21 November 2001

MONSANTO'S FRANC WAS JUST

NGIN ran this story before but the explanation is interesting. Thanks to Jim Thomas for this

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I had to just forward this for amusement. The story below from le Monde tells of how Monsanto has received compensation for their fields being destroyed by activists.. but only for 1 franc! I checked this out with Greenpeace France GE campaigner and it's true... nice to see a bit of justice.. read on..

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Abstracted from Le Monde in French Le Monde October 27, 2001
MONSANTO FRANCE
BODY: Monsanto France, the French subsidiary of US agrochemicals group Monsanto, is to receive just FFr1 in damages following the destruction of a crop of genetically modified corn on 8 August by environmentalists.
Abstracted from Le Monde

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From: eric.gall@diala.gl3
To: "jim thomas" <jim.thomas@dialb.bos.us.gl3>
Date sent: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 14:07:59 +0100
Subject: Re: monsanto's compensation
Priority: normal

Hi Jim,
Yes, this is true. These are our comrads from the Confederation paysanne, who destroyed field trials last summer. Monsanto was demanding millions of francs. But the local judge has to deal with a complaint from a peasant who had his crop contaminated with GE.  It has been two years now and the judge has still done anything on  the case. So the lawyer looked surprised and told the "jury" : "a peasant has to wait for two years to have his case examined whereas the industry can use a fast procedure to charge peasants with millions ?" The judge was very embarrassed and just charged them with 1FF. Funny, isn't it ?
Eric