The organizers of tomorrow's International Monsanto Tribunal describe it as a 'moral trial', while the company dismisses it as a 'mock trial' and 'stunt'. The truth, writes Pete Dolack, is that it's about much more than this one company. On trial is the entire neoliberal system of 'free market' finance and monopoly capitalism.
Monsanto on trial? Or 21st century capitalism? Pete Dolack | 13th October 2016 Comment Corporations Finance Law GMOs Food Farming crop-dusting-cut.jpg The organizers of tomorrow's International …
Monsanto has a simple purpose, writes Pete Dolack: to control the world's food supply, monopolizing seeds and agrochemicals to extract profit from every bite of food we eat. Caring nothing for the disease, poverty and destruction that it causes, it has suborned politicians, governments and regulators to its will. But millions are determined to stop it.
Marching on Monsanto - we demand food freedom! Pete Dolack Systemic Disorder | 28th May 2015 Activism GMOs Farming Protest monsanto-march-ba-cut.jpg Monsanto has a simple purpose, writes Pete Dolack: …
Cutting-edge molecular profiling analyses reveal that the popular weedkiller Roundup causes serious liver damage to rats at low doses permitted by regulators, reports Claire Robinson. The findings suggest that residues of glyphosate-based herbicides in food could be linked to rises in the incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity, diabetes and 'metabolic syndrome'.
Roundup residues in food cause fatty liver disease Claire Robinson GMWatch | 9th January 2017 News Science Health Pesticides obesity-cut.jpg Cutting-edge molecular profiling analyses reveal that the …
World Bank projects have left a worldwide trail of evictions, displacements, rapes, murders, forest destruction, greenhouse-gas-belching fossil fuel projects, and destruction of farmland and water sources, writes Pete Dolack. But even as internal reports admit the Bank's wrongdoing, it is asserting its immunity from legal action as terrorised communities seek redress in the courts.
World Bank claims 'sovereign immunity' to escape liability for its crimes against humanity Pete Dolack | 23rd March 2017 News Law Finance USA Honduras India dinant-cut.jpg World Bank projects have …
160 global groups have called for a moratorium on new 'genetic extinction' technology at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Cancun, Mexico. Gene drive technology, they say, poses serious and irreversible threats to biodiversity, national sovereignty, peace and food security.
Biodiversity Convention call to block new 'genetic extinction' GMOs GMWatch The Ecologist | 6th December 2016 News GMOs Science Biodiversity Un Mexico aphids-cut.jpg 160 global groups have called for …
The 'Kevin Folta affair' has cast the hard light of day into the dubious PR tactics of the GMO industry, writes Claire Robinson - recruiting and paying scientists as secret shills to promulgate a pro-GM message without revealing their funding sources.
Monsanto's scientist shill exposed Claire Robinson GMWatch | 8th September 2015 News GMOs Corporations Media USA monsanto-toxic-seed-twtr.jpg The 'Kevin Folta affair' has cast the hard light of day …
Has Monsanto, dubbed the 'world's most evil corporation', turned a new leaf? It has taken the 'probably carcinogenic' glyphosate out of a new version of its market leading 'Roundup' herbicide, and replaced it with vinegar. The bad news is it's only available in Austria. That, and it may still contain toxic 'adjuvants' to increase its effectiveness.
Monsanto's new 'glyphosate-free' Roundup is vinegar! Claire Robinson GMWatch | 8th May 2017 News Pesticides Organic Farming Austria Corporations Health vinegar_bottle_and_roundup_container-cut.jpg …
Boosters of 'free trade' agreements - like the Trans Pacific Partnership that's being signed today - like to make big promises, writes Pete Dolack: trillions of dollars of economic gains, billions of dollars of investment, millions of new jobs. But there's only one certainty, and it's one they never mention: the permanent redistribution of power and income from working people to capital.
Promises be damned: TPP 'benefits' are strictly for the corporations Pete Dolack | 4th February 2016 News Trade Politics Regulation Economics Corporations New Zealand Pacific tpp-free-cut.jpg …
Monsanto has acquired a commanding role in the biotech, seed and agro-chemical industries, writes Carmelo Ruiz. So why is the company desperate to merge with its rival Syngenta? The truth is the company is in deep trouble, as its top-selling Roundup herbicide runs out of steam, and its rivals combine to challenge its dominance.
Monsanto defeated? That's what the Syngenta merger shows us Carmelo Ruiz GMWatch | 27th January 2016 Comment Corporations Farming GMOs Finance monsanto-march-cut.jpg Monsanto has acquired a …
Progressives must begin organizing now, writes Pete Dolack, before Trump takes office and command of the world's most deadly security apparatus. We must demonstrate strong resolve against the right-wing authoritarian rule to come, as a Trump White House will unleash repression on a scale not seen in decades.
Ask not at whom Trump's finger points. It points at thee. Pete Dolack | 11th November 2016 Comment USA Politics trump-pointing-cut.jpg Progressives must begin organizing now, writes Pete Dolack, …
Pollution caused by burning fossil fuels are already causing the premature deaths of 200,000 people a year - in the US alone, writes Pete Dolack. Add up the figures worldwide and it comes to many millions. And that's before we even count the catastrophic long term impacts of global warming. The US response: to loosen anti-pollution regulation and encourage increased oil, coal and gas production.
Deadly toll of fossil fuel pollution: the old economy versus planet and people Pete Dolack Systemic Disorder | 6th April 2017 Activism Economics Future Climate Change Pollution Health …
The leaked chapters of the EU-US TTIP 'free trade' deal reveal a shredding of health, environmental and other protections for consumers and citizens, writes Pete Dolack. It's a wet dream for corporate monopolists and profiteers, and the elite bureaucrats that serve them. But for civil society it represents an irreversible destruction of democracy itself.
Goodbye to democracy if TTIP is passed Pete Dolack | 5th May 2016 News Trade EU US Corporations Politics GMOs Toxics 2016-04-23_anti-ttip-demonstration_in_hannover,_(10398)-cut.jpg The leaked …
With the proposed connection between the Zika virus and Brazil's outbreak of microcephaly in new born babies looking increasingly tenuous, Latin American doctors are proposing another possible cause: Pyriproxyfen, a pesticide used in Brazil since 2014 to arrest the development of mosquito larvae in drinking water tanks. Might the 'cure' in fact be the poison?
Argentine and Brazilian doctors suspect mosquito insecticide as cause of microcephaly Claire Robinson GMWatch | 10th February 2016 News Health Toxics Pesticides Argentina Brazil …
A recent scientific study found the same long-chain omega-3 oils that are engineered into a new GM Camelina oilseed variety make butterflies grow up with deformed wings, writes Claire Robinson. Attempts by the 'pro-science' non-scientist Mark Lynas to discredit the study are a mixture of ignorance, research failures, 'straw man' arguments and outright errors.
GMO lobby's false claims to defend GM oilseed against deformed butterfly findings Claire Robinson GMWatch | 9th May 2016 Activism GMOs Science Media Health Ecology UK …
The Reuters news organisation has just sullied its reputation with a disgraceful attack on the WHO's specialist body on cancer, the IARC, writes Claire Robinson. Resorting to smear, innuendo and anonymous critics, it relies heavily on discredited industry sources including tobacco defenders in its attempt to undermine IARC's view that glyphosate probably causes cancer.
… to hype industrialized agriculture and attack organics, or, as a key member of the Global …
It looked like such a good idea: take the pressure off wild fish stocks by growing GM oilseeds that produce health-enhancing long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, writes Claire Robinson. But as a new study has established, those fish oils, novel in terrestrial ecosystems, cause wing deformities in cabbage white butterflies. Yet a third open field trial of these GM crops could soon be under way.
Nutritionally-enhanced GM crops? Too bad about the deformed butterflies Claire Robinson GMWatch | 18th April 2016 News GMOs Nutrition Food Ecology Fishing Health cabbage-white-cut.jpg It looked like …
Five international judges say Monsanto's activities have negatively affected individuals, communities and biodiversity, writes Claire Robinson. The Monsanto Tribunal's damning ruling denounces the company's harmful impacts on food sovereignty, agricultural production, access to nutrition, the natural environment, seed diversity, climate change, pollution and traditional cultural practices.
Tribunal judges: Monsanto isn't feeding the world - it's undermining food security Claire Robinson GMWatch | 24th April 2017 News Corporations Law Farming Food GMOs Health Seeds Pesticides …
Thanks to New Zealand, the full text of the Trans Pacific Partnership has been made public. And as Pete Dolack writes, it's a disaster for health, environment, workers and democracy - one that will unfold over years and decades to come, as investors and corporations consolidate their power over elected governments and cement in the global rule of unaccountable capital.
The TPP - blueprint for the 1000-year Reich of global capital pete Dolack Systemic Disorder | 16th November 2015 News Trade Finance Law Regulation Climate Change stop-the-tpp-cut.jpg Thanks to New …
With its 800 bases in 80 countries, the US's global military domination is often seen as an altruistic exercise to ensure world peace and harmony, writes Pete Dolack. It is, of course, the opposite: the essential underpinning of the US's predatory economic power, always ready to strike down any challenge to the rights and privileges of its corporate conquerors and financial oligarchy.
Global pitbulls: the US military mission to support corporate colonialism Pete Dolack | 22nd April 2016 News Military Economics USA Corporations Human Rights 5114510558_04bdaec41e_o.jpg With its 800 …
OceanaGold is demanding $300 million in compensation from impoverished El Salvador after a mining permit was refused to safeguard a clean drinking water source that millions of people depend on, writes Pete Dolack. The sum does not even represent losses - but profits the company claims it would have made.
A mining company's $300 million attack on El Salvador's water Pete Dolack | 5th October 2014 News Mining Finance El Salvador lago-suchitlan-es-cut.jpg OceanaGold is demanding $300 million in …
The Council of Monte Maiz, a small town in Argentina surrounded by intensive GMO soya farms, has enacted a law that forbids the spraying and storage of pesticides and other agrochemicals after severe health impacts were detected.
Argentine GM soya town bans pesticides Claire Robinson GMWatch | 14th July 2015 News Farming Health Law GMOs Toxics Argentina argentine-town-puts-the-brake-on-pesticides-cut.jpg Photo: TV interview …
The latest country to be hooked under 'free trade' agreements is Colombia, writes Pete Dolack, sued for tens of billions of dollars by US and Canadian gold mining companies for valuing its national parks and the high-altitude Andean wetlands that provide 70% of the nation's water above the profits of foreign corporations. Free trade or clean water? You can't have both.
Colombia: there's no place for clean water under 'free trade' Pete Dolack | 14th April 2016 News Colombia Mining Trade US Canada Water Conservation Corporations …
The renewable power boom is excellent news for people and planet, writes Pete Dolack. But let's not get carried away: much energy that claims to be 'renewable; like biomass and big hydro, is no such thing. And greening our energy is just one of many steps to a sustainable world. The greatest challenges - like tackling the monster of infinite 'growth' - all lie ahead.
Renewable energy alone cannot reverse global warming or make a sustainable world Pete Dolack | 25th May 2015 News Energy Renewables Pollution Wind Denmark Green Economy Trade Climate Change Mining …
Canada's 'Anti-Terrorism Bill' proposes a massive increase in the power of security services, writes Pete Dolack - and in the crosshairs are campaigners against a tar sands industry that's intent on releasing 240 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, and those fighting the pipelines needed to get the heavy crude to market. Who are the real 'extremists'?
Tar sands campaigners are Canada's new 'terrorists' Pete Dolack | 5th March 2015 News Canda Law Fossil Fuels Climate Change Tarsands Corporations rcmp-kinder-morgan-cut.jpg RCMP make an arrest at a …