A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF FOOD SYSTEM ANALYSIS

No. 297, May-June 2013

ISSN 0827-4053

Democracy and the State

Canada is easy to love at this time of year, when trees are flowering, fields are turning green and farmers markets are selling asparagus and spring greens. Its easy to feel secure in the wealth of the country, and to be a little complacent and not notice that the major institutions that we entrust with the just organization of society and its economy are failing before our very eyes, or rather, they are being dismembered and deconstructed, by both intention and corruption. Being a polite people, we are very reluctant to use the word corruption, reserving it for foreign dictators who line their own pockets at the expense of their people. Although his [former] chief of staff is, apparently, free to write a personal cheque for $90,000 with somewhat obscure repayment obligations, Prime Minister Harper does not appear to be enriching himself at public expense. He is, however, using public funds to engage in massive propaganda campaigns on behalf of himself and his party. More to the point, he is deliberately taking apart public institutions (such as Library and Archives Canada and Statistics Canada) which provide the information we need to be active citizens; and while his job as Prime Minister is to uphold and protect our democratic institutions he is busy degrading and undermining them, right up to and including Parliament itself. We also have trouble with that other c word, capitalism, which makes it difficult to identify the process that corrupts our food system to serve corporate interests and the Harper agenda of Trade. This is what frames our efforts to build just and ecologically sound food systems from the ground (and water) up, but we need to gain a different vantage point if these efforts are to succeed. In other words, we cannot remain standing where we are now, at the edge of the cliff, but have to move to higher ground to gain a fresh perspective. Such a move is never easy, but the courage to do so will, we hope, emerge from the realization that we are running out of democracy rule by the people and being carried back to more
DEMOCRACY COLLAPSE DISORDER

ancient totalitarian modes of governance with corporations replacing feudal lords and the nobility reduced to a single individual. Sheldon Wolin offers a disturbing view of what is happening to the institutional context we still take for granted as at least somewhat responsive and benevolent. He builds his analysis around the idea of inverted totalitarianism which represents the political coming-of-age of corporate power and the political demobilization of the citizenry. Unlike the classic totalitarian regimes which lost no opportunity for dramatizing and insisting upon a radical transformation that virtually eradicated all traces of the previous system, inverted totalitarianism has emerged imperceptibly, and in seeming unbroken continuity with the nations political traditions.
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In classical totalitarianism economics was subordinated to politics. Under inverted totalitarianism . . . economics dominates politics. Almost from the beginning of the Cold War, the citizenry, supposedly the source of governmental power and authority as well as a participant, has been replaced by the electorate, that is, by voters who acquire a political life at election time. During the intervals between elections the political existence of the citizenry is relegated to a shadowcitizenship of virtual participation. Instead of participating in power, the virtual citizen is invited to have opinions: measurable responses to questions predesigned to deliver them. Sheldon Wolin, Democracy Incorporated, Managed
Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism, Princeton, 2008,2010

So Globe & Mail columnist Barrie McKenna reports that many experts [say] that Canada has all the competitive advantages to be a food-export colossus if only it would overhaul supply management. McKenna cites an American economist who says that Canada is missing out on exploding demand for milk and chicken in emerging countries. Apart from wondering what an emerging country is, we have to wonder why these emerging countries are not providing their own milk and chicken. Perhaps it has something to do with who controls their agriculture and to what end. Perhaps it has to do with land grabs and production of biofuels for export. McKenna concludes his column: Its up to Canadians to determine if Ottawa is protecting a thriving economic force or. . . propping up an economic deadweight. GM, 3/6/13 We find it hard to think of milk cows and chickens as economic forces, or agriculture as economic deadweight. But then, we dont write for the capitalist press either. Our disappearing democracy hampers our efforts to feed ourselves (all of us, that is) while letting others feed themselves without being forced to become markets for our corporate exports. It would be bad news for our Gross Domestic Product if we were to construct a food system that is more labour intensive and small scale and much less capital intensive, but good for our health and the health of the environment. In fact, one good measure of a healthy economy might be a diminishing GDP, which would indicate an increasing selfreliance and autonomy. From the higher ground, we can observe that industrial monoculture, with its rigidities, is likely to be hugely affected by climate change. We are aware of the necessity of maintaining, if not increasing, biological diversity, but structural diversity is also important. The monocultural business model that dominates our food system must be fractured, broken down into more efficient, localized units that may well and should work cooperatively even while their structures and governance are increasingly differentiated. It is even quite feasible for such small units to do well within the current context as long as both parties understand how they each play the game and respect the differences. For example, Northumberlamb, a small local farmer-run cooperative, has done business for 30 years with one of the three largest grocery chains in the country. However, the cooperators have to be clear about and true to their principles and not be tempted to become baby capitalists. Another argument in favour of such a direction is reflected in recent headlines in both the Ottawa Citizen and the Globe and Mail: Canada threatens U.S. over

Rev. Bill Chu of Chinese Christians in Action in B.C., commenting on the BC government refusal to act on evidence that coastal fish farms are destroying wild salmon stocks, writes: When we emigrated from the former British colony of Hong Kong, we were excited at finally having a chance to vote in a democratic Canada. Yet after almost forty years and watching this, I agree Canada is more a corporatocracy where corporations having achieved immortality by incorporation, are able to remote control the government. Elections, he says, work like the gladiator games in the Roman Colosseum. During election, political hopefuls are let loose and are allowed to smear others and even deceive the public about parties performances. The goal apparently is not to raise or debate real issues, but to entertain and numb the masses from the memory of broken promises and corruption ... $ millions are spent on attack ads, image consultants, robocalls, polls and lawn signs, bringing the make believe battle into homes across BC. To rouse the citizens further, wild animals (spin doctors) are unexpectedly released to cause more excitement. So what does this mean for food sovereignty? We need to organize thousands of local economies in response to the economics of globalization, suggests our friend Ray Epp in Japan. It most obviously means an end to the deeply embedded Canadian agricultural policy dedicated to production for export. We choose these words carefully. Production characterizes industrial agriculture that is measured by quantity, not quality or satisfaction of human needs with respect for the land and future generations. It becomes essentially another exercise in mining. Maximizing exports provides corporate profit and feeds that virtual demon, the economy in the short term. Nothing else counts, quite literally.

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meat labels and Ottawa ups ante in U.S. trade dispute. At issue is U.S. labeling policy, implemented in 2008, that requires the labeling of meat at the retail level as to country of origin. Ag. Minister Gerry Ritz insisted we will continue to stand with Canadian hog and cattle producers against mandatory country-oforigin labelling. The WTO ruled a year ago that this discriminated against Canada and Mexico and gave the U.S. until this past May to conform to WTO demands.

Africa (equivalent to almost half the area of England ) have been taken over by European companies to grow biofuel crops. If you shop at Loblaws or the Real Canadian Superstore, Provigo, No Frills or other Loblaw aliases you should know that the top executives of Loblaws and George Weston, the parent of Loblaws, receive in annual remuneration 549 times and 517 times, respectively, what their average workers receive per year in Corporate Knights, summer 2013 wages.

Cargill News
Cargill Inc.has rolled out a new initiative to help food and beverage manufacturers increase the nutritional quality of food designed for children. Key to Cargills new initiative is a website, childhood-nutrition.com, which is aimed at food companies and the issues they face in reformulating products. Reformulation is a tricky process: While strides in health need to be made, taste cant suffer or product sales will fall. The packaged food industry a prime customer base for Cargills food ingredients division has been under increasing pressure in recent years to cut fat, sugar and salt from their products. . . Cargill makes ingredients that allow for salt reduction, lessen the need for sugar, and reduce fat or calories. Mpls. Star-Tribune, 1/5/13

COOL CATTLE

The response of the U.S. has, however, been to require more complete identification of meat as to where it was born, raised, and slaughtered. These rules cut Canadian shipments of cattle to the US by 50% and hogs by 58% . The industry simply found it cheaper to source meat in the USA rather than truck it through a long cross-border food chain. The real issue, of course, is export-based agriculture. Instead of rattling the sword of retaliation, Ritz should repent his dedication to export agriculture and call for an ag policy of diversification and self-sufficiency. Hog and beef producers would have to rethink their production model, which would be a very good thing. But would Cargill, in charge of so much of the beef business, be glad to restructure its business to support local production for regional, or at least national, markets?

Thinking strategically, Cargill CEO Greg Page prefers 24 years to 24 months, and says Twenty-four years is better, it would resonate far better with the family. By family he means the Cargill and MacMillan family share-holders who have owned the company for 148 years. The family shareholders want their company to have a noble purpose and do work they can be proud of. They want a company that wont just fold up in any financial crisis, drought or political upheaval. That means not betting the farm on any market or geography, and achieving a level of portfolio diversification that should be comforting if Cargill were the only stock a shareholder owned. Balance means investing for short-term opportunities as well as long-term, in developed countries and emerging economies, adding capacity in mature businesses as well as funding innovations, and so on. The other thing is we have to be growth-driven, which is pretty powerful language if you think about it, Page said. The family [shareholders] have been unbelievably permanent and patient capital providers.
ST,14/4/13, interview by Lee Schafer

Inequity
Half the worlds hungry 441 million people could eat for a year on the amount of food that G8 countries burn in their petrol tanks as biofuels, says anti-poverty agency ActionAid. New data reveal that nearly nine billion litres of biofuels are used annually to fuel cars in the worlds wealthiest countries. The report also highlights that six million hectares of land in sub-Saharan

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As he turned over his job to Jeff Vassart, Cargill Canada president Len Penner said that Cargill now has six times the capital investment in Canada than it did in 1990. He also pointed out, as Greg Page did, that Cargill connects all the parts of the food chain due to its position in the middle. WP,6/7/13

The Monsanto File

It would be so nice to have Monsanto evaporate so that we didnt have to report on its evil ways any longer. But since the company continues to pursue its relentless campaign to gain control of global agriculture via seeds, with the aid of genetic engineering, patents, monopoly, and immense amounts of propaganda, we feel we have no choice. If Monsanto did exit, we would want to ensure that it leaves behind (in a credit union, not one of the big banks) several billions of dollars to be distributed as compensation to its millions of victims. At the top of the list of those to be compensated would be the peasant women, children and men who have been fumigated, as the Argentinians say, by aerial spraying of glyphosate on transgenic monoculture soybeans. There is another reason to closely monitor Monsanto. Its the same reasoning that lay behind all Brewsters work on Cargill: if you dont want to be victimized, then you need to have an intimate knowledge of how the victimizer works so you can identify its vulnerable parts. So heres a rundown on some of its current activities.

At this stage we believe these changes have become irreversible, said Argentinas CIARA grains industry organization. We have been facing restrictions as an industry on our capacity to deliver a steady 47% protein soybean meal as specified in the present standard contractual terms, the chamber said. To reflect actual protein content in Argentine Hipro Soybean Meal, CIARA associates agreed to lower the protein content terms of their standard contracts to 46.5%. Minimum protein content in the contracts was moved at the start of this month to 45.5% from 46%. Argentina is the worlds No. 1 exporter of soymeal cattle feed, used throughout Europe and as far away as China. Argentina is also the worlds top exporter of soyoil, used in the booming international biofuels sector, as well as the No. 3 supplier of soybeans. The country has embraced GMO technology as a way of increasing soybean harvest size, leaving the protein content of new varieties of beans a secondary concern even though this is an important factor when judging the quality of soymeal. One reason for the reduction in protein is the increase in extreme weather, going more frequently from floods to drought and back again. Another is the new genetically engineered yield-oriented soy varieties are lower on protein content, even though yields are higher. Reuters, 4/6/13

Monsanto says it will no longer push for expansion of genetically modified crops in most of Europe.
Corporate spokesman Thomas Helscher said that the company will only pursue market penetration of biotech crops in areas that provide broad support. Were going to sell the GM seeds only where they enjoy broad farmer support, broad political support and a functioning regulatory system. This only applies to Spain and Portugal. Reuters, 31/5/13

Whats wandering in my field of wheat? Stray genes or Monsanto spies?

The news about GMO contamination of wheat in a farmers field in Oregon makes a really simple statement: genes do not stay in one place, either in an organism, a lab, a farmers field or anywhere in between, contrary to the premise of genetic engineering. The U.S. Department of Agricultures Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced on May 29th that test results of plant samples from an Oregon farm indicate the presence of genetically engineered glyphosate-resistant wheat plants. Further testing by USDA laboratories indicates the presence of the same GE glyphosate-resistant wheat variety that Monsanto was authorized to field test in 16 states from 1998 to 2005. USDA records reveal that Monsanto conducted 279 field tests of herbicide-resistant wheat on over 4,000 acres since 1994. Monsanto once again began extensive field-testing of GE wheat in 2011. The field trials were conducted under a streamlined system known as notification, which is more

The protein content of Argentine soybeans has fallen and is not expected to recover.
The reason for the slouch in protein varies from new weather patterns to the emphasis that farmers have put on GMO technology focused on increasing yields at the expense of bean content. During the last years we have seen a steady reduction of the protein content in Argentine Soybeans.

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lenient than the tightly controlled permitting process. Under the permit process, companies must establish buffer areas around field trial sites to help avoid contamination of neighboring fields; use only dedicated machinery and storage facilities for GMO material; and train personnel. Annual inspections are required. Under the notification process, there are fewer field inspections and regulators rely largely on developers like Monsanto for evaluating and reporting the adequacy of their controls. Over time, more and more field trials have come under the notification process and it now accounts for the vast majority of field trials on biotech crops. Reuters, 4/6/13 Monsanto said experimental wheat engineered to survive Roundup weedkiller may have gotten into the Oregon field through an accidental or purposeful act. Monsantos Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley said, It seems likely to be a random, isolated occurrence more consistent with the accidental or purposeful mixing of a small amount of seed during the planting, harvesting or during the fallow cycle in an individual field. Asked whether the incident could be an act of sabotage, Fraley said, That is certainly one of the options we are looking at. Fraley said he doesnt mean to suggest the farmer who made the discovery is Bloomberg, 5/6/13 responsible. The news caused Japan and South Korea to suspend their U.S. wheat purchases. Asia imports more than 40 million tonnes of wheat annually, almost a third of the global trade of 140-150 million tonnes. The bulk of the regions supplies come from the United States, the worlds biggest exporter, and Australia, the No. 2 supplier. China has emerged as a key buyer of U.S. wheat this year, taking around 1.5 million tonnes in the past two months. Chinese purchases in the year to June 2014 are estimated to rise 21% to 3.5 million tonnes, according to the USDA, with most shipments coming from the United States, Australia and Canada.
Reuters, 30/5/13

Several plant scientists questioned conclusions Monsanto drew from its investigation of the escaped gene-altered wheat variety and said there is still a risk that rogue grain is in the seed supply. We dont know where in the whole chain it is, said Carol MallorySmith, the weed science professor at Oregon State University who tested the initial wheat plants and determined they were a genetic variety Monsanto had tested. I dont know how Monsanto can declare anything. We obviously had these plants in the field. . . We cant come up with any great logical explanation for what happened, Mallory-Smith said in an interview. You introduce something into the environment, and genes move around in the environment, whether transgenic or not. Business Week, 6/6/13

US Federal Court Backs Monsantos Claims: from court documents

Respondent Monsanto invented and patented Roundup Ready soybean seeds, which contain a genetic alteration that allows them to survive exposure to the herbicide glyphosate. It sells the seeds subject to a licensing agreement that permits farmers to plant the purchased seed in one, and only one, growing season. Growers may consume or sell the resulting crops, but may not save any of the harvested soybeans for replanting. Petitioner Bowman purchased Roundup Ready soybean seed for his first crop of each growing season from a company associated with Monsanto and followed the terms of the licensing agreement. But to reduce costs for his riskier late-season planting, Bowman purchased soybeans intended for consumption from a grain elevator; planted them; treated the plants with glyphosate, killing all plants without the Roundup Ready trait; harvested the resulting soybeans that contained that trait; and saved some of these harvested seeds to use in his late-season planting the next season. After discovering this practice, Monsanto sued Bowman for patent infringement. Bowman raised the defense of patent exhaustion, which gives the purchaser of a patented article, or any subsequent owner, the right to use or resell that article. The District Court rejected Bowmans defense and the Federal Circuit affirmed. Bowman V. Monsanto Co. et al.

This is an embarrassment for Monsanto, not as much with the public as it is with food companies, said Gene Grabowski, a former senior executive at the Grocery Manufacturers Association. I was in board meetings where I remember food company CEOs who were very concerned about the idea that Monsanto was pushing for approval for biotech wheat, he said. They didnt want it because they already had their hands full dealing with repercussions of biotech corn and soy. Nevertheless, Monsanto continues to test strains of gene-altered wheat in Hawaii and North Dakota.

Milking the subsidy cow

Monsanto Co. plans to spend more than $400 million to expand its research center in St. Louis. The expansion includes 36

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greenhouses and 250 labs and plant growth chambers. Jerry Steiner, Monsantos executive vice president for sustainability and corporate affairs, said, This gives our researchers what they need to get farmers the tools they need so that we all 9 billion of us in a few decades will be able to get the food we need. State and local incentives will total up to $53.5 million, including tax credits contingent on new job creation. Monsanto will be eligible for $22 million in Missouri Quality Jobs tax credits if it creates all 675 promised jobs, and the Missouri Development Finance Board is considering a request for $9.5 million in Build Missouri bonds. St. Louis County plans to offer about $22 million in tax breaks. Over the last year, the company has underscored two focuses in its strategy. One new technology area, called Integrated Farming Systems, enables farmers to use data specific to Monsantos technologies in their fields and plant according to a prescription provided by the company.

Even Worse Than We Thought

Heavy use of Roundup could be linked to a range of health problems and diseases, including Alzheimers, infertility and cancers, according to a new study. The peer-reviewed report, published last week in the scientific journal Entropy*, said evidence indicates that residues of glyphosate, the chief ingredient in Roundup weed killer, which is sprayed over millions of acres of crops, has been found in food.
*Entropy 2013, 15(4), 1416-1463; doi:10.3390/e15041416

$$

Those residues enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease, according to the report, authored by Stephanie Seneff, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Anthony Samsel, a retired science consultant. Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body, the study says.

The company has also emphasized its emerging biologicals platform, which centers on topical seed treatment products that could potentially control viruses, kill insects and provide more weed control.
St. Louis Post Dispatch, 23/4/13

An Act To Protect Maine Food Consumers' Right To Know about Genetically Engineered Food and Seed Stock
The vote in support of a bill sponsored by Rep. Lance Harvell, R-Farmington, Maine, sets the stage for a legal fight between the state and Monsanto, which has threatened to sue states that pass similar labeling laws. A political battle between industry interests and the well-organized supporters of the bill has raged behind the scenes for several months at the State House, with the biotech industry fighting to blunt a popular movement that has taken the fight to at least 18 other state legislatures following failed attempts to pass labeling legislation in Congress. The House voted 141-4 in favor of an amendment that would trigger the labeling requirement once five contiguous states, including Maine, pass similar legislation." Source: The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday
Telegram, USA, 11/6/13

Environmentalists, consumer groups and plant scientists from several countries have warned that heavy use of glyphosate is causing problems for plants, people and animals. The EPA is conducting a standard registration review of glyphosate and has set a deadline of 2015 for determining if glyphosate use should be limited. The study is among many comments submitted to the agency. . . Of the more than two dozen top herbicides on the market, glyphosate is the most popular. In 2007, as much as 185 million pounds of glyphosate was used by U.S. farmers, double the amount used six years ago, according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data. Reuters, 25/4/13 Dr. Seneff has compiled a presentation pointing out the biological effects of consuming glyphosate and the similarities with the biomarkers of autism and Alzheimers disease; she also has graphs showing the rise of autism tracking the same path as the increased use of glyphosate in the US. She comments: To my knowledge, no studies have been done assessing the effects of glyphosate on humans. The U.S. government does minimal monitoring of glyphosate residues in foods. The graphics are brilliant and frightening and available at: http://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/
WAPF_Slides_2012/Offsite_Seneff_Handout.pdf

Editors note: Personal attacks on Dr. Seneffs integrity from the industry are so predictable that we will not bother to report on them.

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Sobeys Buys Safeway

Sobeys was the prominent grocery chain (locally-owned) in the Maritimes when we established Northumberlamb and started supplying their stores with fresh lamb some thirty years ago. Following the industry-wide pattern of consolidation and expansion over the years since then, Sobey's worked its way up to No.2 position behind Loblaws. Now Sobey's has consolidate itsposition with the acquisition of Safeway's Canadian operations for $5.8 billion cash. This is in the context of Walmart's and more recently, Target's entry into the Canadian supermarket scene. These two giants seem bent on gobbling up the market, leaving the inconvenient market locations and segments for the little guys and specialty stores. While this is described as about competitiveness as well as efficiencies of scale, we note that Sobey's is already the supplier for Target's grocery department. A piece of us wants to congratulate what we always regarded as a wellrun business, but the rest of us simply does not believe that bigger is better, regardless of the 'efficiencies' as they might appear to the Board of Directors.

Walter Ritte, a Hawaii activist, speaking in part in the Hawaiian indigenous language, said, All of the resources that our kapuna [elders] gave to us, we need to take care of now for the next generation. That is our kuleana [responsibility]. That is everybodys kuleana.

In the movement, protesting and acting as caretakers of the land are no longer viewed as separate actions. Their slogan is Aloha mina: De-occupy Hawaii. The phrase Aloha mina is commonly defined as love of the land, but the phrase has also signified love for the country. Historically, it was used by individuals and groups fighting for the restoration of the independent Hawaiian nation, and it is now frequently deployed at anti-GMO protests when people speak of Hawaiian sovereignty and independence. Protests also include cultural events (music, poetry and dance) and share free locally grown food. They plant traditional plants such as coconut trees and taro, and at a protest on the Big Island, hundreds participated in the traditional process of pounding taro to make NEONICOTINOID PESTICIDES poi, a Polynesian staple food.
LINKED TO BEE DEATH

Hawaii: Food and Sovereignty

At 9 a.m. on an overcast morning in Molokai, one of the smallest of Hawaiis main islands, hundreds of protesters gathered in traditional Hawaiian chant and prayer. This spirited march was the last of a series of protests on the five Hawaiian islands that Monsanto and other biotech companies have turned into the worlds ground zero for chemical testing and GMOs, taking advantage of Hawaiis geographical isolation. In the past 20 years, five of the worlds largest biotech chemical corporations, Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont Pioneer and BASF, have performed over 5,000 openfield-test experiments of pesticide-resistant crops on an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 acres of Hawaiian land without any disclosure, making the place and its people a guinea pig for biotech engineering. In Hawaiian indigenous culture, the very idea of GMOs is effectively sacrilegious. For Hawaiis indigenous peoples, the concepts underlying genetic manipulation of life forms are offensive and contrary to the cultural values of Aloha mina [love for the land], wrote Mililani B. Strask, a native Hawaiian attorney.

The import economy is a new reality for Hawaii, directly tied to the imposition of modern food practices on the island. Ancient Hawaii operated within the Ahupuaa system, a communal model of distributing land and work, which allowed the islands to be entirely selfsufficient. Private land ownership was unknown, and public, common use of the Ahupuaa resources demanded that boundaries be drawn to include sufficient land for residence and cultivation, freshwater sources, shoreline and open ocean access, explained Carol Silva, an historian and Hawaiian language professor. Inspired by the Ahupuaa model, the food sovereignty movement is building an organic local system that fosters the connections between communities and their food a way of resisting GMOs while simultaneously creating alternatives.

Colonial history
The decline of the Ahupuaa system didnt only set Hawaii on the path away from food sovereignty; it also destroyed its political independence. When protesters chant Aloha mina at anti-GMO marches, they are

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alluding to the fact that this fight isnt only over competing visions of land use and food creation. Its also a battle for the islands political sovereignty. The presence of Monsanto and the other chemical corporations is eerily reminiscent of the business interests that led to the overthrow of the independent Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893, when a group of American businessmen and sugar planters orchestrated a U.S. Marines armed coup detat of the Hawaiian Kingdom government. Five years later, the U.S. appropriated the islands for strategic military use during the Spanish-American War despite local resistance. Hawaii remained a U.S. colony for the following 60 years, and is now a U.S. State.

come the largest employer on Molokai. The biotech engineering companies are financially linked to the local government, schools and university. Monsanto partially funds the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawaii. The university and the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center began the process of genetically engineering taro in 2003 after the university patented three of its varieties. Once this information became widely known, it incited an uproar of objection from the Hawaiian community. Taro holds spiritual significance in the islands indigenous culture, in which it is honored as the first Hawaiian ancestor in the creation story.

TARO ROOT

The annexation of Hawaii profited five sugarcanemanufacturing companies commonly referred to as the Big Five. After the takeover, the Big Five manipulated great political power and influence in what was then considered the Territory of Hawaii, gaining unparalleled control of banking, shipping and importing on the island chain. The current presence of the five biotech chemical corporations in Hawaii mirrors the political and economic colonialism of the Big Five in the early 20th century particularly because Monsanto has be-

It felt like we were being violated by the scientific community, wrote Ritte in Facing Hawaiis Future. For the Hawaiian community, taro is not just a plant. Its a family member. Its our common ancestor Haloa. . . . They werent satisfied with just taking our land; now they wanted to take our mana, our spirit too. The public outcry eventually drove the university to drop its patents. Source: Alternet, USA, 12/4/13
(see also The Rams Horn #254)

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