by Kenneth Eade
In August 2011, WikiLeaks released U.S. diplomatic cables showing that the State Department had been lobbying worldwide for Monsanto and other biotechnology corporations like DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow. On May 14, 2013, the United States based non-profit organization “Food & Water Watch,” after reviewing these cables from 2005 through 2009, released its report entitled “Biotech Ambassadors: How the U.S. State Department Promotes the Seed Industry’s Global Agenda.” The report stated that the State Department has “lobbied foreign governments to adopt pro-agricultural biotechnology policies and laws, operated a rigorous public relations campaign to improve the image of biotechnology, and challenged commonsense biotechnology safeguards and rules – even including opposing laws requiring the labeling of genetically-engineered (GE) foods.”
Consortiumnews.com reported in March 2014 that, “Morgan Williams is at the nexus of Big Ag’s alliance with U.S. foreign policy.” Besides being president and CEO of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, Williams is also Director of Government Affairs at the private equity firm “SigmaBleyzer,” which touts Williams’ work with “various agencies of the U.S. government, members of Congress, congressional committees, the Embassy of Ukraine to the U.S., international financial institutions, think tanks and other organizations on U.S.-Ukraine business, trade, investment and economic development issues.”
The U.S.-Ukraine Business Council’s 16-member Executive Committee is packed with representatives from U.S. agribusiness companies, including Monsanto, John Deere, DuPont Pioneer, Eli Lilly, and Cargill. These organizations are at the forefront of introducing GMO products into an agricultural sector that they increasingly control. Also on the board of directors and working alongside with these corporations is the ubiquitous USAID, under the banner of the ago invest program.
The Council’s twenty “senior Advisors” include James Greene, the former Head of NATO’s Liason Office in Ukraine; Ariel Cohen, the Senior Research Fellow for The Heritage Foundation; Leonid Kozachenko, the President of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation; six former U.S. Ambassadors to Ukraine, and Oleh Shamshur, the former ambassador of Ukraine to the U.S.
Shamshur is now a senior advisor to PBN Hill + Knowlton Strategies – a unit of the PR giant Hill + Knowlton Strategies (H+K). H + K is a subsidiary of the gargantuan London-based WPP Group, which owns some dozen big PR firms, including Burson-Marsteller, a long-time Monsanto advisor.
On April 15, 2014 Toronto’s The Globe & Mail newspaper published an op-ed piece by H+K assistant consultant Olga Radchenko, which criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and “Mr. Putin’s PR machine” and stated that “Last month, a group of Kiev-based PR professionals formed the Ukraine Crisis Media Centre, a voluntary operation aimed at helping to communicate Ukraine’s image and manage its messaging on the global stage.”
The PBN Hill + Knowlton Strategies website stated that the company’s CEO, Myron Wasylyk, is “a Board member of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council,” and the company’s Managing Director/Ukraine, Oksana Monastyrska, “leads the firm’s work for Monsanto.” Monastyrska also formerly worked for the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.
On the Russian side of the GMO coin, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated in April 2014: “We don’t have a goal of developing GM products here or to import them. We can feed ourselves with normal, common, not genetically modified products. If the Americans like to eat such products, let them eat them. We don’t need to do that; we have enough space and opportunities to produce organic food.”
Ukraine has been making headlines during the past two years, from the trail of western intervention and subversion that lead to a violent coup in 2013 to the devastating civil war which has torn it apart. These stories have provided the perfect cover for international corporations to exploit Ukraine’s resources.
Since the declaration of its independence in 1992, international companies have been colonizing its agricultural sector. International agribusiness and biotechnology firms have lobbied for reform of Ukraine’s agricultural laws in order to eventually allow for an explosion in the production of genetically modified organisms.
Recent efforts to speed up this annexation of Ukrainian agriculture have been documented by the Oakland Institute. Their fact sheet on the “Corporate Takeover of Ukrainian Agriculture” sows how the law firm of “Frishberg and Partners” found loopholes in a moratorium on Ukrainian agricultural land sales, and uggested a two-step approach to circumventing this moratorium, which remains in force until January 1, 2016.
The first step is to lease Ukrainian land instead of purchasing it, a practice which provides ownership when combined with legal purchases of industrial spaces alongside the same land. The second step is to buy large amounts of shares in leading Ukrainian agribusinesses and then change these companies from the inside out. This is a strategy that international agribusiness giants such as Cargill, Monsanto and DuPont have employed. In 2014 Cargill bought a five percent share in the largest land bank in Ukraine.
These loopholes are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the multinational effort to subdue and mold a potentially lucrative agriculture market for maximum profit. While Ukraine currently enforces a ban on GMO products, it has become apparent that this is a temporary state of affairs. The stage was set for the impending removal of this ban when Ukraine and the EU signed their association agreement in 2014.
It becomes clear from requirements such as those listed in the association agreement that Ukraine is not being set up for economic prosperity and independence, but rather for multinational exploitation.
It could be argued that these developments are open to interpretation, as indeed multinational corporations would prefer Ukrainian farmers and the civilian population to believe. But the links between government organizations and agribusiness are clear.
The entry point into these connections can be found on the board of the US-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC). On the board of directors are a plethora of multinational US business giants. Of particular interest to this report are the agribusiness board members. These include Monsanto, Cargill, DuPont and a less prominent organization known as the International Service for the Acquisition of Argi-Biotech Applications.
Dupont, Syngenta, Monsanto and other companies and organizations have made their way into several key areas of Ukrainian agriculture, piecing together a multifaceted plan which will ultimately culminate in the implementation and monopoly of GMO products in Ukraine.
Monsanto, Cargill and DuPont have already have all already invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the construction of seed processing plants in Ukraine. Over the last twenty years, these companies have established a strong business foundation within the country. These foundations have been laid so deep that international agribusiness companies can be found on the board of members of the national Ukrainian Seed Association. . This association, which includes Monsanto and DuPont, aims to implement new technologies” and “the best new varieties and hybrids in Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian Seed Association also seeks to “take active part in the development of legislation of Ukraine concerning the improvement of seed market.” What this shows is that multinational agribusiness giants have the ability to not only introduce their technologies into Ukraine, but actively seek to change Ukrainian legislation to benefit their implementation.
Within this increasingly layered picture of corporate intervention into Ukraine’s agriculture can be found the key player in Ukraine’s current state of affairs – The U.S. government. While telling the world it is simply brokering a transaction in Ukraine, is in fact playing a central role shaping the nation’s economy. The ISAAA, which claims to be “small, responsive, non-bureaucratic, international network,” is, in fact sponsored directly by the U.S. State Department, the US Department of Agriculture and USAID. The ISAAA is instrumental in organizing the dissemination of biotechnology into “developing countries through public-private partnerships.”.”
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p; Through its sponsoring of the ISAAA, which sits on the US-Ukraine Business Council and works to introduce GMO’s into Ukraine, the U.S. government is directly facilitating the corporate takeover of Ukraine’s agriculture.
The concerted campaign of these corporations, with the help of USAID and even direct U.S. government assistance, is already paying dividends for the future profits of these companies. The Ukrainian Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food, Mykola Prysyazhnyuk, announced in 2013 that GMO feed trials for livestock had begun.
Ukraine is renowned for its “black soil,” which is extremely fertile and high yielding. It has long been used by local farmers to supply much of Europe and the world with corn and wheat. For the immensely wealthy international corporations this is the chance to make more money and, with the current situation in Ukraine, it will be relatively easy to do so. Once the biotechnology and GMO laws are altered it will be too late for small farms and businesses to compete on a local scale, let alone an international one.
Ukraine is in dire need of less foreign-led ‘rebuilding.’ The idea that Ukraine needed to choose a U.S.-EU led intervention is what has led to much of the chaos. On top of the conflict this has caused, it has led the way for companies like Monsanto, DuPont and Cargill to take full advantage of this instability.
Unless more light is shed on the domination of struggling nations by international corporations, this trend will continue. The eventual costs of biotechnology and the potential health detriments will lead to a Ukraine that is unable to recover. It will instead continue to be used as a colonial business outpost for the many companies and governments seeking to exploit its natural resources.
That Ukraine’s unique soils may be ruined is tragedy enough, but it is a fact that the benefits of this corporate invasion will only be shared by the corporations and their shareholders, along with the handful oligarchs who will own the land. Ukraine, and its people, as a whole will receive little to no benefit in the long term. For a country already ruined by a war with no end in sight after decades of corruption, this spells disaster on a grand scale.
In March 2015, the Ukrainian Parliament passed a bill entitled, “On the Legal Status and Honoring of Fighters for Ukraine’s Independence in the Twentieth Century,” the bill was one of several centered on the country’s troubled history in the 20th century that were OK’d by parliament Thursday. One of the other bills would open up the archives of the Ukrainian wing of the KGB, the Soviet-era intelligence service, and another of them would ban the display of both Nazi and Soviet imagery in the nation.
Poroshenko has yet to sign any of the three bills into law, but they’re already drawing criticism from pro-Russian separatist leaders, Russian politicians and their supporters on social media. The bill recognizing Ukraine’s nationalist partisans, many of whom fought against both Nazi and Soviet occupiers during World War II and the postwar years, has attracted the biggest backlash.
The bill would recognize groups such as the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and Stepan Bandera’s so-called Banderite as legitimate combatants in World War II and as freedom fighters who fought for Ukrainian independence. Some of those partisan groups are believed to have participated in the ethnic cleansing of Poles in Ukraine, as well as the carrying out of bombings and kidnappings against the country’s postwar Soviet government. If the bill were to become law, it would grant veterans of these groups social benefits and make them eligible for state awards. It would also make it illegal to deny the legitimacy of their actions, according to UAPosition, a Ukraine-centered media site.
Ukraine’s current nationalist elements such as the Right Sector strongly identify with Bandera and his fellow partisans, who they say laid the foundation for Ukrainian nationalism. While most far-right Ukrainain groups are fragmented and remain largely on the fringe of Ukrainian politics, the Right Sector was visible in the Euromaidan movement, and it participated in a handful of volunteer paramilitary brigades that played decisive roles in Ukraine’s fight against pro-Russian separatists in southeastern Ukraine during the past year. Critics of the Euromaidan movement alleged the nationalist presence was indicative of the fascist, anti-Russian principles of the movement and the pro-European government that came into power as a result of it.
Of course, the United States has more interests to promote in Ukraine than just GMO foods. Its military industrial complex stands to benefit from the Ukrainian civil war, and the push to supply the country with lethal weapons will be to its benefit, as well as creating a dangerous situation for the entire European continent. The U.S. also favors a gas pipeline to Europe to bypass Russian gas. In furtherance of the U.S. oil and gas industry’s interest in Ukraine, Hunter Biden, the Vice President’s son, has been appointed to the Ukraine’s largest natural gas producer, along with Devon Archer, a close friend of Secretary of State John Kerry.nted to the board of directors of Ukraine’s largest natural gas producer. In a sign of direct intervention by the United States into Ukrainian government affairs, the U.S. State Department’s Natalie Jaresko has been appointed to the position of Ukraine’s Finance Minister.
One more thing…
No matter what side of the GMO or Ukrainian controversy you are on (or if you are not on a side at all) I hope you have enjoyed this book. If you turn to the last page, Kindle will give you the opportunity to rate the book and share your thoughts through an automatic feed to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. If you believe your friends would enjoy this book, I would be honored if you would post your thoughts, and also leave a review on Amazon. Here is the book link for your review, or you can just flip through to the end of this book: http://amzn.com/B00TPIPI14 .
Best regards,
Kenneth Eade
http://kennetheade.com
[email protected]
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An Involuntary Spy
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Seth Rogan was a bad spy. That’s because he wasn't a spy at all. Just a guy trying to do the right thing. As a biologist for the largest biotech company in the world, he had a great job, and enjoyed all the perks. But when asked to do some tests on the company's genetically engineered (GMO) foods, he became entangled in a trail of corruption, fraud and conspiracy that he wanted no part of, but could not escape from. In an espionage story of mystery and suspense so true to life it could almost be from today's newspapers, Seth, having bit the hand who fed him, is on the run from CIA, the FBI, and the full overreaching strength of the United States Government, not as a whistle blower, but as a fugitive, charged with espionage, who finds temporary refuge with an old enemy of the U.S. But his peace is about to be broken as he finds himself in the role of an involuntary spy.
Excerpt
As they exited the plane, Yuri made it clear to the police to back off – this was not their affair. But Seth looked back and could see Jack Singer on his radio, and it didn’t look like he was calling his guys to tell them they lost the game. He had no reason to trust this Yuri Streltsov, but his choices were limited; liberty, albeit temporary, or death. He chose liberty.
Just outside the jet way, Yuri shoved Seth through a door with a red “circle sign” on it that Seth supposed meant, “No entry,” or something like it.
“Can you run?” Yuri said.
“I’m still trying to put this vest on.”
“You wanted to be spy, learn to multi-task.”
“I never wanted to be a spy. I just wanted to warn people of…”
“We talk later. Have to go now.” Yuri grabbed Seth by the shoulders, buckled on the vest, then gave him a shove. “Run!”
And Seth ran. Following Yuri, he ran as fast as he could. He ran so fast he could feel the stinging sweat pouring into his eyes. Through one door, then another, down one set of stairs so fast hi
s feet barely brushed each step, then through a tunnel. Finally, they smashed through a set of double doors and Seth felt the shock of the cold, outside air filling his lungs. But only for a second, as he was shoved into an already moving black Mercedes, head first, like a criminal under arrest or a kidnap victim.
Yuri jumped in next to him, gun in hand, and the Mercedes took off, through the parking lot and out the gated exit. The driver accelerated as the man next to him began yelling something in Russian. He looked panicked.
“What is he saying?” asked Seth.
“He says they are after us.”
Seth looked in the rear window, but didn’t see anything unusual. “How does he know?”
“Look.”
Just then not one, but two cars emerged from the parking lot, the first one breaking through the gate arm, and the other right behind it. They were both swerving in and out of the line of traffic like maniacs, which is what their own driver was now doing.
“We will be at Embassy in ten minutes,” said Yuri.
“Can’t we call the police – for backup?”
“Look, Seth, you are not very good spy, are you? Police have no official business to stop us, but they are not going to help us. Once we get to Embassy, Russian Special Forces – Spetsnaz – they will be all backup we need.”
“Why don’t they come now?”
“This is Ukraine, no longer same country as Russia. On Embassy ground is only place they can act.”
The pursuing car behind them on the right, a black Mercedes jeep, sped up to catch them, and played a game of tag with their car, which lurched forward to avoid being pinned.
“Windows are bulletproof, but get down anyway,” yelled Yuri. Seth obeyed.
Their driver swerved evasively, as the pursuing jeep caught up. The driver of the jeep motioned angrily for them to pull over. Then the guy in the passenger side of Seth’s car pulled his gun out, rolled down the window and fired back their answer.