CorpWatch Exclusives
 | Mehadrin "Jaffa" Oranges May Come from Occupied Palestinian Land by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog April 4th, 2013 Jaffa oranges sold in European supermarkets labeled "Made in Israel" may have been grown and packaged in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, according to a report from the Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) movement, an international coalition of Palestinian NGOs and activists. |
 | Monsanto Bullies Small Farmers Over Planting Harvested GMO Seeds by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog March 24th, 2013 Does Monsanto own all future generations of genetically modified seeds that it sells? The Missouri-based agribusiness giant wants farmers to pay a royalty to plant any seed that descended from a patented original. The legal decision has ramifications for other patented "inventions" that reproduce themselves like strands of DNA. |
 | Sierra Leone Farmers Evicted for Sugarcane Biofuel Plantations by Jennifer Kennedy, CorpWatch Blog March 5th, 2013 Addax Bioenergy, a Swiss energy company, is jeopardizing the livelihoods of thousands of subsistence farmers in order to export ethanol made from sugarcane grown in Sierra Leone, according to the Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food and Brot Für Alle, an NGO based in Switzerland. |
 | Sweet Nothing: UK Food Giant Avoids Taxes on Zambia Sugar by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog February 15th, 2013 Associated British Foods (ABF), a UK company that makes Silver Spoon sugar, pays almost no taxes on its profitable Zambian sugar subsidiary, according to a new ActionAid report. The authors allege ABF has avoided estimated taxes of $27 million since 2007, enough to put 48,000 Zambian children in school. |
 | Nestlé Found Guilty of Spying on Swiss Activists by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog January 30th, 2013 Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, has been found guilty of spying on Swiss activists in 2003 with the help of Securitas, a private security company. Jean-Luc Genillard, president of the Lausanne civil court, told the two companies to pay $3,267.55 to each of nine victims. |
 | Argentine Farm Sales Raise Questions of Land Speculation By Soros by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog January 15th, 2013 Hedge fund billionaire George Soros is making a killing buying and selling farmland in South America after converting them to biofuel production. While this has caused the land prices to increase dramatically, the ecological impact is questionable. |
 | Agribusiness Buys California Votes by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog November 6th, 2012 Big corporations bankrolled candidates for the 2012 elections in both the Democratic and Republican parties and bought their votes lock, stock and barrel, contributing over $2 billion out of the $6 billion spent this year. The biggest impact was on a California battle to require labeling of genetically altered products. |
 | Starbucks: Espresso for Investors, Watery Americano in UK Taxes by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog October 26th, 2012 Starbucks, the Seattle-based international coffee chain, has been accused of tax avoidance in the UK. Between 1998 and 2011 the company has made £3 billion in sales but paid out just £8.6 million in taxes on sales from its 735 stores in the country. |
 | Cambodian Activists Call for International Sugar Boycott by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog September 11th, 2012 Human rights monitoring groups and Cambodian activists are calling for an international boycott of Tate & Lyle and Domino Sugar, who do business with sugar suppliers accused of participating in government-sanctioned land grabs and illegal evictions throughout rural Cambodia. |
 | Monsanto Faces $7.5 Billion Payout to Brazilian Farmers by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, CorpWatch Blog June 28th, 2012 Monsanto, the largest seed corporation in the world, has long dealt out severe legal sanctions against farmers it suspects of "pirating" its seed. Now farmers in Brazil have turned the tables on the company which may have to pay out $7.5 billion. |
 | Coffee Colonialism: Olam Plantation Displaces Lao Farmers by Beaumont Smith, Special to CorpWatch June 4th, 2012 Olam International, a Singapore based multinational, is growing coffee for export in Paksong, southern Laos. The land for the plantation was seized by Sonesay Siphandone, the district governor, from the upland Nha Huen/Yahern community who have been left without food to eat. |
 | Chiquita Banana To Face Colombia Torture Claim by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog March 30th, 2012 Chiquita, the global banana producer, was ordered to face a federal court over their role in paying off right wing death squads in Colombia that are alleged to have used “random and targeted violence” against villagers in exchange for financial assistance and access to Chiquita’s private port. |
 | Thorny Business: Ethiopian Rose Exports To Europe by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog March 5th, 2012 Karuturi Global and Saudi Star have leased thousands of hectares of land from the Ethiopian government for agricultural development. Critics says these projects have displaced traditional farmers and subsistence crops. |
 | ADM's New Frontiers: Palm Oil Deforestation and Child Labor
by Charlie Cray, Special to CorpWatch May 18th, 2010 ADM has moved beyond the days of blatant price-fixing that landed its top execs behind bars. But the company's forays into new global agricultural markets bring charges of complicity in forced child labor and rampant deforestation. Critics assert that the conglomerate's embrace of self- regulation and voluntary guidelines is but a cynical ploy to deter effective reform. |
 | Titanium or Water? Trouble brews in Southern India by Nityanand Jayaraman, Special to CorpWatch October 24th, 2007 Tata, India's largest conglomerate, wants to take 10,000 acres of land to mine ilmenite in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The plan has sparked protests by local villagers who say the project will destroy their traditional way of life and the environment. |
 | Trademarking Coffee: Starbucks cuts Ethiopia deal by Anton Foek, Special to CorpWatch May 8th, 2007 Starbucks, the world's largest coffee shop chain, and the Ethiopian government are on the verge of unveiling a deal that the company hopes will end attacks on the company's carefully constructed ethical image. |
| US: Swift sued over hiring
by Christine Tatum, Denver Post December 12th, 2006 Eighteen former Swift & Co. employees who worked at the meatpacker's Cactus, Texas, plant have filed a $23 million lawsuit alleging that Swift hired illegal workers to depress employee wages. |
 | Guest Workers Seek Global Horizons: U.S. Company Profits From Migrant Labor by Kari Lydersen, Special to CorpWatch November 3rd, 2006 Global Horizons is one of the biggest companies in the business of importing temporary foreign workers to do jobs in the U.S. ranging from agriculture to nursing. Their workers endure similar working conditions to undocumented workers, prompting government investigations. Global Horizon Responds |
 | Green Fuel's Dirty Secret by Sasha Lilley, Special to CorpWatch June 1st, 2006 Ethanol made from corn has been touted as the "green fuel" of the future. Archer Daniels Midland, the largest U.S. producer of ethanol, stands to make a fortune from environmentally conscious car drivers. But is ethanol really as environmentally clean as it is hyped to be? Listen to an interview with Sasha Lilley on CorpWatch Radio. |
 | Australia Reaps Iraqi Harvest by Marc Moncrief, Special to CorpWatch April 4th, 2006 United Nations sanctions against Saddam Hussein may have failed to end his regime but they succeeded in enriching both the Iraqi dictator and corporations able to manipulate the scandal-ridden world body's Oil-for-Food program. Among the profiteers was the Australian Wheat Board, a former state-owned monopoly, which funneled over $200 million into Saddam's coffers even as the “Coalition of the Willing” was preparing for invasion. |