News

Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals

By admin ⋅ January 16, 2010 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Tags: biomedical, corn, ethics, faith, First Unitarian Church, GMO, land, Monsanto, philadelphia, seed, sermon, sovereignity

In reference to this article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/monsantos-gmo-corn-linked_n_420365.html

I thought several of you on this list might be interested in something happening with the First Unitarian Church here in Philadelphia. Our Minister gave a sermon last fall about seed patents, and specifically Monsanto’s ownership and use of seed patents.

The podcast and complete text is available here:
http://natewalker.podbean.com/2009/11/09/minister-asks-monsanto-ceo-seven-moral-questions/
> Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA – On November 1, 2009 Reverend Nathan C. Walker delivered an open letter to Mr. Hugh Grant, the Chief Executive Officer of Monsanto, asking for a public response to seven moral questions. Monsanto is one of the largest producers of glyphosate herbicides and because of numerous broken relationships has become a controversial enterprise. Walker addresses these controversies by calling interfaith leaders to hold a public forum for Monsanto to publicly answer seven questions, three of which are as follows:

1. How can Monsanto develop a new research model based on open-source biotechnology and invent the wikiseed, where the DNA of the seed would be open to peer-based collaboration and public research?
2. How will Monsanto honor, respect and protect seed sovereignty, defined as the right of people and self-governed states to democratically determine their own seed policies?
3. When are you available to meet with interfaith clergy and bioethicists to craft a twenty-first-century Hippocratic Oath for biotechnology to be signed by all Monsanto’s employees who agree to do no harm?

Walker poses these questions because he believes “Monsanto needs a moral leader, not simply for the sake of the company but for the world community.” <

The sermon drew lots of interest from scholars and activists, and Monsanto replied with an invitation to visit their headquarters and meet with some of their leadership. Rev. Nate and I are going to visit next week. In preparation for that visit, Nate gave another sermon this past Sunday calling on Monsanto to adopt a “Do no harm” oath, followed by a “talk back” from the congregation. You can see a video of this 9-minute sermon here: http://natewalker.podbean.com/
You can also get the full text of the sermon here: http://bit.ly/5DXibT

Nate drew heavily from biomedical ethics for this sermon. In preparation for our visit, I’m reading up on “land ethics” to see what applies.

All very interesting, and disturbing.
Jennifer Hurley
(originally posted on dvslist)

Bookmark It

Copyright©2010 admin