.org
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://science.naturalnews.com
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