January 25, 2014

PLEASE SIGN IF YOU AGREE!

It’s business as usual for Monsanto: insist it’s doing nothing wrong, while opposing any request to be open about the risks of GMOs.
But this time, it’s Monsanto’s own shareholders who are asking questions. Their simple request is that Monsanto stops keeping them in the dark on genetically-modified food -- and they need our support.
After over 6,000 of us chipped in, SumOfUs organizers are headed to St Louis for the crucial shareholder vote -- working tirelessly to win the support of the big investment funds. But unless Monsanto and its shareholders feel the massive community opposition to their agenda, they’ll conclude they can ignore us and vote against GMO transparency. That’s why we need to act now.


The brave group of shareholders who will present this resolution at Monsanto’s annual meeting want the company to be straight with its shareholders. They’re asking Monsanto to report on the costs and business risks of GMOs -- from the contamination of non-GMO crops, to the effect on bees and other “non-target” organisms, and more. These are real risks and costs, and it’s a sensible proposal -- for anyone other than a corporation that thinks that suing family farmers and fighting truth-in-labelling laws is business as usual.
Monsanto is trying to defeat this shareholder vote -- using the same tactics it uses to defeat all opposition to its agenda. Its business model is based on keeping us all in the dark. It has fought against every effort to label genetically modified ingredients, spending $15 million to defeat laws in California and Washington alone. Monsanto can feel the tide turning against it -- already, numerous US states and countless countries have restrictions on GMOs and rules about their labelling. But instead of recognizing the community sentiment and business risk, Monsanto is still fighting. And now, its shareholders are starting to wake up to the risks.
That’s why it’s crucial that we support these shareholders who are taking a stand at Monsanto’s annual meeting, and demand that Monsanto study the risks and costs of GMOs and come clean to their shareholders and the public. Unless they know we’re watching, many of Monsanto’s biggest shareholders will feel free to support Monsanto’s management and vote against the shareholder resolution.