In a stunning victory against genetically modified creations, Syngenta, a major producer of genetically modified organisms (GMO) has “been criminally charged for denying knowledge that its GM Bt corn actually kills livestock. Not only did the company deny this fact, but they did so in a civil court case that ended back in 2007. The charges were finally issued after a long legal struggle against the mega corp initiated by a German farmer named Gottfried Gloeckner whose dairy cattle died after eating the Bt toxin and came down with a ‘mysterious’ illness.”
More than a decade ago, back in the 1990s, Syngenta tested its GMO corn on livestock, and they died. Then the company continued to sell its GMO corn to farmers around the globe, but management didn’t bother to say anything about the results of its own tests to anybody.
The cows on Gloeckner’s “farm were all being fed exclusively on Syngenta’s Bt 176 corn by the year 2000. It was around this time that the mysterious illnesses began to emerge among the cattle population. Syngenta paid Gloeckner 40,000 euros in an effort to silence the farmer, however a civil lawsuit was brought upon the company. Amazingly, 2 cows ate genetically modified maize (now banned in Poland over serious concerns) and died. During the civil lawsuit, however, Syngenta refused to admit that its GM corn was responsible. In fact, they went as far as to claim having no knowledge whatsoever of harm.” Obviously, they lied.
The case was dismissed and Gloeckner, the farmer who launched the suit, was left thousands of euros in debt. Gloeckner also continued to lose many cows as a result of Syngenta’s modified Bt corn. He stopped using the Bt poison 2002, and teamed up with a German action group known as Bündnis Aktion Gen-Klage in 2009. Gloeckner continued doing research and learned of the Syngenta test of their GMO Bt poison that killed 4 cows in 2 days back in 1996.
Now Gloeckner, along with Bundnis Aktion Gen-Klage and another farmer turned activist Urs Hans, have brought Syngenta to the criminal court to face charges of withholding knowledge, which makes the company liable for the destruction of the farmer’s 65 cows. Syngenta is also charged with the deaths of cattle in the US. Most seriously, the German head of Syngenta Hans-Theo Jahmann, is charged for withholding knowledge of the US study from the judge and from Gloecker in the original civil court case. It is a federal offense in Germany to withhold information in criminal or civil cases.
Germany is not alone in this problem. Thousands of cows have died in India after consuming GMO cotton. The stuff has been known to have killed people in the Phillipines and other health problems after consuming GMO products. There are a myriad of health problems linked to GMO products, but Monsanto President Barack Obama continues to champion GMO products in the USA.
Click the link below for the complete story.
http://www.qwmagazine.com/2012/06/14/brazilian-farmers-win-2-billion-judgment-against-monsanto/
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