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SEED SAVERS VS MONSANTO
Lawrence Davis-Hollander
A movement is spreading through North America and it may play a profound role in the ever clearer contradiction between corporate and community farming, between genetically modified and pure and healthy food, between monoculture and diversity. Today's speaker, Lawrence Davis-Hollander says that finally, after the farm and gardening revival that began in the 1960 and early 70s, the seed collecting and seed saving movement is flourishing as well.

This is a rich, personal account of Davis-Hollander's experience as collector, touching on many of the pertinent questions around seed saving, the connection to history, genetic variety, food, culture and place - and the role seed saving plays in the resistance to genetic engineering and corporate control of seeds.
For a broadcast quality mp3 version of this 29 minute program click HERE
Code A366CD  To order a CD click here $10.00
29 second Preview/Promo

FAMILY FARMERS VS MONSANTO
Attorney Daniel Ravicher
Monsanto appeared in Federal District Court in Manhattan on January 31st, 2012, to have a suit dismissed that was filed by organic growers.  At stake is: Can Monsanto sue farmers whose land was contaminated by pollen or seed from genetically modified plantings by their neighbors? The answer is that Monsanto has asserted their patent rights over those whose land was polluted by GMOs and continues to do so. Monsanto has to date filed 144 lawsuits against farmers in at least 27 different states for alleged infringement of its transgenic seed patents, while settling another 700 out of court.

Dan Ravicher, the attorney for the Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association and others, representing over 300,000 individuals, gave this summary of the landmark suit to stop these law suits at the Heirloom Seed Expo in Santa Rosa, CA, on September 14, 2011. As of February 2012 this suit hangs in the balance. Will the District Court Judge follow Monsanto's demand and declare the issue without merit, or will the suit go forward with consequences for the right to pure food and the survival of organic food production in the US.

Follow the case through these web sites.
Lead plaintiff: Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association <http://www.osgata.org/>
Their attorney Daniel Ravicher <http://www.pubpat.org/>
Supporting organization <http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/>
For a broadcast quality mp3 version of this 29 minute program click HERE
Code A366CD  To order a CD click here $10.00
29 second Preview/Promo

MONSANTO VS. PERCY SCHMEISER
Report on the lawsuit that challenges the ownership of life by corporations
Percy Schmeiser and Ignacio Chapela
Monsanto, the giant multinational agro-chemical company, sued Percy Schmeiser over the presence of their patented canola that had invaded the edges of Schmeiser's field from a neighbor's plot. The Schmeiser case has become one of the most watched and most important cases for organic farmers, seed savers, for the movement against the invasion of the biosphere by genetically modified plants, and against corporate ownership of life.

Schmeiser was recorded in Ukiah, CA, in November 2006. He gave a report of his multi-year legal battle to save his land and home, and his 50 year legacy as plant breeder from being seized by Monsanto over 12 pounds of invading seeds. After two shattering losses in court he finally won a partial victory in the Canadian Supreme Court. However the court upheld Monsanto's patent rights - even when their genetically modified canola invades another field or cross pollinates with organic or pedigree canola or even their relatives. Any invaded organism becomes the property of Monsanto as well. Under globalization the patent rights may apply to the US as well.

Percy Schmeiser is a Canadian farmer from Bruno, Saskatchewan. He took over the family farm in 1947. He and his wife are known on the Prairies as seed savers. Over 50 years they developed a canola seed that was resistant to disease and lost their life's work by contamination from genetically modified canola. <http://www.percyschmeiser.com>
In part TWO Percy Schmeiser shares the stage with Ignacio Chapela, from UC Berkeley. In October 2000 Chapela discovered the contamination of Mexican corn with Monsanto GMO corn. 
For a broadcast quality mp3 version of Part ONE click HERE
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Scientific Freedom in the Age of Biotechnology
With Arpad Pusztai, Tyrone Hayes, John Losey and Ignacio Chapela
This program is about academic freedom, independent thinking, corporate intervention into science, the buying of academia, the collusion of regulatory agencies with the very corporations they are to oversee and maybe - most frightening of all - the invasion of the DNA, the inner spaces and the self organization of life.
Arpad Pusztai was an advocate of genetic engineering until his research with rats showed serious damage to their immune system and organ growth when they were fed with genetically engineered potatoes. He was fired from his job as Principal Scientific Officer at the Rowett Institute in Scotland, a job he had held for 30 years.
Tyrone Hayes did research on the effects of Atrazine, the world's most widely used agricultural chemical as part of a study of breast and prostate cancer. He found damage to tissue and organs of amphibians including sex changes caused by fluctuating levels of estrogen and testosterone.  His research was suppressed, and the industry financed research to discredit his work.
John Losey discovered that Monarch butterfly caterpillars  die when they eat pollen from engineered corn plants. The industry waged an unsuccessful campaign to suppress his report.
Ignacio Chapela discovered that engineered corn has already invaded the cradle of corn in Oaxaca, Mexico. A campaign was waged to discredit him and he recently was denied tenure in spite of the full support of his colleagues.
This event was recorded at UC Berkeley in December 2003.
For a broadcast quality mp3 version click HERE
code A243CD: To order a 60 minute CD click here: $10.00
code: A243 To order a 60 minute cassette copy click here: $8.00

Ignacio Chapela: The Story of Corn
The contamination of the cradle of corn with genetically engineered seeds
Ignacio Chapela from the University of California, Berkeley discovered that genetically modified corn had contaminated the cradle of corn in the remote mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. The Zapotecan Indians have cultivated corn here for over 10,000 years. When the report was published in the science magazine of record, Nature, it caused an international scandal. Apparently under pressure from the Biotech industry, the magazine attempted earlier this year to pressure Chapela to withdraw the story. This is Chapela's story and the story of corn that needs to remain intact so future generations will be able to eat.
For a broadcast quality mp3 version click HERE
code A218: To order a cassette copy click here: $8.00
code A218CD: To order a CD click here: $10.00
 

Food that kills: THE POLITICS OF OBESITY
A panel at UC Berkeley's School of Journalism called attention to the role of the food industry in our current obesity crisis.
The media and the food industry - even government agencies - tell us that the serious current obesity crisis is our own fault and that we need to exercise more. Of course exercise is good for us but nobody tells us that the food industry, with the help of huge government subsidies, through advertising and addictive ingredients promotes ill health by feeding us grease, sugar and starch.

There is talk of law suits targeting fast food chains patterned after the law suits against the tobacco corporations. They also claimed that there was no health risk associated with smoking. The food industry, like the tobacco corporations, target children. There are only three academics in the health field who talk and write about the role of the food industry. All three are on this program::
Marion Nestle from New York University, author of: Food Politics
Kelly Brownell from Yale, author of: Food Fight
Joan Dye Gussow, formerly with Columbia University, author of: This Organic Life
For a broadcast quality mp3 version click HERE
code A241CD: To order a 60 minute CD click here: $10.00
code: A241 To order a 60 minute cassette copy click here: $8.00

FATAL HARVEST: Andy Kimbrell and Vandana Shiva
Kimbrell talks about the transformation of nature via biotechnology to make life fit a dangerous system rather than changing technology to make it appropriate to life. Vandana Shiva reports on rural resistance and WTO free zones in India. Taking back the seed from the 5 corporations that now control the source of food of the planet is for her the symbol of the new freedom.
For a broadcast quality mp3 version click HERE
code: A222 To order a cassette copy click here: $8.00
code A222CD: To order a CD click here: $10.00

Vandana Shiva:
Biopirates VS The Peasants of India
Vandana Shiva is a physicist, philosopher of science, feminist and campaigner against globalization, the patenting and ownership of life, and the WTO. She now is an internationally acclaimed speaker and author and uses her growing influence to champion the cause of the poor in India. During her speech at the University of San Francisco she spoke not about philosophy or science but of the plight of the peasants in India who see their knowledge taken away, their seeds poisoned and their local economies destroyed by multinational food corporations. The small farmers, she reports, are fighting back and declaring zones that are free of genetically modified seeds.
code: A173   To order a copy click here: $8.00
CLICK HERE to listen - or go to A-Infos to download a broadcast quality mp3 file

Organic Farming and Globalization
code: ECO 401 To order a copy click here: $8.00
Mark Ritchie heads the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis. He highlights globalization's challenge to organic agriculture. Taped at the Ecological Farming Conference, Asilomar, Calif., 1998 40 minutes

Gardens in Jail
code: ECO 402 To order a copy click here: $8.00
The love and work that make a garden grow can heal and empower a person. Cathrine Sneed is the founder of the innovative Greenhouse Project (est. 1982) at the San Francisco County Jail. Asilomar, Calif., 1998 60 minutes

Successful Organic Farmers
code: ECO 403 To order a copy click here: $8.00
Organic farms are no longer an endeavor on the edge of sustainability. They range from a 4-1/2 acre market garden near Santa Cruz to 1,500 acres of organic herbs in southern Washington. Asilomar, Calif., 1998 60 minutes

Genetic Engineering of Human Beings
code: A212 To order a copy click here: $8.00
Paul Billings, Marcy Darnovsky, Andrew Imparato
What really is the nature of the human genome project?  It is a rough draft, with an error rate of 30%.  The human genome is not a blueprint for making a human being. Our genes are not particularly different from those in mice and dogs. As genetic engineering progresses, issues from the past return to the fore, among them eugenics, genetic discrimination, classification of people as uninsurable or unemployable. These violate the fundamental right to privacy, including genetic privacy.

There is a new twist in human genetic engineering, techno-eugenics, a technology involving human clones that makes "designer babies" possible. This technology would employ direct manipulation of parents' genes in order to "improve" their offspring. The risks of cloning are huge. In the animals actually born (the total is less than 1%), many abnormalities occur either immediately or later. We do need global bans on human cloning and on human germ-line engineering, and effective regulations of other new
genetic and reproductive technologies. These are the most immediately consequential decisions that humanity has ever faced.(40 minutes, 2002)
<http://www.gene-watch.org> <http://www.genetics-and-society.org>
For a broadcast quality mp3 version clickHERE

Science & Genetic Engineeering and Biowarfare & Bioweapons
Martha Crouch & Ricarda Steinbrecher / Ed Hammond
code: A210 To order a copy click here: $8.00
Dr. Martha Crouch, retired professor of biology, closed her lab when she realized that her research was being used to develop terminator technology. She says that our cycle of life has depended on the health of plants, seeding and  fruiting naturally, for the last 10,000 years. With genetic engineering we are able to change that relationship so that we are now forcing other organisms to respond in ways that may be inimical for their own lives.

Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher is a retired genetic scientist and outspoken critic of genetic engineering. When the Human Genome project was completed, she says, scientist had to admit to the embarrassing fact that humans have only a few more genes than mice, and that something other than genes accounts for the different. It also calls into question the accuracy and safety of genetic engineering.

Ed Hammond is part of the Sunshine Project. He says that advances in science now allow bioweapons designers to employ those chemicals produced in the body that affect behavior. Many of these weapons not only regulate response, but can be used to permanently disable or kill. Because such weapons exploit chemicals that occur in the body or in the brain, their use is difficult to detect, making them especially attractive for covert operations.(2002)
http://www.sunshine-project.org
For a broadcast quality mp3 version clickHERE
For a broadcast quality mp3 version clickHERE

Patents, Biopiracy & Globalization
Should Life be Owned?
Andy Kimbrell, Andres Barreda, Vandana Shiva, Victoria Tauli Corpuz & Chaia Heller
code: A209 To order a copy click here: $8.00
Andrew Kimbrell is a public interest attorney and author. He calls mechanization and marketing of life, and the corporate enclosure of the entire living commons, the most disturbing aspects of genetic engineering. Andres Barreda, a scholar and activist from Mexico says that in 1994, when NAFTA was signed, "the war began in my country." Indigenous peoples in Mexico now find that the key to any hope for autonomy is the struggle against biodevastation.

Vandana Shiva from India says that the first colonialism was about land. Now bodies and lives are being appropriated and exploited. Life is not an area of capital accumulation. Victoria Tauli Corpuz is an indigenous activist from the Philippines. She shows how so-called environmental organizations are involved in bio-piracy. Chaia Heller says that biotechnology is about power and democracy and has to be seen as part of a vast, international network that consists of governments, trade bodies, scientists, marketers, and advertisers. (2002)
For a broadcast quality mp3 version clickHERE

Food & Genetic Engineering
Organic Food VS Genetic Engineering
code: A208 To order a copy click here: $8.00
Part A: Peter Rosset, Brewster and Cathleen Kneen
Side B: Vandana Shiva and Brian Leahy
The program begins with a list of myths about genetic engineered food presented by Food First director Peter Rosset. Brewster Kneen, former goat farmer and publisher of the Ramshorn says that our foods and the systems by which they are grown and distributed are being deliberately contaminated by genetic pollution. His wife, Cathleen Kneen, reminds us that eating is very personal. The food becomes our body. Food is the basis of culture and community.

Vandana Shiva from India reminds us of the impact of the Green Revolution that was imposed on the Third World. She found in her research that this “revolution” did not produce more food, but poisoned the land with chemicals and created population explosions of insects. Brian Leahy is the Executive Director of California Certified Organic Farmers, CCOF. He invites us to take a closer look at the food in a supermarket, to see that this is food for a dead culture. (2002)
For a broadcast quality mp3 version clickHERE
http://www.vshiva.net/
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org
http://www.icta.org

FARMS & Genetic Engineering
Hear from the people who grow our food.
code: A207 To order a copy click here: $8.00
Ted Quaday, John Kinsman, Bill Christison, Percy Schmeiser, & Bill Wenzel
Hear from the people who grow our food. Soy and corn, two of the basic staple food crops, are also the most heavily genetically engineered. This is far more than an issue of personal consumption and health. Corporate and political powers seem determined to put these GMO foods on our plates, whether we want them or not.

The stories of these farmers demonstrate that planting healthy food has become an act of rebellion. Banks and seed companies try to force farmers to plant engineered seeds. Farmers are also finding it harder to find non-GMO seed stock. Even organic seed supplies are already contaminated by cross-pollination. (2002)

Corporations are dragging farmers into court for saving seed. The Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser was sued by Monsanto for allegedly pirating its seed. His appeal will be heard NOW, in May 2002. He has counter sued Monsanto for contaminating
his fields. <http://www.percyschmeiser.com>

Experience and research show that GMO seeds cost more and yield less.  They are also increasingly hard to sell on the international market. Corn exports to the EU dropped from 109 million bushels in 1995/96 to under 3 million in 1999-2000.
Active organizations: FarmAid <www.farmaid.org>, National Family Farm Coalition <www.nffc.net>
Via Campesino <http://ns.rds.org.hn/via/>
For a broadcast quality mp3 version clickHERE

Andrew Kimbrell: Genetic Engineering and the Ownership of Life
In a dramatic sweep, Kimbrell takes us from the industrial age of pyrotechnology to today's biotechnology. Genetically engineered food concerns us in the most intimate way. We are already eating it every day. Andy Kimbrell is the Director of the International Center for Technology Assessment , Washington, DC and author of The Human Body Shop.
CLICK HERE to download a broadcast quality version of this program (29 minutes)
Side B: Sigmund Kvaloy: Bio-pollution by Trade,  The Invasion of Ecosystems
Sigmund Kvaloy's biggest concern is the invasion of ecosystems by foreign species. They suddenly take over the new environment or spread diseases for which no immunity exists. Hear how prions, viruses, insects, bacteria, parasites, ants, bees, jellyfish and zebra mussels hitchhike rides on traded goods or in the ballast water of ships. Kvaloy is a philosopher, teacher, and farmer who lives in the mountains above Trondheim, Norway, on land that has been in his family for 11 generations. (2001)
CLICK HERE to download a broadcast quality version of this program (29 minutes)
code: A175   To order a copy click here: $8.00

The Sale of the Microbes in Yellowstone Park
On Yellowstone's 125th anniversary the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior signed the first ever cooperative research agreement to exploit a national park. Diversa Corporation acquired the right to take unspecified amounts of microbes from the park in exchange for $35,000 per year. The extreme secrecy surrounding the agreement, the fact that it is violating the legal protection of national parks, has led to a lawsuit. With: Andy Kimbrell, Joseph Mendelson & Beth Burrows 45 minutes (1998)
code: A 124 To order a cassette copy click here: $8.00

The Lawsuit on Genetically Engineered Food
Concern is spreading about the danger of genetically engineered food. While action is taken by governments around the world to ban selected bioengineering on food, the US does not even require labeling and safety testing of such foods. At this time 40% of the soy and 20% of all corn is engineered. Soy is a major ingredient in baby food. 40 minutes, (1998)
code: A 125 To order a cassette copy click here: $8.00
 

UNEDITED CONFERENCE TAPES:
Beyond Biodevastation 2001, San Diego, June 22/23

Dear Friends,
If you are interested in more detail on the issues of biotechnology you can go back to the full, unedited conference tapes that are listed below.

We recorded all events at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego and the first two sessions at the Starlight Bowl. Tapes are 90 minutes long.
Maria Gilardin

Friday, June 22

Code: BIO201
To order a copy click here: $8.00
Food Issues - Food First's Dr. Peter Rosset and Canada's Brewster and Cathleen Kneen (co-editors,The Ramshorn) This material is now also available as a radio program. Click HERE to see the description)

Code: BIO202
To order a copy click here: $8.00
Farm Issues - Bill Wenzel (Farmer-to-Farmer Campaign), John Kinsman (Family Farm Defenders/NFFC), Bill Christison (National Family Farm Coalition), Percy Schmeiser (Canadian farmer sued by Monsanto), Ted Quaday (Farm Aid), moderator. This material is now also available as a radio program. Click HERE to see the description)

Code: BIO203
To order a copy click here: $8.00
Science and Genetic Engineering - Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher (UK Nexus group), Dr. Martha Crouch (formerly of University of Indiana, expert on "terminator"), and Brian Tokar (ISE), moderating

Code: BIO204
To order a copy click here: $8.00
Organics and Other Alternatives - Marc Lipson (Organic Farming Research Foundation), Brian Leahy (California Certified Organic Farmers), Claire Cummings (Food and Farm Forum), and Vandana Shiva (Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology, India) This material is now also available as a radio program. Click HERE to see the description)

Code: BIO205
To order a copy click here: $8.00
Biowarfare - Edward Hammond and Susana Pimiento (both of the Sunshine Project)

Code: BIO206
To order a copy click here: $8.00
Human Genetic Engineering – Dr. Marcy Danovsky (The Exploratory Initiative on the New Human Genetic technologies), Dr. Paul Billings (Council for Responsible Genetics), Andrew Imparato (American Association for People with Disabilities)

Code: BIO207
To order a copy click here: $8.00
Patents, Biopiracy, and Globalization - Vandana Shiva (Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology), Andrew Kimbrell (Center for Technology Assessment and Center for Food Safety), Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Director of the Indigenous Peoples' Center for Policy Research and Education, The Philippines and member of the Third World Network), Andrés Barreda (Professor, UNAM, Mexico), Chaia Heller (Institute for Social Ecology), and Beth Burrows (Edmonds Institute), moderating
This material is now also available as a radio program. Click HERE to see the description)

Saturday, June 23

Code: BIO208
To order a copy click here: $8.00
Starlight Bowl: Panel One
Food First's Dr. Peter Rosset, Andrew Kimbrell (Center for Food Safety),  John Kinsman (Family Farm Defenders/ NFFC),  Bill Christison (National Family Farm Coalition), and Percy Schmeiser (Canadian farmer being sued by Monsanto)

Code: BIO209
To order a copy click here: $8.00
Starlight Bowl: Panel Two
Steve Wilson & Jane Akre, Goldman Award winning reporters who fought for the right to report their findings on recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH)
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Director of the Indigenous Peoples' Center for Policy Research and Education, The Philippines and member of the Third World Network) on biopiracy and on indigenous perspectives on genetic engineering.
Vandana Shiva (ecologist/author/activist and Director, Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology, India) - on Biodiversity, Genetic Engineering, and Globalization.

BIO210
To order all 9 tapes click here: $70