Are Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta and other mega-corporations above the law? Read, How Monsanto outfoxed the Obama administration, about the U. S. Department of Justice quietly closing a 3 year anti-trust investigation of Monsanto last November:
Last November, the U.S. Department of Justice quietly closed a three-year antitrust investigation into Monsanto, the biotech giant whose genetic traits are embedded in over 90 percent of America‚s soybean crop and more than 80 percent of corn. Despite a splash of press coverage when the investigation was initially announced, its termination went mostly unreported. The DOJ released no written public statement. Only a brief press release from Monsanto conveyed the news.
The lack of attention belies the significance of the decision, both for food consumers around the world and for U.S. businesses. Experts who have examined Monsanto‚s conduct say the Justice Department‚s decision not to act all but officially establishes the firm‚s sovereignty over the U.S. seed industry. Many of them also say the decision ratifies aggressive practices Monsanto used to entrench its dominance and deter competition. This includes <>highly restrictive contractual agreements that excluded rivals, alongside a multibillion-dollar spree to buy up seed companies.
When the administration first launched its investigation, many antitrust and agriculture experts believed it was still possible to imagine an industry characterized by greater competition in the marketplace and greater diversity in seeds. That future may now be foreclosed. Entire article at link above.
Then read Eric Holder Admits Some Banks Are Just Too Big to Prosecute in the Huffington Post about U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent testimony before Congress where he said “I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions has become so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them.”
Is that really the U.S. Attorney General throwing in the towel, admitting defeat, waving the white flag? Isn’t the intent of anti-trust laws to prevent these very abuses? Is our system of government and justice spinning so completely out of control that we are now at the whim of corporations which seem to be unfettered by science or sanity, driven only by a lust for profit regardless of the consequences? Where is the justice? Where is democracy? Where the hell is Congress?
