Powerful Western corporations want to make Ukraine the largest GMO (genetically modified organisms) grower. As time goes by, genetically modified organisms can become a poison to take away many human lives. This fact is ignored. Europe does not need GMO (the production is strictly limited there). Ukraine could very well become a test ground for GMO crops in Europe, something the rest of the European Union has been looking to prevent. Monsanto, an American multinational agromultinational and agricultural biotechnology corporation, is now moving in on Ukraine with plans to institute GMOs nationwide.
More than 40 years ago, Agent Orange was one of 15 herbicides used by the U.S. military as a defoliant in the Vietnam War. The former Monsanto Company was one of nine wartime government contractors who manufactured it to eliminate vegetation (many believe the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam was paramount to committing a military crime. It gives rise to cancer and destroys human immune system).
Monsanto says soybeans production will bring in over $1 billion to increase the corporation’s profits twofold in five years. Monsanto is powerful enough to influence the US government. For instance, in 2013 US President Barack Obama signed into law the controversial HR 933 (the «Monsanto Protection Act»), which contains a provision that grossly protects biotech corporations such as the Missouri-based Monsanto Company from litigation. With the president’s signature, agriculture giants that deal with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically engineered (GE) seeds were given the go-ahead to continue to plant and sell man-made crops, even as questions remain largely unanswered about the health risks these types of products pose to consumers.
Genetically modified organisms have so far been banned by law in Ukraine, but the EU association agreement signed by the new Ukrainian government calls for closer cooperation in biotechnology.
In Walking on the West Side: the World Bank and the IMF in the Ukraine Conflict, a report released in July 2014, the Oakland Institute exposed how international financial institutions swooped in on the heels of the political upheaval in Ukraine to deregulate and throw open the nation’s vast agricultural sector to foreign corporations, including genetically modified organisms and cultures. Jesus Madrazo, the Vice President of Monsanto, has said «Ukraine has the opportunity to further develop the potential of conventional crops, which is where we are currently concentrating our efforts. We also hope that at some point biotechnology is a tool that will be available to Ukrainian farmers in the future». The Ukrainian government and Monsanto do their best to make it materialize as soon as possible.
U.S. corporation Monsanto plans to build a seed plant in Ukraine in 2016. This was discussed at the meeting in Washington between Minister of Agriculture and Food of Ukraine Oleksiy Pavlenko with the representatives of Monsanto. The plant will manufacture corn seed of conventional selection for the domestic market and export. At the same time Monsanto Ukraine is launching a social development program titled «Grain Basket of the Future». It has been formally announced that the project will help rural villagers in the country improve their quality of life.
Monsanto says it is looking for places to build corn seed plants in the so called corn belt of Ukraine. The region of Vinnitsa (Vinnytsia) is on the priority list. Valeriy Khadzhymatov, the chief executive of the Seed Association of Ukraine, says Monsanto accounts for around 20% of Ukraine’s corn seed production. With a factory launched in 2015 its share will grow by 10%.
Robert Hunter Biden, the son of US Vice President Joe Biden, is currently Chairman of the Board of the World Food Program USA (launched in support of the United Nations World Food Program – WFP). His appointment in 2014 to the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings has attracted controversy. He is the one to provide political support for Monsanto activities. Monsanto is a corporation with teeth – it has signed a contract with Academi, the largest private military contractor (it had been called Blackwater till February 2009, and then it changed its name for Xe Services LLC to be renamed into Academi in January 2010). According to unconfirmed information, Monsanto has purchased Academi.
The corporation also has its spin doctors in Ukraine – the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC). Morgan Williams, president and CEO of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, says genetically modified seeds should be legalized in Ukraine to boost agricultural production. The U.S.-Ukraine Business Council’s 16-member Executive Committee is packed with U.S. agribusiness companies, including representatives from Monsanto, John Deere, DuPont Pioneer, Eli Lilly, and Cargill.
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The Food Safety & Sustainable Agriculture Forum 2014 held in China’s capital on July 25-26 included genetic researchers, university professors, medical doctors, veterinarians, livestock farmers, arable farmers, agricultural consultants, mothers, NGO founders and leaders and social activists from China, Taiwan, the U.S.A, Russia, U.K., France, Denmark, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil and Peru. Irina Ermakova, VP of Russia’s National Association for Genetic Safety, tells the forum was introduced to dire information on
genetic deformity and sterility of animals, the pathology of internal organs and reproduction disorders among pigs, autism and imbecility among children – all caused by the use of genetically modified organisms. All this plethora of information about negative effects of GMO is of no importance to Ukrainian government. The regime gradually and irreversibly converts the country into a reservation of Monsanto.
In early May Ukrainian media was reported with delight that Monsanto Ukraine (the branch off Californian giant) offers its new product – selective herbicide Guardian Tetra.
The process of GMO-colonization of Ukraine is at full speed…