Why I Will not Vote for Hillary Clinton

Image by Kalalani

AN OPEN LETTER TO HILLARY CLINTON FROM A WELLESLEY COLLEGE ALUMNA

Sunday, 03 February 2008

Dear Hillary,

By polling logic, I should be your supporter - Democrat, older woman, 
white, liberal. I was even in a dorm with you in college. I have 
pulled for you for years. But something this past summer 
fundamentally changed my responsibility to my children and 
grandchildren. In the time I have left in my life to protect them and 
others, I need to speak out.

I saw a News Hour piece on Maharastra, India, about farmers 
committing suicide. Monsanto, a US agricultural giant, hired 
Bollywood actors for ads telling illiterate farmers they could get 
rich (by their standards) from big yields with Monsanto's Bt 
(genetically engineered) cotton seeds. The expensive seeds needed 
expensive fertilizer and pesticides (Monsanto, again) and irrigation. 
There is no irrigation there. Crops failed. Farmers had larger debt 
than they'd ever experienced 

And farmers couldn't collect seeds from their own fields to try again 
(true since time immemorial). Monsanto "patents" their DNA-altered 
seeds as "intellectual property." They have a $10 million budget and 
a staff of 75 devoted solely to prosecuting farmers. 
http://www.grist.org/comments/food/2008/01/17./). Since the late 
1990s (about when industrial agriculture took hold in India),166,000 
Indian farmers have committed suicide and 8 million have left the 
land. 

Farmers in Europe, Asia, Africa, Indonesia,South America, Central 
America and here, have protested Monsanto and genetic engineering for 
years. 

What does this have to do with you? 

You have connections to Monsanto through the Rose Law Firm where you 
worked and through Bill who hired Monsanto people for central food-
related roles. Your Orwellian-named "Rural Americans for Hillary" was 
planned withTroutman Sanders, Monsanto's lobbyists.

Genetic engineering and industrialized food and animal production all 
come together at the Rose Law Firm, which represents the world's 
largest GE corporation (Monsanto), GE's most controversial project 
(DP&L's - now Monsanto's - terminator genes), the world's largest 
meat producer (Tyson), the world's largest retailer and a dominant 
food retailer (Walmart). 

The inbred-ness of Rose's legal representation of corporations which 
own controlling interests in other corporations there and of 
corporate boards sharing members who are also shareholders of each 
other's corporations there, is so thorough that it is hard to 
capture. Jon Jacoby, senior executive of the Stephens Group - one of 
the largest institutional shareholders of Tyson Foods, Walmart, DP&L -
is also Chairman of the Board of DP&L and arranged the Wal-Mart 
deal. Jackson Stephens' Stephens Group staked Sam Walton and financed 
Tyson Foods. Monsanto bought DP&L. All represented at Rose. 

You didn't just work there, you made friends. That shows in the flow 
of favors then and since. You were invited onto Walmart's board, you 
were helped by a Tyson executive to make commodity trades (3 days 
before Bill became governor), netting you $100,000, Jackson Stephens 
strongly backed Bill for Governor, and then for President (donating 
$100,000). 

Food and friends, in Clinton terms: 

Bill's appointed friend Mike Espy, Secretary of Agriculture, who 
immediately significantly weakened federal chicken waste and 
contamination standards, opening the door to major expansion of 
Tyson's chicken factory farms. Espy resigned, indicted for 
accepting bribes, illegal contributions, money laundering, illegal 
dispersal of USDA subsidies, .... Tyson Foods was the largest 
corporate offender. 

But what Bill did for Monsanto "genetic engineering" goes beyond 
inadequate concepts of giving corporate friends influence: He 
unleashed genetic engineering into the world. And then he helped 
close off people's escape from it. 

Genetic engineering is many orders of magnitude different 
from "normal" (even polluting) business in its potential biologic 
ramifications. The warning myth of Pandora'a Box - letting 
irretrievable things rush out into nature - has become real. The 
harrowing change to the world from nuclear fission and fusion is the 
closest parallel. 

What did Bill do?

1. Bill's put Monsanto people in at the FDA, as US Agricultural Trade 
Representatives, on International Biotechnology Consultive Forums, 
and more ... (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/072600-03.htm) or 
http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9904b/monsantofda.html or 
http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Revolving-Door.htm

2. Bill's FDA gave Monsanto permission to market rBGH (a GE bovine 
growth hormone), the first genetically engineered product let loose 
on us (or did tomatoes with fish DNA get there first?).

3. Despite reports of bovine illness and death, Bill's FDA did not 
recall it or put warnings on it. Even "a very angry, very vocal 
nationwide consumer base" had no impact. " 

4. Bill's FDA wouldn't even label rBGH as "present" in milk.

5. When dairy farmers tried to label their own milk rBGH-free so the 
public could choose, Bill's USDA threatened all dairies that their 
products could be confiscated from stores. Michael Taylor, USFDA 
Deputy Commissioner, was formerly Monsanto's counsel. 

6. How were consumers to protect their family, given Bill's FDA 
enforced public blindness, except to buy only organic? But Bill's FDA 
tried to close off that last escape, proposing to include 
in "organic" standards, "the dirty three" a : genetic engineering of 
plants and animals, use of irradiation in food processing and use of 
municipal sewage sludge as a fertilizer. (My emphasis.) The FDA 
backed down.

Had this gone through, Monsanto could have finally labeled rBGH 
milk ... as "organic." And animal waste from factory farms, a 
pollution nightmare for Tyson and others, could have been sold as 
fertilizer. 

USDA head Dan Glickman: "This is probably the largest public response 
to an rule in modern history." In fact the 
response was 20 times greater than anything ever before proposed by 
the USDA.

Personally, I resent years of effort to protect my children and now 
grandchildren, from that crap. 

Politically, Bill sided against small farmers and against the 
public's right to know, and with Monsanto.

A snap shot of our food:

Oils: Sheep died in India after feeding on Bt cotton fields. 
We feed our children Bt cotton, as 
cottonseed oil in peanut butter and cookies. 

Grains: 49% of US corn acreage was planted in Bt corn in 2007. A 
French study proved Monsanto's GMO corn causes kidney and liver 
toxicity.

Soft drinks and candy have highly concentrated Bt corn, in the form 
of high fructose Bt corn syrup. The US food system depends most on 
two crops, soy (90% GMO, 90% of traits owned by Monsanto) and corn, 
the largest crop (60% GMO, nearly 100% Monsanto traits). "
Essentially our entire food supply is genetically modified, to the 
benefit of one company." The Grocery Manufacturers of America in 2000 
estimated that 70 percent of US food contains GM traits. 

Meat: Steroids bulk up atheletes. Monsanto steroids bulk up animals - 
more weight, more profit. We feed our children steroids in meats. Is 
this why our children are fattening, like Hansel and Gretel? 

Poultry: Bill's USDA weakened chicken waste and contamination 
standards and attempted to allow sewage sludge as fertilize crops. I 
will say more about disease from industrialized poultry farms waste, 
at the end of this letter.

Milk: Over 30 scientific publications have shown increased levels of 
IGF-1 in milk with rBGH increases risks of breast cancer by up to 
seven-fold, also increasing colon and prostate cancers risks. Canada, 
29 European nations, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, 
Australia, and South Africa ban U.S. rBGH dairy products. Bill's 
USFDA put no restrictions, no warning labels (not allowing labels at 
all). (My emphasis.)

American children eat that food and drink that milk, Hillary. 
Coincidentally, American children are increasingly fat and sick. 

Here, Bill ignored pleas for labeling. Abroad, Bill ignored intense 
international objections over the same issue - unlabeled US food 
exports - badly straining trading relations. Monsanto's "good ole 
boy," he betrayed American families at the deepest levels 
conceivable - their family's health and their democratic right to 
know. He betrayed our rural life and American family farmers - 
backing corporation deceit and control, over honesty and clean 
farming.

But, HIllary, it is one thing to not label a regular ole food product 
to sell it, and quite another to sell a suspected-dangerous food 
product (rBGH), but Bill's administration didn't label (or stop) a 
well-known, terrifying threat - Mad Cow Disease.

Bill's FDA's August, 1997 regulation permitted "known TSE-positive 
material to be used in pet food, pig, chicken and fish feed," only requiring the label to 
read "Do not feed to cattle and other ruminants" in the US. 

Monsanto added to the problem. "There is evidence that rbST use 
[Monsanto's GE bovine growth hormone] reduces the useful lifespan of 
a dairy cow. ... Given that the incubation period for BSE is at least 
three to five years and perhaps longer, rbST-treated cows could 
harbor "hidden" BSE. That is, they might be infected but still 
asymptomatic when sent to slaughter." (My emphasis.) 
http://www.consumersunion.org/food/bgh-codex.htm

Bill let TSE into our entire food chain. And who owned the feed and 
slaughter and genetic engineering corporations whch benefitted? 

Please, tell me, Hillary, what he could possibly have gotten in 
friendship or favors, that could ever justify his exposing millions 
of people to this? 

With genetic engineering itself, Bill did something to the whole 
world, which tried to object. Words are inadequate to express how 
astoundingly immoral, beyond human bounds and conceit and power, that 
was. 

"Even for the biggest "winners," it is like winning at poker on the 
Titanic." Jerry Mander: Facing the Rising Tide

He had no right. 

Do you hear that? 

Bill had sex from Monica Lewinsky. That's "dinky immoral." That's 
chicken feed immoral - excuse the Tyson pun, excuse the TSE-laced 
pun. Bill let genetic engineering lose on NATURE itself. 

"Our way of life is likely to be more fundamentally transformed in 
the next several decades than in the previous one thousand years...Tens 
of thousands of novel transgenic bacteria, viruses, plants and 
animals could be released into the Earth's ecosystems...Some of those 
releases, however, could wreak havoc with the planet's biospheres." 
Jeremy Rifkin, Biotech Century

Bill did this to us, like it was some nothing and he, some big dumb 
ass Southern boy, just smiling and getting in good with the Big Boys, 
thinking about as much about the consequences of something this 
immense and about us human beings out here, as he thought about you, 
when he was unfaithful with Monica. Just one big fool getting off on 
the power and used to getting away with things. 

Terminator genes, developed by DP&L, a Rose Firm client, prevent 
seeds from "working" after only one season. Farmers "must" repurchase 
(patents and suing not certain enough control, it seems). 
Those "killing" genes pose the apocalyptic risk of breaking out into 
nature. Natural seeds could fail, too. Nature could fail.

Far-fetched? 

GMO fields are already contaminating normal species 
Berkeley Professor of Microbiology, Ignacio Chapela, wrote an open letter, 
warning the Mexican government about just this breaking out 
phenomenon happening in maize 

And it has already happened with weeds - pesticide resistant GMO 
seeds break lose and weeds become pesticide-resistant Superweeds. 

But Bill's USDA spokesman, Willard Phelps said the USDA wanted the 
technology to be `widely licensed and made expeditiously available to 
many seed companies.'

"Genetic Engineering is often justified as a human technology, one 
that feeds more people with better food. Nothing could be further 
from the truth. With very few exceptions, the whole point of genetic 
engineering is to increase sales of chemicals and bio-engineered 
products to dependent farmers." David Ehrenfield: Professor of 
Biology, Rutgers University

Hillary, one third of the world's bee colonies have collapsed. Gone. 
Farmers in India are killing themselves. Farmers and bees. Since 
organic farmers in India are fine and organic farmers report no 
colony collapse, what does these farming catatrophes say 
about "industrial agriculture"? 

Mad Cow Disease is another direct result of industrial agriculture. 
And now ....... transnational poultry factories are implicated as the source of 
bird flu. ... Small scale poultry farms and wild birds seem not to be 
the problem [just as small farmers are not the issue in Mad Cow 
Disease], and yet "initiatives are multiplying to ban outdoor 
poultry, squeeze out small producers and restock farms with 
genetically modified chickens. ... http://www.ens-
newswire.com/ens/feb2006/2006-02-27-01.asp "Of the few outbreaks that 
did occur in , more than 90% broke out in commercial poultry 
operations, not free-ranging flocks." 

Monsanto (and others) is currently working with the USDA 
to force small farmers to tag every animal with a global tracking 
device (NAIS - National Animal Identification System). Allegedly 
related to food safety, Monsanto and others would be creating a vast 
corporate digital library on every move of small farmers's livestock. 

But small farmers do not create the contaminated environments, do not 
supply the feed, do not grind up diseased animals into feed (how Mad 
Cow began) and then sell it. In fact, their farming methods, free 
range and small scale, are significantly healthier and safer for 
animals and food than the massive concentration of animals by 
corporate industrial agriculture.

Monsanto is also aggressively pushing for state laws to limit 
farmers' right to choose what to plant and the public's right exclude 
GE plants from their communities.

Cattle bloated by steroids, lapse and loss of 10,000 year old normal 
seeds, immense pollution from factory farms, deadly-disease-ridden 
feed, world-wide bee colony collapse, poisoned soil and depleted 
water supplies, Superweeds,
lawsuits against farmers, loss of 
family farms, and ... India farmers killing themselves in what may be 
the largest mass suicide in recorded human history (on average ... 
one farmers' suicide every 30 minutes since 2002 - The Hindu 
1.30.08) - that is industrial agriculture. 

Monsanto and Tyson are two of the largest industrial agricultural 
corporations in the world. Industrial agriculture is represented by 
your Rose Law Firm. 

Your claim to care about food safety is terrifying double-speak given 
what Bill did and who you take donations from. Your idea of a 
Department of Food Safety would centralize control of food - in whose 
corporate connected hands? You talk tough about labeling food - ah, 
but "foreign" food - a sleight of hand tricking a public desperate 
for safe US food. You talk about food safety but Bill degraded food 
in every imaginable way and prevented minimally sane labeling.

I am a person before I am a woman. Your gender means nothing. It is a 
media distraction. Your policies on health and food and women and 
children, are meaningless in the face of connections that have 
threatened those groups profoundly, connections you have never 
denounced. 

Monsanto uses child labor in India, primarily very young girls, 
exposing them to a lethal pesticide 13-14 hours a day, for pennies in 
pay. But you take donations from their lobbyists. You say you care 
about black people but as the poorest people in this country, they 
are least able to buy organic and are forced to eat the contaminated 
foods Bill let into our food system. The National Black Farmers 
Association has a boycott out on all Monsanto products. 

Do you eat organic? 

So, who are you with, hapless black consumers and black farmers, or 
Monsanto? Mothers left to give their children rBGH milk, or Monsanto? 
Women exposed to 7 times greater risk of breast cancer, or Monsanto? 
Desperate farmers in India and young children forced into child labor 
in cottonseed factories there, or Monsanto? Animals suffering from 
lives in filthy cages and disgusting feedlots, shot up with steroids 
and hormones and antibiotics, or Monsanto? Our children who eat candy 
with high fructose Bt corn syrup associated with kidney and liver 
toxicity, or Monsanto? 

Edwards was right about your corporate connections. I just didn't 
understand until I saw that PBS show and read about Monsanto, how 
personally affected my children and grandchildren, and all people 
around the world, have been.

I will not vote for you. I will vote for someone who will commit 
themselves to work on behalf of small farmers and real food and 
decent treatment of animals and to end this industrialized 
agricultural nightmare that is taking us off a cliff.

Linn Cohen-Cole
Atlanta

Disclaimer. I am not a scientist. I have read for months on this 
subject, and am including only a tiny portion of the horrifying 
things I have learned. I am expressing my opinion as person and may 
be wrong. Perhaps things are swell out there and rBGH is fabulous and 
TSE-laced feed is great, and genetic engineering is the best thing 
since manna. But I am scared for my family and I have not only a 
right to say so but an obligation to do so. I am angry that Monsanto 
was allowed the influence it had and has done the things it 
definitely seems to have. I am disgusted by industrialization of 
every tender and beautiful part of our world and hope, for all our 
children's sake, we are not too late to pull back
 

Also see

"My Vote's for Obama (if I could vote)" by Michael Moore

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php