Farmers Rally at White House to Protest Monsanto's GMO Empire

Hundreds of small farmers and advocates for organic seed growers gathered outside the White House Thursday, calling on President Obama and other lawmakers to come to their aid as they continue their fight against Monsanto, one of the world's largest, most powerful--and to them sinister--industrial agriculture corporations.

The farmers and citizens assembled demanded the end of Monsanto's "campaign of intimidation against America's family farmers" and their relentless push for GMO (or genetically engineered-GE) crops. The rally followed a court hearing earlier in the day in the ongoing and landmark Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association et al. v. Monsanto case, in which OSGATA and other plaintiffs sued the biotech firm for its continual and aggressive harassment of organic farmers and independent seed growers.

"Family farmers need and deserve the right to farm. We have a right to grow good food and good seed for our families and our communities without the threat of trespass and intimidation," Jim Gerritsen, an organic potato farmer from Maine and President of OSGATA, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, told the enthusiastic crowd.

Since 1997, Monsanto has sued, or brought to court, more than 844 family farms over "patent infringement" after their GMO seeds spread to nearby farms. The legal battles are more than most small farmers can battle, and Monsanto's size and financial muscle make it nearly impossible for individual farmers to fight back. Many are forced to settle and submit to Monsanto sanctions.

"We need Court protection so that our families will be able to carry on our farming tradition and help keep America strong," said Gerritsen.

Those that gathered called for President Obama to fulfill his promise to support the labeling of all GMO products, and also halt pending approval of GE salmon until independent long-term safety tests can be conducted.

"America's farmers deserve to be protected from unwanted contamination of their crops and the continued harassment by biotech seed giant Monsanto," said Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!, a grassroots farmer advocacy group and plaintiff in the case.

Additionally, he said, "our current regulatory structure here in the U.S. has failed America's farmers and consumers. The Obama administration needs to do the right thing to protect our farmers and make sure that new GE crops go through rigorous safety tests," said Murphy. "It's time that President Obama live up to his campaign promise to Iowa farmers in 2007 and label genetically engineered foods. It's the least that he could do."

And the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports:

The protest suggested an uptick in efforts to demand labeling, which was defeated in a California ballot initiative in November. Creve Coeur-based Monsanto spent at least $8 million in an industry-wide effort to sink the California proposition.

Vermont state Sen. David Zuckerman said at the rally that he is leading an effort in his state seeking legislation requiring labeling of genetically modified food.

Organic farmers, who are pressing a lawsuit against Monsanto, often complain that their products are threatened by wind-blown pollen from genetically altered crops.

"We want and demand the right of clean seed not contaminated by a massive biotech company that's in it for the profit," Carol Koury, who operates Sow True Seeds in Asheville, N.C., said at the rally.

Complete background on the OSGATA et al v. Monsanto lawsuit is available here.

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