[act-ma] Boston March Against Monsanto tomorrow May 20. (Press release)

[David Rolde]

 Meet noon in Copley. March to Park Street for 1pm rally



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Boston marches against Monsanto in 5th annual international grassroots event


BOSTON, MA shows solidarity with 197 global cities in the 5th Annual March against Monsanto, a company that produces genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide. March Against Monsanto Boston calls on our lawmakers and our people to recognize the toxic effects of both GMOs and Roundup and serious dangers they pose to our survival on this planet.

On Saturday, May 20, 2017 activists who care about our food, water, health and Earth will gather at Copley Square in front of Trinity Church at 12 noon and march to Boston Common to rally with Park Street Saturday Peace Vigil at 1pm till 2pm.


We are pleased to announce 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein (will be speaking on behalf of the Green Rainbow Party, as she has been a bold voice for the people on this issue.) The March will also feature music by Babam!, the Boston Area Brigade of Activist Musicians (www.babamband.org) http://www.babamband.org%29/ . Speakers include Laura Kelley, President of POCCA (Protect our Cape Cod Aquifer, www.poccacapecod.org) http://www.poccacapecod.org%29/ , organic landscape designer, and successful beekeeper and Ukumbwa Sauti, 16 year higher education professional teaching cultural media studies, activist, partner at Moja Mediaworks, and initiated elder in the Dagara tradition from West Africa.


More speakers info upon request.


The International Monsanto Tribunal in The Hague reported the judges’ opinion on April 18, 2017 that “Monsanto has engaged in practices that have violated the basic human right to a healthy environment, the right to food, the right to health, and the right of scientist to freely conduct indispensable research (Katherine Paul, www.organicconsumers.org) http://www.organicconsumers.org%29/ ”. We join the judges in their call for lawmakers “to hold corporations like Monsanto accountable, to place human rights above the rights of corporations, and to ‘clearly assert the protection of the environment and establish the crime of ecocide’”.


Begun as a chemical company in 1901, Monsanto produced Agent Orange and its main poison, Dioxin, used in U.S. chemical warfare against Vietnam. It sold DDT, PCBs, dairy cow hormone rBGH, and cancer-linked Aspartame. In the 1980’s Monsanto started buying up seed companies, investing in biogenetics research, and reincorporated itself as an agricultural company.


Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup and is the most extensively used herbicide in the history of agriculture. It is extremely toxic and is associated with many major health issues. It affects the plants we eat, the animals who eat the plants, the soil and surrounding biodiversity, the water, and even our genes. In India, over a quarter of a million farmers have committed suicide since the introduction of GM crops. In Colombia, glyphosate was used in U.S. chemical warfare against Colombia in “Plan Colombia”. Monsanto is fighting calls to require it to label its products as GM and spends millions of dollars on lawsuits and political campaigns, unfortunately to great avail. It’s time for people to stand up and say enough is enough!


   For more information you may call:


   Daniel Kontoff

857-272-6743


   and Margaret Alexander

   703-863-1116