1. Change our movement’s name from “Occupy Brookings” to “Committee for the Common Good.”
2. Retain our old mission statement.
3. Adopt two major foci for the coming year (although remaining flexible so as to address other issues as we have the time, energy and ability): (a) exposing and opposing Monsanto’s adverse effects on the common good, in terms of public education/SDSU, traditional agriculture and health; and (b) “Buy Local” (a continuing focus).
4. As we work on these foci, we will continue to frame our public efforts in defense of the 99%, trying to educate and mobilize the public to oppose oligopoly and oligarchy. We will continue our commitment to nonpartisanship and make sure that we do not duplicate the efforts of other organizations and groups.
5. For now we will retain our website but give it a new masthead and revise its content to reflect 1-4 above. We will not change our domain name.
6. At our next gathering, on 11/17, we will preview the film “The World According to Monsanto” (see blurb below). We will do a public screening of this film in January. We will also begin planning several other public awareness events about Monsanto to be held in January or February, as well as a “Buy Local” effort for the holiday season.
"The World According to Monsanto" is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. Originally released in French as Le monde selon Monsanto, the film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the corporate practices around the world of the United States agricultural giant, Monsanto.
The documentary reports many controversies surrounding the use and promotion of genetically modified seeds, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Agent Orange, and bovine growth hormone. Cases in the United States (including Anniston, Alabama), Canada, India, Mexico, Paraguay, the United Kingdom and France, are explored, pointing out along the way how the corporation's collusion with governments, pressure tactics, suppression and manipulation of scientific data, and extra-legal practices aided the company's attempts at dominating global agriculture, according to the documentary. Scientists, representatives of the United States Food and Drug Administration and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, civil society representatives, victims of the company’s activities, lawyers, and politicians are interviewed.
Marie-Monique Robin travelled the world to meet scientists and political figures in order to investigate Monsanto's actions, controversy over GM crops, and the effects of the globalization of industrial agriculture on farmers in the developing world. Those interviewed include Shiv Chopra, a Canadian researcher who was fired by Health Canada for revealing an attempted bribe by Monsanto regarding the attempted introduction of bovine growth hormone into Canada. The author of the research met several independent scientists around the world who tried to warn the political authorities about the use of genetically modified seeds. According to Robin, most of these scientists actually lost their jobs as a consequence of their speaking out. The "revolving door syndrome" is also pointed out in the research as a threat to the quality and independence of the scientific conclusions about the effects of Monsanto products, especially those reached by the Food and Drug Administration.
Robin travels to India, Mexico, Argentina, and Paraguay to see how Monsanto's genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have affected local farmers using it for their crops. The claim is that suicide rates of farmers in India have increased as farmers are finding it harder to earn a living using more expensive Monsanto seeds that, despite claims, still require specific pesticide and fertilizer (see above). Mexico, having banned GMOs, is trying to limit contamination and crossbreeding from subsidized U.S. GMO corn imported through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for eating. Argentinian farmers are giving up farming and moving to urban slums because they cannot compete with GM crops and are finding their farms, livestock, and children being negatively affected by pesticide runoff. Paraguay was forced to accept GMO crops as it was being imported anonymously and grown en masse, so prohibiting its export would have damaged the economy. In all cases genetic variation is reduced as a result of monocropping and ownership is increasingly concentrated.
