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Barbara Deutsch's avatar

thank you for initiating this correspondence

tangential to the first installment but I thought you might wish to have this, cc. something Putin has made clear that he wants for the Russian federation:

=From: Mitchel Cohen <mitchelcohen@mindspring.com>

to [NoSpray Coalition] Monsanto connection to Ukraine

Date: March 15, 2022 at 1:24:51 PM PDT

NO ONE has been publicly discussing GMOs, pesticides, and organic agriculture in the context of this war. And yet, global competition between capitalist countries does play a role, even if not the leading one.

Jim Dingeman asked what I was talking about -- I suppose that's what he means by "WTF" and not the World Trade Federation -- on the agriculture issue. :-)

I wrote in my book 3 years ago, "The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup: The Politics of Pesticides" (SkyHorse, 2019) the following:

In June 2016, Russia’s State Duma adopted the third and final reading of a government bill to introduce a total ban on the cultivation and breeding of genetically modified plants and animals, except for scientific research purposes.25 Far from the ban hurting their economies, as Monsanto and other pesticide-producing corporations would have us believe, the United States, which had been the world’s leading wheat exporter, is now losing its position to Russia and Canada. Russia claims that this is in part due to several economic factors and also to the preference of much of the world for non-GMO food.26 (from Carolina Cositore's chapter), and then ....

In the face of Monsanto’s plans to open its first plant in Russia,34 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed Federal Law No.358 on July 3, 2016 prohibiting cultivation of genetically engineered plants and breeding of genetically engineered animals on the territory of the Russian Federation.35

President Putin had earlier said that “measures should be taken to protect the Russian market and consumers from GMO products, as their use could have unforeseen consequences,” news agency RIA Novosti reported.36

Leticia Goncalves, who heads Monsanto’s operations in Europe and the Middle East, was not perturbed. “We still believe that Ukraine and Russia both are long-term opportunities for our business and we want to make sure we are in a position to accelerate our business growth despite the short-term geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges.”37

But, contra Monsanto, President Putin envisioned a future in which Russia would become “the world’s largest supplier of ecologically clean and high-quality organic food.” He’s called on the country to become completely self-sufficient in food production by 2020: “We are not only able to feed ourselves taking into account our lands, water resourcesRussia is able to become the largest world supplier of healthy, ecologically clean and high-quality food which the Western producers have long lost, especially given the fact that demand for such products in the world market is steadily growing.”38

NOTES

25 Sustainable Pulse, Jan. 25, 2016.

26 The International Reporter, April 24, 2016 “Russian Organic Wheat Takes World by Storm, US GMO Glyphosate Losing Out!” www.theinternationalreporter.org/2016/04/24/russian-organic-wheat-takes-world-by-storm-us-gmo-glyphosate-losing-out/ .

34. “As Crisis Hits, Seed Giant Monsanto Sees Business in Russia and Ukraine,” The Moscow Times, January 23, 2015.

35 US Department of Agriculture GAIN report, https://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent %20GAIN%20Publications/Russia%20Bans%20Cultivation%20and% 20Breeding%20of%20GE%20Crops%20and%20Animal_Moscow_Russian% 20Federation_7-12-2016.pdf. For more information see FAS/Moscow GAIN report GMO Registration for Cultivation Postponed 6/27/2014.pdf; Russian “Producers Consider It Reasonable to Ban GMO products,” 05/07/2016, http://ria.ru/economy/20160705/1459098131.html.

36 “Russia to Ban Genetically Modified Organisms in Food Production,” Moscow Times, Sept. 20, 2015.

37 Moscow Times, January 23, 2015, op cit. “Ukraine is the world’s sixth largest grain grower this season, and Goncalves said the region remained a priority for Monsanto.”

38 Eduard Korniyenko, “Putin Wants Russia to Become World’s Biggest Exporter of Non-GMO Food,” Reuters, December 3, 2015.

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Edward Bernaysauce's avatar

please sir,...lets stop sending trillions of quatloos to biden, pelosi, bono, et al- via ukraine...

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