Monsanto is a multinational agricultural biotech corporation. The company is the leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed. It's 2005 annual revenue was $5.23 billion (fiscal year end Aug 2005). In the 1940s, they were active in the Manhattan Project, helping to develop the first nuclear weapons. They were also the leading producer of Agent Orange in the '60s and '70s. In 2003, Monsanto sued a dairy in Maine for advertising that its milk products did not come from cows treated with its bovine growth hormone, claiming that such advertising hurt its business. They have been sued in numerous cases over the health and environmental effects of their products.

According to ETC Group, the top 10 multinational seed firms control half of the world's commercial seed sales (a total worldwide market of approximately US$21,000 million per annum). Corporate control and ownership of seeds - the first link in the food chain - has far-reaching implications for global food security. With control of seeds and agricultural research held in fewer hands, the world's food supply is increasingly vulnerable to the whims of market maneuvers. ETC Group's report includes a table listing many of the world's top 20 seed companies and their acquisitions and/or subsidiaries.

Who are your sponsors?

 Pharmaceuticals

 In 2004, the pharmaceutical industry had a global revenue of $550 billion (US). Among the top 10 selling companies worldwide are several of this symposium’s sponsors:

Pfizer ($46.13 billion)

GlaxoSmithKline ($31.38 billion)

Sanofi-Aventis ($30.92 billion)

Merck ($21.49 billion)

AstraZeneca ($21.43 billion)

Wyeth ($13.94 B)

In September 2004, Merck pulled its arthritis drug Vioxx off the market after a Food and Drug Administration study linked Vioxx to 27 000 sudden deaths and heart attacks in the between 1999 and 2003. Vioxx had been marketed in 80 countries and generated $2.5 billion in sales in 2003. The FDA, a government agency, tried to block the publication of the study.

 "The senior executives at Merck and the leadership at the FDA share responsibility for not having taken appropriate action and not recognizing that they are accountable for the public health. … Meanwhile, Merck was spending more than $100 million a year in direct-to-consumer advertising — another activity regulated by the FDA and a critical mechanism in building the 'blockbuster' status of a drug."

The purpose of a corporation

A corporation is a group of people that has been given the legal status to act as a kind of "artificial person". The law gives a corporation certain rights like the ability to own property, sign contracts and pay taxes.

Shareholders are people who invest money in a corporation by buying shares through the stock market. These people are involved in making decisions regarding the behaviour of the corporation. However, those who have invested the most money are granted the most decision-making power. This is like having a political system where you get more votes the more money you have, instead of democracy with its one-person/one-vote system.

Lets get our links in order! How do we create a new page (not just another story?), so the links page is only a link to the page on the main? Thanks

Resource Sites:

Academic Commons

Academe September 2002 Issue - Who owns your ideas?

Project Communis is a multimedia journal of politics, privatization and the public good. It is maintained by activist and graduate student Rob Maguire, from Atlantic Canada.

"Who owns the patent on this vaccine?" Edward R. Murrow, Radio & TV Journalist
"Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. COuld you patent the sun?" Jonas Salk, Inventor of the Polio Vaccine.

What is most valuable to you? Is it your house, your car? What about your planet?

All private possessions are derived from the goods we share in common - earth, air, water, and the collected sum of all human knowledge and experience, including science.

Science and the commons are increasingly being threatened by our wanton destruction, blatant disregard and diastrous misinterpretation of what science and the commons really are.

We have the right to own things. But where does the line get drawn? Who owns the works of the ancients, and should our greatest discoveries be in the hands of a few?

In a publicly participated democracy, the centuries of generations who have contributed to our way of life and knowledge base would be shared. Should be shared. Progress depends upon our ability to own commonly the knowledge gained.

These days, the patent process is so overblown that it is now extending into the realm of DNA. And it is greatly hindering, not helping, progress and humanity.

"Patents for living organisms impoverish human society ethically, ecologically, and economically." Vandana Shiva, Physicist and writer.

Our democracy is dependant on our common goods. As we wither away our commons, we have less and less common space. Common space is where the poor and rich meet on equal footing. It is where we can share one another's company, without having to pay a cover price. It is where the rights to free speech and assembly are protected.

We must protect what is common to all: The land, waterways, knowledge, the Internet, the sky, airwaves, public space, and our rights. The commons are very much like our democracy - not something which we can idly continue to have, but must actively continue to be vigilant in protecting and expanding.

"The law doth punish man or woman
That steals the goose from off the common,
But lets the greater felon loose,
That steals the common from the goose."

Academic freedom