[This letter was written by a woman who has clearly done her homework, and confirms that no sane human being in good conscience can cast a vote for Hillary Clinton--CB]

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.commondr

eams.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 [Agriculture Department] 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). "[E]

ssentially 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

[Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy] 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 [Laos], 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.

carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/310/