I don't trust Monsanto. Multinational corps rarely have the peoples best interest in mind.
www.dostje.org/Aguas/Novice/21avg02.htmMonsanto seeking to expand monopolies from seed to water
Since 1996, Monsanto has bought up a large portion of the world's seed industry. According to a report in The Hindu newspaper by Dr Vandana Shiva, director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, New Delhi, Monsanto is now poised to buy up the water supplies of India and Mexico.
Lest we miss the scary implications of these acquisitions, Robert Fraley of Monsanto has kindly spelled it out for us: "What you are seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it's really a consolidation of the entire food chain." Since water is as central to food production as seed is, and without water life is not possible, Monsanto is now trying to establish its control over water. During 1999, Monsanto plans to launch a new water business, starting with India and Mexico since both these countries are facing water shortages.
Monsanto is seeing a new business opportunity because of the emerging water crisis and the funding available to make this vital resource available to people. As it states in its strategy paper, "First, we believe that discontinuities (either major policy changes or major trendline breaks in resource quality or quantity) are likely, particularly in the area of water and we will be well-positioned via these businesses to profit even more significantly when these discontinuities occur."
In other words, an ecological crisis such as drought or pollution becomes a desirable business opportunity.
According to some analysts, multinational companies are past masters at extracting profit out of human tragedy. Last year, Dr Shiva reported on the mysterious and massive contamination of India's indigenous mustard oil stock which killed 41 people and sickened 2300 others. Mustard oil is traditionally processed in India by families and communities and forms the basis of many local economies. After the contamination was found, sales of all mustard oil, except the industry-packaged type, were banned.
Coincidentally, the contamination occurred at a time when Monsanto had been trying unsuccessfully to unload large amounts of its GM soy on a reluctant Europe. India too had resisted the Frankenfood soy, in part perhaps to protect its own mustard oil industry and in part because of the Indian public's opposition to GM. But after the mustard oil ban, the Indian government had to cave in to Monsanto's demands and accept its GM soy as a source for cooking oil.
The (for Monsanto) felicitous timing of the mustard oil tragedy was not lost on Dr Shiva. In investigating such an event, she said, you have to ask who would profit from it. She published an article which suggested that a conspiracy to adulterate India's mustard oil had been organised on a vast scale. She was not alone in her conclusion. India's health minister made the same claim, and industry groups also said that they perceived "the invisible hands of multinationals" behind the affair.
It may be that their suspicions are never proven one way or the other. It may also be that Monsanto, in its plans to own India's and Mexico's water supplies, has nothing but the bests interests of the people at heart.
But when a large and powerful company with assets greater than many nation states stands to benefit from ecological or public health catastrophes, the people need to be vigilant.
Dr Shiva is in no doubt about the danger posed by Monsanto's move: "Water is ... basic for life and survival and the right to it is the right to life. Privatization and commodification of water are a threat to the right to life.
"Water is a commons and must be managed as a commons. It cannot be controlled and sold by a life sciences corporation that peddles in death."
