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Related: About this forumU.S. Government Ties El Salvador USD 277 M Aid Package to Monsanto’s GMO Seeds
Last edited Tue Jun 10, 2014, 12:39 PM - Edit history (1)
U.S. Government Ties El Salvador USD 277 M Aid Package to Monsantos GMO Seeds
June 9, 2014
The President of the El Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technologies (CESTA), Ricardo Navarro, has demanded that the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, Mari Carmen Aponte, stops pressurizing the Government of El Salvador to buy Monsantos GM seeds rather than non-GMO seeds from domestic suppliers.
I would like to tell the U.S. Ambassador to stop pressuring the Government (of El Salvador) to buy improved GM seeds, said Navarro, which is only of benefit to U.S. multinationals and is to the detriment of local seed production, Verdad Digital reported last week.
In recent weeks, the U.S. has been pushing the El Salvadoran Government to sign the second Millennium Challenge Compact. One of the main conditions on the agreement is allegedly for the purchasing of GM seeds from Monsanto.
At the end of 2013 it was announced that without specific economic and environmental policy reforms, the U.S. government would not provide El Salvador with $277 million in aid money through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a U.S. foreign aid agency that was created by the U.S. Congress in January 2004. According to the MCC they have changed the conversation on how best to deliver smart U.S. foreign assistance by focusing on good policies.
More, at working link:
http://sustainablepulse.com/2014/06/08/u-s-government-ties-el-salvador-usd-277-m-aid-package-monsantos-gmo-seeds/#.U5cwcGcU-P8
Original link isn't working. Sorry. Replaced it.
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,218 posts)It doesn't seem possible that a democratic government could EVER have gotten this twisted.
From the article:
~snip~
"It's appalling that the State Department is complicit in supporting their (the biotech seed industry's) goals despite public and government opposition in several countries," said Ronnie Cummins, executive director of nonprofit organization Organic Consumers Association.
"American taxpayer's money should not be spent advancing the goals of a few giant biotech companies."
Apparently they are invested in this up to their sleazy eyebrows:
~snip~
PROMOTION THROUGH PAMPHLETS, DVDs?
The cables show that State Department officials directed embassies to "troubleshoot problematic legislation" that might hinder biotech crop development and to "encourage the development and commercialization of ag-biotech products".
The State Department also produced pamphlets in Slovenia promoting biotech crops, sent pro-biotech DVDs to high schools in Hong Kong and helped bring foreign officials and media from 17 countries to the United States to promote biotech agriculture, Food & Water Watch said.
So damned dirty.
At least the companies benefiting from this should be obligated to pay for the work State Department does for them, and ALL the costs associated.
The taxpayers are being mocked.
Judi Lynn
(160,218 posts)El Salvador: US tries to block seed program
Submitted by Weekly News Update... on Tue, 06/10/2014 - 14:45 Central America Theater
control of life
El Salvador
Four US-based organizations with programs centered on El Salvador were set to deliver a petition to the US State Department on June 6 with the signatures of some 1,000 US citizens opposing what the groups called the "intrusion of the [US] embassy in the sovereign politics of this country." At issue was an indication by US ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte that the US may withhold $277 million slated for the second phase of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) aid program if the Salvadoran Agriculture Ministry continues its current practice of buying seeds from small-scale Salvadoran producers for its Family Agriculture Plan. The US organizationsthe Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), USEl Salvador Sister Cities, the SHARE Foundation, and Joining Hands El Salvador Network (RUMES)charged that the US threat was made "with clear intentions to advance the interests of transnational agricultural companies."
Under the administration of former president Mauricio Funes (2009-2014), the Family Agriculture Plan began distributing "agricultural packets" each year to an average of 350,000 impoverished farmers to encourage the cultivation of food crops. As an additional stimulus for the local rural economy, the Agriculture Ministry has been buying seeds for the packets from small Salvadoran producers rather than the large companies that previously dominated the market, Grupo Fertica and Semillas Cristiani Burkard, the Central American representative of the Missouri-based giant multinational Monsanto. The results have been impressive: the production of basic food crops (corn, beans, rice and sorghum) has grown by about one-third and now employs 210,000 of the 770,000 hectares under cultivation in the country. The program has helped hold down prices for basic foods and has contributed to the reduction of poverty.
President Funes was an independent progressive backed by the leftist Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN); the Salvadoran government has generally been expected to move to the left with the June 1 inauguration of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, a leader in the FMLN. (CISPES press release, June 6; Adital, Brazil, June 6, from Rel-UITA)
http://ww4report.com/node/13293
(Short article, no more at link.)
roody
(10,849 posts)directly. Skip El Salvador.
Peace Patriot
(24,010 posts)A "detriment to local seed production" hardly describes how evil it is. It will KILL local seed production FOREVER. And that is a form of genocide. We might as well just nuke El Salvador.