Invincible agricultural giant Monsanto has once again demonstrated
its ability to crush countries on the legal battlefield. The EFSA has
ruled there is no “scientific evidence” of damage caused by consuming
genetically-modified maize.
France is the latest country to try and battle Monsanto over its genetically-modified corn. In February it requested that the European Commission ban the MON 810 strain from EU markets, supporting the request with scientific argumentation. While awaiting the decision, French government unilaterally reinstalled a ban on MON 810, though the country’s highest court had earlier ruled in favor of Monsanto.
It
took the European Food Safety Authority three months to come to a
quite predictable conclusion – that the strain poses no threat, and will
not be banned.
France is by far not the only country attempting to get rid of Monsanto’s maize. Five other EU countries – Germany, Greece, Austria, Luxembourg and Hungary – also imposed ban on MON 810 cultivation.
But in the US, the billion-dollar corporation's home, only the protesters in the streets seem to care. In March, thousands of people joined the Occupy Monsanto movement and marched through Washington, DC, Seattle, and Los Angeles.
Protesters accuse the biotech giant of
anti-competitive actions like cleaning its reputation with
multibillion-dollar cash injections and deliberately bankrupting
independent farmers in order to force them into using their
genetically-engineered seeds.
The Occupy Monsanto movement is planning to launch another round of protests during the harvesting season 2012.
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