NI 481 - April, 2015

Total control - is Monsanto unstoppable?

A note from the editor

Monsanto... coming to a field near you?

As the conflict in Ukraine erupts, subsides, erupts, subsides, there seems to be one entity that cannot lose.

Biotech-giant Monsanto has an office in Ukraine. In 2013 a proposed $17-billion IMF loan to Ukraine would, as a condition, have opened up the country to genetically modified crops. But then-president Viktor Yanukovych rejected the European Union agreement linked to the loan, deciding to go with a Russian deal instead. Yanukovych didn’t last long – ousted in February 2014 – and the country descended into conflict.

A set-back for Monsanto? It seems not. The company is still pressing ahead with a $140-million non-GM corn seed factory in western Ukraine. And if the region sinks into all-out war, that is good for Monsanto too, says trader and investment analyst Brian Kelly. Conflict will constrict the wheat supply from ‘breadbasket’ Ukraine, forcing a big price hike. And when wheat prices rise, says Kelly, so does the share price of the world’s biggest supplier of seed – Monsanto. Meanwhile, influential pro-GM interests in several countries, including Britain and Australia, are pressing for a more ‘open-door’ policy towards genetically engineered crops and agri-giants like Monsanto. All the more reason for turning our attention to this most controversial and controlling of corporations – and the civil-society action against it that is spreading across the world.

Elsewhere in this month’s magazine, Bangladeshi photographer Jannatul Mawa struck upon the simple but ingenious idea of asking middle-class Dhaka dwellers to be photographed with their maids. The result is, well, revealing...

Vanessa Baird for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

On 23 May protesters worldwide will be taking to the streets to ‘March Against Monsanto!’ They accuse the biotech giant of both poisoning and controlling the food supply.

Photo: Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

Total control

Monsanto has a mission. But where will it lead the rest of us? Vanessa Baird begins this month's investigation into one of the world's most powerful and hated corporations.

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NI 481 - April, 2015

Total control - is Monsanto unstoppable?

A note from the editor

Monsanto... coming to a field near you?

The big story

Monsanto has a mission. But where will it lead the rest of us? Vanessa Baird begins this month's investigation into one of the world's most powerful and hated corporations.

Features

Claire Robinson looks at what has happened to scientists who dare to say GM foods are not safe.

‘Patient Monsanto’ is analysed by Jason Louv.

Are farmers benefitting from growing GM crops, as Monsanto claims? Dionne Bunsha investigates.

The following organizations give advice and informa­tion, and campaign on GM, food safety and sovereignty.

Phil Chamberlain reveals the secret war between big business and union activists.

For thousands of Peruvian children, daily life means working to help feed the family. Fernando Del Berro meets one of them.

Around the world people are mobilizing against biotech bullies.

Opinion

Mathew Lawrence and Uri Gordon go head to head.

Can we find a way to loosen big business's stranglehold on the US? asks Mark Engler.

Agenda

Regulars

Praise, blame and all points in between? Your feedback published in the April 2015 magazine.

Ruby Diamonde witnesses the pain of a community that can't go home.

Cartoon by Simon Kneebone.

Jalal Hajir from Morocco with ‘Creative Killing’.

Richard Carver's insights into a country struggling with poverty, floods and corruption.

Our government has a charmingly cosy relationship with Saudi Arabia, writes Chris Coltrane.

Cartoon by P J Polyp.

Photographer Jannatul Mawa closes the distance between housewives and housemaids in Bangladesh.

Cartoon by Marc Roberts.

Kuwaiti journalist and novelist Saud Alsanousi talks to Graeme Green about the Gulf region’s appetite for change.

Film, Book & Music Reviews

Malcolm Lewis watches The Dark Horse and Blind.

Louise Gray listens to The Reason Why Vol 2 and Ba Power.

What we thought of The Racket, The Four Books, The Spice Box Letters and The Adventure of the Busts of Eva Peron.

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The following organizations give advice and information, and campaign on GM, food safety and sovereignty.