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Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 10:51:26 -0700
From: "GMWatch" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: GMW: WWF beds with Monsanto
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WWF beds with Monsanto to steal public lands, promote GM crops
Rady Ananda
Living Green Magazine, March 8 2012
http://livinggreenmag.com/2012/03/08/green-business/new-film-wwf-beds-wit=
h-monsanto-to-steal-public-lands-promote-gm-crops/

A 2011 film by Wilfried Huismann, The Silence of the Pandas, targets the =
World Wildlife Fund, the largest, most trusted, and best-funded environme=
ntal "protection" organization in the world.	Its reputation does not live=
 up to its actions, however, which green wash industries that are destroy=
ing the environment as well as indigenous cultures.

Covering WWF=E2=80=99s genesis on Sept. 11, 1961 (a rather treacherous bi=
rth date), the film follows the money showing how donations from governme=
nt heads and the oil industry enabled its birth.  The film then reveals t=
hat WWF has since joined forces with GM agribusiness to reapportion the p=
lanet for energy production and genetically modified food.

Box: "We need to start focusing on food production.  It takes 15 years to=
 bring a genetically engineered product to market. The clock is ticking. =
 We need to get moving." - Dr Jason Clay, Senior Vice President, World Wi=
ldlife Fund, 2010.

Originally aired in June on German TV under the name, Der Pakt mit dem Pa=
nda (The Pact with the Panda), the film prompted a frank denial from WWF,=
 which admits it works with industry because:

=E2=80=9CThe world=E2=80=99s environmental and conservation challenges ar=
e not going be solved without the help and support of big business.=E2=80=
=9D

WWF is =E2=80=9Cproud of our approach because it gets results.=E2=80=9D  =
Yes, we all know that the environment has improved drastically since 1961=
.  That must be why Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard entomologist, Edward O=
. Wilson, upped his 1972 species extinction rate from 75 to 200 species a=
 day in 2002.

Even the United Nations recognizes the Holocene Extinction that has only =
worsened over the past 50 years during WWF=E2=80=99s existence. This rece=
ntly led the secretary-general of the UN Convention on Biological Diversi=
ty to declare the environment =E2=80=9Ca total disaster.=E2=80=9D

Perhaps WWF=E2=80=99s "proud results" refer to the donations it receives.=
  Its 2010 financial statement reports nearly $500 million in revenues fo=
r the past two years.  Big business has tremendously profited from resour=
ce extraction over the past 50 years, as well.  WWF denies, however, that=
 donations from companies like Monsanto affect its policy in any way.

Others dispute this.  "WWF has integrated itself in the main lobby groups=
 of the World Trade Organisation to promote the privatization of the worl=
d=E2=80=99s remaining forests and to encourage the role of meaningless en=
vironmental certification," wrote Argentine biologist Javiera Rulli in 20=
10.

Indeed, the 60-year-old journalist, author, filmmaker and three-time winn=
er of the Adolf Grimme Award (German TV's top prize), Wilfried Huismann i=
s accustomed to research.  He=E2=80=99s worked for German television for =
the past 24 years and has produced over a dozen documentaries.  Dear Fide=
l =E2=80=93 a close look at the CIA and the Cold War through the eyes of =
one of Castro's lovers =E2=80=93 is another of his productions that has b=
een translated into several languages.

The Silence of the Pandas visits different parts of the globe where WWF c=
ooperates with agribiz, including Argentina. The film characterizes WWF a=
nd Monsanto as "the secret rulers in Argentina," destroying traditional a=
griculture and tribes =E2=80=93 the only humans who know how to live outs=
ide industrial civilization.

The film exposes how global oil players such as BP and Shell, along with =
the auto industry, also benefit from GM biodiesel to the detriment of the=
 environment and tribes.

Genetically modified soy requires the use of Monsanto's Roundup, an herbi=
cide that damages human DNA, causing birth defects, abortions and cancer.=
  Even crop dusters are adversely affected by fumes from their toxic spra=
ying, the film shows.

The United Soy Republic of South America, an advertising slogan, lives up=
 to its name by using GM crops to contaminate those in Brazil and Paragua=
y which had previously banned them.  In 2003, the head of WWF Argentina, =
Dr Hector Laurence, also served as president of the Agricultural Assn, AI=
MA; director of GMO company, Morgan Seeds; and as a representative of GM =
seed company, Pioneer.

The "soy desert of Argentina" is already the size of Germany, says Huisma=
nn, and the plan is to double it.  WWF greenlights this process by declar=
ing the Gran Chaco region "degraded by human exploitation."  They mean by=
 indigenous people, ignoring that huge sections of Chaco have been defore=
sted for soy plantations, which have altered the climate, leading to drou=
ght.

Industrial civilization is trying to solve its energy problems with biofu=
els, at the expense of food production. Argentines see this as Northern H=
emisphere theft from the Southern Hemisphere.

At the 2010 Round Table for Responsible Soy, which WWF founded in 2004, i=
t sided with Monsanto=E2=80=99s theft of public lands by deeming GM soy p=
roduction, enabled by toxic agrochemicals, "sustainable."  Over 230 group=
s immediately condemned the finding.

WWF justifies this by explaining that the RTRS operates independent of WW=
F, yet fails to explain its vote.

WWF also refused to publicize its position on genetically modified crops =
to Huismann. Through a little digging, he discovered that WWF vice presid=
ent, Dr Jason Clay, who managed the WWF deal with Monsanto, is listed on =
the Global Harvest Initiative.  Members of this corporate-agribiz lobby g=
roup include Monsanto, Cargill, ADM, and the World Wildlife Fund.

At a 2010 speech reproduced in the film, Dr Clay said, "We need to freeze=
 the footprint of agriculture."  Of the eight ways he envisions doing tha=
t, =E2=80=9COne is genetics.  We have got to produce more with less.=E2=80=
=9D  He urged the group to focus on all crops, not just temperate ones.

"We need to start focusing on the food production=E2=80=A6. It takes 15 y=
ears =E2=80=A6 to bring a genetically engineered product to market. The c=
lock is ticking. We need to get moving," he said.

Despite this, WWF denies giving its blessing "to genetically modified soy=
 or any other Genetically Modified Organism."	One then has to wonder why =
its senior VP would urge the opposite.

Meanwhile, working with WWF, the government of Indonesia has apportioned =
nine million hectares of forest for palm oil production in Papua, the fil=
m notes.  WWF denies any collusion here, as well, but its own report expo=
ses that lie.

GM palm monocultures, along with other development projects that benefit =
industrial civilization at the expense of indigenous people and the envir=
onment, have inspired a secession movement in Papua.	Resource-rich Papua =
wants independence from Indonesia to protect its subsistent, yet sustaina=
ble way of living.

State-sanctioned torture, along with military enforcement of land theft a=
nd eco-destruction, has President Obama=E2=80=99s seal of approval.	Despi=
te known human rights abuses, in 2010, the US began openly providing the =
Indonesia government with military support to quash tribal resistance.

Ah, life under Empire. Independent films like Silence of the Pandas help =
dispel the fa=C3=A7ade.

This article was originally published by Rady, along with her other excel=
lent blogs, at www.foodfreedomgroup.com.  Reprinted here through Creative=
 Commons permission.=20

See the article and watch the documentary at http://foodfreedomgroup.com/=
2011/09/14/new-film-wwf-beds-with-monsanto-to-steal-public-lands-promote-=
gm-crops/

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