Farmers
Join Hundreds to Protest Outside Monsanto Hearing and Demand End to
Monsanto's Campaign of Intimidation in Rural America Over GMOs
Protestors
Near White House Also Call on President Obama to Halt Approval of
Genetically Modified Crops and GMO Salmon Until Long Term Safety Tests
Are Completed
Nearly
300 family farmers, activists, and
members of Food Democracy Now! gathered in front of the White House
today, directly after a hearing on the landmark Organic
Seed Growers and Trade Association et al. v. Monsanto case.
Citizens assembled to demand that
Monsanto end their campaign of intimidation against America's family
farmers over GMO- also known as genetically engineered (GE)- crops, and
that President Obama halt approval of GE food. The demand for President
Obama included stopping the approval of GE salmon until independent
long-term safety tests can be conducted.
Thirty-one family farmers,
plaintiffs in the
landmark lawsuit OSGATA et
al v. Monsanto, travelled to Washington, DC, from across North America
to attend the Oral Argument in the Appeal of Dismissal heard before the
U.S.
Court of
Appeals for the Federal Circuit
and also to protest in demand of the right to farm without the threat
of harassment by the world's largest biotech seed company. Monsanto has
sued, or settled in court with, more than 844 family farms since 1997
over 'patent infringement' after their seeds naturally spread to nearby
farms.
A recording of today's
complete Oral Argument
in the OSGATA et al. v.
Monsanto Appeal of Dismissal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit is available here.
"Family farmers need and
deserve the right to
farm. We have a right to
grow good food and good seed for our families and our communities
without the threat of trespass and intimidation," Jim Gerritsen, an
organic potato farmer from Maine and President of OSGATA,
the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, told the enthusiastic crowd. "We
need Court protection so that our families will be able to carry on our
farming tradition and help keep America strong," said Gerritsen.
After attending the Oral Argument to appeal the dismissal of the case,
the farmers marched to Lafayette Park to bring attention to the Obama
Administration's pending approval of 13 new biotech crops and
AquaBounty's "Frankenfish," a genetically engineered "salmon."
"America's farmers deserve to be protected from unwanted contamination
of their crops and the continued harassment by biotech seed giant
Monsanto," said Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!,
a grassroots farmer advocacy group and plaintiff in the case. "At the
same time, our current regulatory structure here in the U.S. has failed
America's farmers and consumers. The Obama administration needs to do
the right thing to protect our farmers and make sure that new GE crops
go through rigorous safety tests," said Murphy. "It's time that
President Obama live up to his campaign promise to Iowa farmers in 2007
and label genetically engineered foods. It's the least that he could
do."
Many farmers have been forced to stop growing certain crops to avoid
genetic contamination and potential lawsuits from Monsanto. This case
challenges the validity of Monsanto's genetically engineered seed
patents and seeks Court protection for family farmers who, through no
fault of their own, may have become contaminated by Monsanto's patented
seed and find themselves accused of patent infringement. Their
aggressive lawsuits have created an atmosphere of fear in rural America
and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy.
The hearing today coincided with growing concern from millions of
Americans over the pending approval of new GE crops, which many believe
have not been properly tested through serious independent long-term
safety tests.
Those concerns took on new urgency when only days before Christmas the
Obama administration announced it was clearing one of the final
regulatory hurdles before the pending approval of AquaBounty's
"Frankenfish." If approved, it would be the first genetically
engineered animal to appear on plates in the U.S.
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