WalMart
Wal-Mart: Don’t stock Monsanto’s GMO corn.
This is where the war to protect our food supply begins. In just a few weeks, farmers will begin planting Monsanto’s largest genetically modified corn crop in history marketed directly to consumers. This is not just any corn — it is genetically engineered to include Bt toxin, a pesticide that ruptures the stomach of the insects that eat it.
Monsanto has never tested its Bt corn on humans, yet it insists it is safe. But rats who ate Bt potatoes suffered intestinal damage, and thousands of livestock who grazed on Bt cotton plants got sick and died. Monsanto claims that Bt toxin breaks down in our digestive systems — but it has been detected in the blood of pregnant women and unborn babies.[1]
Monsanto’s sweet corn could be on dinner plates soon — sold unmarked, unlabelled, and untested on humans. Monsanto’s first foray into the selling this potentially toxic GM corn straight to consumers is in the US. But if it succeeds, they won’t stop there — they’re already started growing cotton, eggplant and potatoes with the same toxin.
Monsanto is relying on supermarkets to sell its product to American consumers — and the biggest of those is global megacorporation WalMart. If we can stop Walmart from selling the Monsanto corn, we can send a clear signal to Monsanto that consumers around the world won’t stand for untested GMO food on their dinner plates — and take a big bite out of the profits they’re expecting.
Along with our partners at Food and Water Watch, we’re already making progress on this campaign — more than 60,000 American SumOfUs members have signed the petition, and under pressure a WalMart spokesperson recently told the press that “the decision has not been made.”
As the world’s largest corporation by revenue, Walmart operates 8,500 stores in 15 countries under 55 names — including Asda in the U.K., Pali in Costa Rica, Seiyu in Japan, Walmex in Mexico, Todo Dia or Bompreço in Brazil, Despensa Familiar in Central America, Bharti Walmart in India, and Massmart in sub-Saharan Africa.
Walmart wants to be the world’s supermarket. If consumers around the world send a strong message now that selling Monsanto’s toxic crop will give them a toxic brand, Walmart will back down.