No, Monsanto Is Not Going On Trial For Crimes Against Humanity

[HuckleB]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kavinsenapathy/2015/12/07/no-monsanto-is-not-going-on-trial-for-crimes-against-humanity/

“Monsanto on trial for crimes against nature and humanity,” a headline for The Ecologist declared on Sunday. Other fringe websites reported similar news of the so-called International Monsanto Tribune set to take place in the Hague, the seat of Dutch government, in October of next year. Thus far, no mainstream media has reported on the plan, because it’s not a real tril.

Nevertheless, the group organizing the tribunal is doing its best to paint the event as a legitimate trial. The tribunal, the group’s website explains, will rely on “the ‘Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights’ adopted at the UN in 2011,” and “assess potential criminal liability on the basis of the Rome Statue (sic) that created the International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2002.”

While the verbiage sounds official, this tribunal is not governed by the United Nations nor the International Criminal Court, an international treaty-based court not affiliated with the UN. Instead, the group is using the guidelines of both for their trial, in a seeming attempt to lend authenticity to a glorified meeting of the who’s who of anti-biotech science deniers, during which they will undoubtedly find their absent defendant guilty.

Most of the tribunal leaders have one thing in common: they are part of organic movement special interests, and they all demonize creators of Genetically Modified Organisms. These crops created with modern molecular genetic engineering are better known as “GMOs”–a scientifically arbitrary term, because the vast majority of foods we consume, even organic foods, have had their genomes altered in the field or in a lab with techniques ranging from well-known selective breeding to lesser-known wide cross hybridization, which unnaturally “forces” organisms of different species or genera to produce offspring.


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No one has to like Monsanto, or even acknowledge the scientific consensus that GMOs are safe, to recognize a certain story that has earned almost 200 likes at DU is not accurate.

There is no legal trial. It has nothing to do with the UN, or the international legal organizations related to the Hague.

DU should be better than this, even if we disagree. We need to stand up against bad propaganda of all types.

Progressives don't fall for this stuff.

Period.

[jeff47]

1. But it's INTERNATIONAL!!!!

(earlier thread here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027429215 )

[HuckleB]

2. Sorry, I missed that post. Too much celebrating happening in Portland right now!

Still, it has one like? ANd did I just give it that one like?

Sheesh. DU is struggling with this science thing right now.

[Archae]

3. Every year since 2008, (!) I've seen stories about groups that put Obama on "trial."

Yes, even before he was even elected the first time, right-wing groups were putting Obama on trial, for just about anything they could make up.
Treason, sex crimes, murder, you name it.

They sometimes did have a legit lawyer, but most of the time they had lawyers like Larry Klayman.

The "judge" was self-appointed, and the "jury" was fellow far-right kooks.

This is exactly what the anti-Monsanto kangaroo court will be like.

Funny thing, Bill Nye the Science Guy actually visited Monsanto at their invitation.

And it wasn't a bunch of mad scientists cackling gleefully as they jabbed hypos into fruit or animals at random.

http://ecowatch.com/2015/07/14/was-bill-nye-paid-by-monsanto-gmos/

[HuckleB]

6. The blind ideology that promotes baseless demonization is strong.

No matter the topic, nor the origins.

[Archae]

8. Yup, I'm afraid it is in all aspects of our lives too.

Just look at the election in the past couple days in Venezuela.
It's painfully obvious the people themselves rejected Maduro and his cronies.

Yet the "Maduro can do no wrong" crowd is blaming the loss on the US, the CIA, "the 1%," anyone and everyone except the corrupt, incompetent Chavitas.

And this is nothing new.

Back in the late 70's, many liberals in the US were talking up this guy named Ayatollah Khomeini, I was really wary of him and voiced my wariness, I saw how much of a religious kook he was.
But...since he was anti-Shah, he was ok to some liberal groups and politicians.
And look how that turned out.

I also see too many of the old "Pilgrims to Arafat," who still have a "Palestinians can do no wrong" mentality.
No matter how brutal or corrupt they are.

And here we have a "Monsanto is Satan" mentality, Monsanto did do some rotten stuff, no one sane disputes that.
Agent orange was a fiasco.
But the people responsible for that are dead or have retired.
Roundup is not Agent Orange.

[HuckleB]

9. Indeed. Good post. -eom-

[Archae]

10. Thanks.

[Nailzberg]

4. The peer advisory board of some local community college has more legal authority.

At least I was able to identify three more crackpots in my social media feed today, so this trial story wasn't a total waste.

[HuckleB]

5. Don't dismiss the local CC so easily.

Most of those folks know their basic science, quite well.

[reddread]

7. Progressives have a sense of humor. Period. Authoritarians?

I couldnt tell you, but if so Id say the joke is on us.
There is not so much as a thin line between the Weekly World News
and the resources most people use, so drawing the line is more than
just arbitrary.

[951-Riverside]

11. Next you're going to tell me Mark Zuckerberg isn't actually giving away his fortune to charity...