24 March 2003

MONSANTO & CARGILL GENETICALLY ENGINEER SURVEY RESULTS

for what else Monsanto gets up to from its IP addresses, see:
http://ngin.tripod.com/080303b.htm

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Monsanto & Cargill genetically engineer survey results

farm PO Box 26094 London SW10 0XZ
Tel: 020 7352 7928 Fax: 020 7351 4602 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.farm.org.uk
Company No. 4470260
News Release
Embargoed: For immediate release, 22/3/03

'farm', the new campaigning and membership group for working farmers and the public has discovered that employees of biotech. and agribusiness giants, Monsanto and Cargill have been seeking to exert undue influence over its website poll on GM crops.

Following Environment Minister, Michael Meacher's statement reported in the March issue of The Ecologist magazine, "We have been feeding ourselves perfectly adequately, since overcoming problems of hunger in our early existence. GM is not necessary." [1]

farm put up the poll on its website asking the question, "Do you agree with Michael Meacher's comments that GM crops are not necessary?"

For the first few days, responses to the poll averaged out at about 90% agreeing with Mr Meacher, 10% disagreeing. Latterly, opinion shifted gradually a little more against him - with around 82% agreeing, 18% disagreeing Then - wham! - in the space of a day, responses to the poll lurched violently away from the Minister, reducing from 80% to 60% to just over 50%.

It seemed that some alien DNA had been inserted into the poll - and indeed it had* On analysing those responding to the website poll, we discovered that 72% of all the 'No' votes had come from Monsanto and Cargill IP addresses.[2] [3]

To prevent any GM material escaping beyond official separation distances to contaminate the wider environment, we decided the responsible course of action was to 'plough in' the poll.

Notes
1. The Ecologist, March 2003, Å’Sink or Swim”š, www.theecologist.org
2. At time of closing the poll, 236 people had voted
157 agreed with Mr Meacher. 79 disagreed
We traced 57 of those 79, back to Cargill and Monsanto, evenly split between the two. Therefore, 22 Å’No”š votes came from other sources than these two agribusiness GM enthusiasts.

3. Cargill & Monsanto are collaborating more directly on pro-GM joint ventures. The companies have joined forces to form Renessen, which aims to develop new GM grains and oilseeds for animal nutrition and food processing. A Renessen spokesperson, Dell Allen has stated, "Biotechnology is here to stay. Its potential for good is so great it's going to overcome the 'RC' factor." RC he explains stands for the 'Resistance to Change' factor. Perhaps that should be changed to the 'Raring to Cheat' (if you don't like the results) factor? ENDS
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