The World According to Monsanto

Thanks to these intimate links between Monsanto and government agencies, the US adopted GE foods and crops without proper testing, without consumer labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over their safety. Not coincidentally, Monsanto supplies 90 percent of the GE seeds used by the US market. Monsanto's long arm stretched so far that, in the early nineties, the US Food and Drugs Agency even ignored warnings of their own scientists, who were cautioning that GE crops could cause negative health effects. Other tactics the company uses to stifle concerns about their products include misleading advertising, bribery and concealing scientific evidence.

The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. Originally released in French as Le monde selon Monsanto, the film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the corporate practices around the world of the United States multinational corporation, Monsanto The World According to Monsanto is also a book written by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize (a Norwegian prize for female environmentalists). Wikipedia

UK Government powerless to force multinationals to declare profits

The British Government is powerless to stop large multi-national companies like Starbucks and Google from paying almost no tax on their profits in this country, Britain’s most senior tax official admitted today. Lin Homer, Permanent Secretary of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, told MPs the Government was currently unable to prevent big international corporations from declaring their profits in foreign countries with tiny tax rates - even if they made those profits in this country.

Next week senior executives from the coffee chain Starbucks are due to face MPs on the Public Administration Committee to explain why they have only paid £8.5 million in Corporation Tax despite in the last decade despite racking up £3bn in sales in the UK.

Officials from Apple and Google may also be called to give evidence to the Committee.  Last year Google paid £6m in tax on a turnover of £395m while Apple is thought to be paying £14.4 million in tax on more than £1 billion of sales.  It has been claimed that a more realistic tax bill would be closer to £570m.

More on The Independent and Skelpt Arse

Protesters hold ‘anti-Games’ near Olympic stadium

While the eyes of the world were on the first full day of competition at the London Olympics, a far smaller group was marking the “anti-Games” near the stadium on Saturday. A few hundred protesters gathered in a party atmosphere to express their opposition to everything from corporate sponsorship of the Olympics to anger about missiles positioned on the roofs of nearby apartment blocks for the Games.

At the protest in Mile End, one subway stop from the stadium in east London, many demonstrators looked a little stunned by the sudden media attention after months of being largely ignored. “There seem to be more cameras than protesters!” said Jean Videler, 60, equipped with a rucksack and tennis shoes, her grey hair falling to her shoulders.

The protest brought together around 40 activist groups under the banner of the “CounterOlympics Network” – groups that had hitherto struggled to be heard above the din of the London 2012 media machine. Some protesters were from the “Occupy London” anti-capitalist movement, or from far-left parties, united by their opposition to the multi-million dollar sponsorship of the Games by multinationals like McDonald’s and Dow Chemical.

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