Follow RT's LIVE UPDATES on the March Against Monsanto campaign
Berlin, Strasbourg, Chicago, London, Sydney and Mumbai are just a few of the 500 cities worldwide involved in the rallies, with each one drawing hundreds.
The demonstrators have been calling for the permanent boycott of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and “other harmful agro-chemicals,” according to March Against Monsanto’s official webpage. Protesters wielded large banners denouncing GMO products, and donned fancy dress: In Washington DC a group dressed as bees to highlight the impact of insecticides on bee populations.
The rallies come four days ahead of World Food Day on Oct. 16 and are a direct attack on what the organizers term Monsanto’s “predatory business,” genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and other harmful pesticides, which threaten “health, fertility and longevity.”
“There a Smartstax corn that Monsanto has made…it is a corn that resists six different types of herbicide, so you can spray it with six different chemicals and it won’t die,” Heidi Ostermannm, a nutritionist participating in the Berlin march told RT.
“It also produces two insecticides in its own kernels and you can’t wash it off – I don’t even know if technically that’s food. In my mind as a nutritionist, that’s no longer food,” she said.
“There are subtle signs of organ damage even in 90 days. But in two years, the lifetime of a rat is shortened – they have massive organ damage, massive breast tumors in the female rats, and that is really, really frightening,” he said, going on to discuss the effects on larger animals.
“Recently, a study from Australia has shown that pigs that are fed these corn products get massive stomach ulcers…. we have a much longer lifespan that a rat. If we are waiting for cancer to show as a result of GMOs, we’ve got to wait,” he said.
“Monsanto was one of the seven chemical companies who manufactured Agent Orange which was laced with one of the most deadly chemicals known to man, dioxin. Monsanto, the other six companies, and the U.S. government, are responsible for the slow burn genocide of Vietnam Veterans, their children and grandchildren,” March Against Monsanto alleged.
A previous anti-Monsanto protest was held in May. It started as a small event, but turned into a global campaign with over 2 million people in 436 cities, across 52 countries, joining the rallies.
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