Thank everyone) (Sarah of the NCES) For some of you, Monsanto needs no introduction.

n. Founded in 1901, Monsanto has a sordid history of releasing controversial products, using litigation and sophisticated lobbying and public relations strategies to battle critics. They have brought to market such things as artificial sweeteners Sacharin and aspartame (now known to cause blood cancers)

PCBs that were widely used as dielectric and coolant fluids, caused adverse health effects including cancer, birth defects, immune system damage, hypertension and diminished intellectual ability. ]

They have also had a long history of being complicit in warfare. The Dayton Project headed by Charles Allen Thomas, an executive from Monsanto, was involved in the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bombs.

Agent Orange manufactured with Dow Chemical was used in the Vietnam War.

Vietnam estimates 400,000 people were killed or maimed, and 500,000

children born with birth defects as a result of Agent Orange.

The Red Cross of Vietnam estimates that up to 1 million people are disabled or have health problems due to Agent Orange.

Today, Monsanto is an agricultural biotechnology company. They genetically alter and patent various seed varieties, which are injected with a protein in order make the plants resistant to Roundup Weed Killer.

Roundup is, not so coincidentally, one of Monsanto's best-selling products.

Monsanto is one of the big six Biotech companies along with BASF (Baden Aniline and Soda FacBtory), Bayer, Dow, Dupont and Syngenta that dominate the market.

They own the world's seed, pesticide, and Biotechnology that is threatening not only the biodiversity of our planet but the food supply as well.

Monsanto alone owns about 86% of GMO seeds sown globally. The introduction of GMO crops were touted as the answer to world hunger problems.

The first GMO crop was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1994.

By developing pesticides and herbicide resistant crops, Monsanto contended that farmers would be able to increase their yields and decrease their costs.

Ladies and gentlemen, this has not been the case. Instead, bugs and weeds have become resistant leading to heavier spraying.

This means more costs to the farmer, more damage to the environment and more health-related concerns.

In Canada alone, farmers are reporting more than one million acres of farmland have roundup-resistant weeds growing on them according to a recent survey

As resistance spreads, weed control will become much more expensive and difficult.

Farmers find themselves trapped in Monsanto's way of farming. A recent study also shows that the glyphosate causes damage and even death to human cells from residual spraying.

A study by MIT also determined that increased use of glyphosate leads to cancer and Parkinson's disease.

Ironically, a scientist from Monsato won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the first industrial production of L-dopa, which is used to treat Parkinson's disease.

The spraying of pesticides and GMOs has also been linked to dying bees and what has been referred to as Colony Collapse disorder in bee hive colonies.

Bees are an intricate part of our food supply. According to a U.N. report, of the 100 crop species that supply 90 percent of the world's food, bees pollinate more than 70 percent.

Albert Einstein once said: If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination no more men!

Aside from pesticides, Monsantos gene manipulation of seeds is also a grave concern.

Mother Nature produces a variety of any kind of plant species.

This ensures that if disease or insects attack a plant, other plant varieties will survive and evolve in its place.

This is called biodiversity. By effectively trying to eliminate biodiversity Monsanto is messing with the very fabric that our food supply is based on.

Also threatening the Earth's biodiversity is Monsanto's development of the terminator seed technology

Terminator seeds render first-year crops sterile by not producing seeds thereby forcing the farmer to buy new seeds every year.

Terminator crops also cross pollinate with wild plant species effectively producing offspring that do not germinate.

This threatens to wipe out indigenous crops and end the natural cycle of life.

Monsanto is also wiping out small farms in a battle often like David vs Goliath.

Monsanto has filed numerous patent infringement lawsuits in the U.S. and Canada against farmers who harvested crops containing Monsanto's patented genes without paying for the seed, which were often sown by winds carrying the seeds from nearby fields.

At this time, the safety of GMO foods is unproven with regards to human health.

But a growing body of research connects these foods with health concerns.

Recently, French scientists revealed that rats fed on GMO corn suffered tumors and other complications, including kidney and liver damage.

When rats given water mixed with the Roundup, at levels

permitted in the United States they showed similar symptoms.

Clearly, animals are not immune to Monsanto either. rBGH is a genetically engineered hormone designed to make cows produce more milk.

Large amounts of research indicate that rBGH use has serious implications for the health and welfare of dairy cattle, including making cows more prone to mastitis and sores.

Mastitis in dairy cattle is the persistent, inflammatory reaction of the udder tissue. This potentially fatal mammary gland infection is the most common disease in dairy cattle in the United States. It is also the most costly to the dairy industry.

To combat these infections cows are given antibiotics that end up in milk along with puss from the infections themselves.

The United States is the only country that allows the use of rGBH Thankfully, RBGH was never allowed in Canada Although, Monsanto attempted to lobby for its use. Even allegations that Monsanto had attempted to bribe Health Canada to get approval of rBGH

The files provided by Monsanto on rBGH to Health Canada were stolen from the doctor in charge of the investigation locked away from public scrutiny.

These types of actions are all too common with regards to the regulation and investigation into Monsanto's practice

(Pause) In politics, the "revolving door" is the movement of personnel between roles as legislators and regulators and the industries affected by the legislation and regulation. The list is long but some notable examples of Monsanto's revolving door include:

Linda J. Fisher . . .former Assistant Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Pollution Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances...now Vice President of Government and Public Affairs for Monsanto Corporation.

Michael A. Friedman, M.D. . . former acting commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Department of Health and Human Services . . .now senior vice-president for clinical affairs at G. D. Searle & Co., a pharmaceutical division of Monsanto Corporation.

Michael Taylor . . . former legal advisor to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s Bureau of Medical Devices and Bureau of Foods, later executive assistant to the Commissioner of the FDA. now head of the Washington, D.C. office of Monsanto Corporation.*

Clarence Thomas who was a lawyer for Monsanto, now sits on the US supreme court. These are just a few examples on a long list that is common place these days

It's this type of revolving door regulation between government and the private sector that makes the general public feel helpless.

Beyond the revolving door, Monsanto still has its safeguards in place.

More than 75 scientists have received money from Monsanto.

Many of the labs hired to do testing for Monsanto have been accused of fraud and doctoring results.

Many of the lobby groups receive funding, like the American Soybean Association, which is supposed to be voice for farmers, end up being a voice for Monsanto.

Beelogics, a company whose primary goal is to control colony collapse disorder, has just been bought by Monsanto.

(Pause)

U.S. influence has also made it harder for other countries to implement regulatory standards.

Most developed nations have policies requiring mandatory labelling of GMO foods, at the very least, and some, like Peru, have issued bans on GMO food production and imports.

In Canada, we do not. Canadians are often unaware that the foods they choose contain GMO ingredients.

It is this basic right to choice that is behind the growing movement to have GMO foods labelled.

We face an uphill battle because Monsanto has infected every area of our society's establishments.

(Pause) We would also like to emphasize that is only about Monsanto and not about the farmers who have become slaves to Monsanto Canadians like to think of this country as an agricultural superpower, where farmers grow vast amounts of food to help feed a hungry planet. The reality is much different Far from leading the world in agriculture, Canada is falling behind on many fronts. Farmers in Canada have been struggling to make ends meet, just like the rest of us. Canadian farmers have become less productive, less competitive and more financially strapped than their counterparts in other countries We as consumers and voters need to convince government to

make Canada a leader in agriculture again We need government subsidies that are currently geared towards the Monsanto was of farming to be redirected into sustainable technologies that promote organic farming. We need to show farmers that they have our full support in abandoning the Monsanto way of farming. Given the growing organic movement now is the time for farmers and the citizens of this country to take back our food. The very foundation of a free society is the right to choose Given the mounting evidence against GMOs, pesticides, and herbicides people should have a choice about where there food comes. Currently, Canada and the US are the only developed nations that do not require labelling of food containing GMO. We are here today to ask you to support a petition to the Canadian government requiring all GMO food to be labelled. It's time we start taking control back from these corporations that only understand one thing money. We must use that against them by choosing not to support them.

Shop locally, support community gardens like this one. No one else is going to make the changes for us. It's up to us.