'Monsanto Protection Act' to grant biotech industry total immunity over GM crops

'Monsanto Protection Act' to grant biotech industry total immunity over GM crops
Sunday, July 15, 2012 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer

(NaturalNews) While millions of Americans were busy celebrating freedom from tyranny during the recent Independence Day festivities, Monsanto was actively trying to thwart that freedom with new attacks on health freedom. It turns out that the most evil corporation in the world has quietly attached riders to both the 2012 Farm Bill and the 2013 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that would essentially force the federal government to approve GMOs at the request of biotechnology companies, and prohibit all safety reviews of GMOs from having any real impact on the GMO approval process.

The Alliance for Natural Health - USA (ANH-USA), the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), and several other health freedom advocacy groups have been actively drawing attention to these stealth attacks in recent days, and urging Americans to rise up and oppose them now before it is too late. If we fail to act now as a single, unified community devoted to health freedom, in other words, America's agricultural future could literally end up being controlled entirely by the biotech industry, which will have full immunity from the law.

You can fight back now against these threats to food freedom by visiting:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_25711.cfm
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http://www.naturalnews.com/036477_Monsanto_immunity_GM_crops.html#ixzz20icC8oJ9

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Full exemption from the law for the biotech industry

Authored by Congressmen and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Related Agencies Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), the 2013 Agriculture Appropriations Bill rider, known as the "farmer assurance provision" (Section 733), specifically outlines that the Secretary of Agriculture will be required, upon request, to "immediately" grant temporary approval or deregulation of a GM crop, even if that crop's safety is in question or under review.

In other words, if the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is strong-armed into approving a new GM crop that is later legally challenged in court (which is basically what happened for GM sugar beets and GM alfalfa), the Secretary of Agriculture, under the provisions of the Kingston rider, will be required to approve the cultivation and sale of that crop anyway, even if a higher court has already ordered a moratorium on that crop.

"A so-called 'Monsanto rider,' quietly slipped into the multi-billion dollar FY 2013 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, would require -- not just allow, but require -- the Secretary of Agriculture to grant a temporary permit for the planting or cultivation of a genetically engineered crop, even if a federal court has ordered the planting be halted until an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is completed," wrote Alexis Baden-Mayer and Ronnie Cummins in a recent piece for AlterNet.
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http://www.naturalnews.com/036477_Monsanto_immunity_GM_crops.html#ixzz20icc1TXJ

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Monsanto trying a sneak attack through the new House Farm Bill
JULY 15, 2012BY: MERLYN SEELEY

According to the Organic Consumers Association post just yesterday on their official Facebook page, Monsanto is trying another sneak attack on the American people. Their website stated, “The House Farm Bill contains HR 872, the so-called Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act, which stops the EPA from reviewing new and expanded uses of pesticides and requires the USDA to make the approval of new genetically engineered crops easier and faster, limiting USDA review to 180 days. While the USDA has never rejected a new GMO crop, public opposition, environmental concerns and litigation to protect farmers have slowed new approvals. This bill, to give Monsanto and the other biotechnology companies a free pass for new GMOs, includes a provision limiting USDA environmental review to a narrow evaluation of plant pest risks, even though the courts have ruled that a full environmental impact statement is required and must take into consideration the real threats of GMO crops, including "the potential elimination of a farmer's choice to grow non-genetically engineered crops, or a consumer's choice to eat non-genetically engineered food."
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http://www.examiner.com/article/monsanto-trying-a-sneak-attack-through-the-new-house-farm-bill


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The 'Monsanto Rider': Are Biotech Companies About to Gain Immunity from Federal Law?
The Secretary of Agriculture would be required to grant a permit for the planting or cultivation of a genetically engineered crop, regardless of environmental impact.

AlterNet / By Alexis Baden-Mayer and Ronnie Cummins

http://www.alternet.org/story/156195/the_monsanto_rider_are_biotech_companies_about_to_gain_immunity_from_federal_law