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. |
 | Some Strings Attached: Cotton, Farm subsidies tie up global trade talks by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch December 13th, 2005 West African cotton farmers are among those hardest hit by government subsidized corporate agriculture. This week in Hong Kong, trade ministers from the 148 members of the World Trade Organization meet to discusss this and other global free trade issues. |
 | The Cows Have Come Home by Diane Farsetta, Special to CorpWatch September 1st, 2005 After fighting mad cow safeguards, the US beef industry complains about the consequences - a multi-billion dollar decline in exports - and a shortage of imported beef because of inadequate domestic testing and labeling. |
 | Playing Chicken: Ghana vs. the IMF by Linus Atarah, Special to CorpWatch June 14th, 2005 Thanks to the IMF and the World Bank, chicken and other local agriculture staples in Ghana are being replaced by subsidized foreign imports. |
 | Meat Packer's Union on the Chopping Block by Sasha Lilley, Special to CorpWatch April 18th, 2005 Today's meat packing industry relies increasingly on high-speed, treacherous disassembly lines. Perhaps that's why Tyson Foods, Inc. -- a giant in a flourishing industry -- is working to take apart a union that prioritizes safety over speed. |
 | Food Giants on the Run by Michele Simon, Special to CorpWatch March 21st, 2005 The food industry is working with politicians across the United States to rewrite laws in order to shield themselves from lawsuits based on obesity and related health problems. |
 | Paving the Amazon with Soy
by Sasha Lilley, Special to CorpWatch December 16th, 2004 Soy rules the central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso and it's not the soy that much of the world associates with the ostensibly eco-friendly, vegetarian diet, either. With help from the World Bank, André Maggi (the Soy King) is bankrolling the destruction of one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems: the savanna. |
 | Dynamite in the Center of Town by Joshua Karliner, Special to CorpWatch December 2nd, 2004 In 1984 the world's largest industrial disaster killed 8,000 people over night in Bhopal, India. Two decades later, some sort of closure might seem called for. But today survivors groups continue to struggle for justice, while the chemical industry promotes volunteer initiatives. |
 | Clouds on the Organic Horizon by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, Special to CorpWatch November 25th, 2004 Until a decade ago, organic foods were available only through tiny farmers markets, health and natural food stores, but today their growing popularity means that more organic food is now sold by chain stores like Whole Foods. Often, the food itself is grown on corporate-owned farms, no longer synonymous with small farms, rural communities, social justice and humane treatment of animals. |
 | Sweet and Sour by Jim Lobe, Special to CorpWatch June 23rd, 2004 A new report from Human Rights Watch reveals that American corporations such as Coca-Cola may be getting sugar from plantations in El Salvador that employ child labor. |
 | Barren Justice by Sasha Lilley, Special to CorpWatch May 13th, 2004 Nicaraguan banana workers have been struggling for compensation from Dole Fruit, Shell, and Dow Chemical for exposure to the pesticide DBCP. The obstacles to justice are many, including the US courts, powerful lobbies, and free trade agreements. |
 | Argentina Water Privatization Scheme Runs Dry by Sebastian Hacher, Special to CorpWatch February 26th, 2004 Rio de la Plata is one of the few rivers of the world whose pollution can be seen from space. Making matters worse is the privatized water company Aguas Argentinas, which dumps sewage into the river a few kilometers from where it treats water for drinking. |
 | Coke with Yet Another New Twist: Toxic Cola by Amit Srivastava, Special to CorpWatch January 17th, 2004 As the World Social Forum opens in Mumbai, India, the spotlight has been turned on Coca-Cola and Pepsi, whose products have been found to be laden with pesticides and insecticides. |
| An Unreasonable Woman by Helene Vosters, Special to CorpWatch May 15th, 2003 Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation shrimper, is a long time environmental justice activist and adversary to corporate polluters like Union Carbide and Dow Chemical. In the early 1980's after witnessing dolphin die-offs, decreased fish catches, and increased health problems in her home-town of Seadrift, Texas, Wilson discovered that she lived in the most polluted county (Calhoun) in the U.S. |
 | Farmers Fight to Keep Monsanto's Genetically Modified Wheat Out of Canada by Tom Price, Special to CorpWatch March 5th, 2003 A coaliton of farmers is fighting to keep Monsanto's "Roundup Ready Wheat" out of Canada. They say GM contamination would threaten exports. |
 | Precision Farming: The Marriage Between Agribusiness and Spy Technology by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, Special to CorpWatch October 2nd, 2002 Precision farming: high tech corporate responsibility or agribusiness expansion? We look at the use of satellites and new technology in farming. |
 | Biotechnology's Third Generation by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, Special to CorpWatch April 5th, 2002 From golden rice to anti-viral tomatoes, is the biotech industry's third generation good medicine or good marketing? And, activists ask, what are the environmental consequences? |
 | Genetic Pollution: Biotech Corn Invades Mexico by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, Special to CorpWatch March 20th, 2002 Mexican farmers say their crops are contaminated by GM corn. At stake: their harvest, native seeds and very livelihood. |
| Seeds of Resistance: Grassroots Activism vs. Biotech Agriculture by Julie Light, Special to CorpWatch May 25th, 2000 SAN RAMON, CA -- About a dozen demonstrators dressed in mock biohazard suits dump food products from Safeway supermarket shelves into a plastic bin in front of the Marriott Hotel in this quiet suburban town East of San Francisco. |
| Stolen Harvest CorpWatch March 17th, 2000 Stolen Harvest is the story of how those who labor, those who grow foods, nature and her amazing creatures, are all literally being stolen by tremendously clever mechanisms being put in place by global corporations trying to find new markets. |
| Pete Wilson (Honorary Baron) Political Ecology Group March 31st, 1997 Wilson's support for methyl bromide has certainly helped make him a powerful economic force in the political arena. |
| Trical Inc. Political Ecology Group March 31st, 1997 A largely mysterious entity, TriCal is owned and operated by its President, Dean Storkan. Together with some of his top lieutenants, Roger Hruby, Hank Maze and Tom Duafala, Storkan operates a series of thirteen related corporations in which he has significant, if not controlling financial interests. |
| Assorted and Sundry Barons Political Ecology Group March 31st, 1997 Various other corporations and industry associations participate in the transnational effort to perpetuate the use of the Class I Toxin and Class I ozone depleter, methyl bromide. |
| Sun-Diamond Growers of California Political Ecology Group March 31st, 1997 The most blatent case of the Bromide Barons attempting to underine the democratic process with their financial influence is that of Sun-Diamond Growers of California. A large agricultural concern that uses methyl bromide to grow young fruit trees and to fumigate stored fruit and nuts. |
| Methyl Bromide Working Group Political Ecology Group March 31st, 1997 Led by the Methyl Bromide Working Group (MBWG) and its chief lobbyist Peter G. Sparber, the Barons of Bromide are working on a number of fronts to undermine the U.S. Clean Air Act and thus to perpetuate the use of methyl bromide indefinitely. |
| Methyl Bromide Global Coalition Political Ecology Group March 31st, 1997 The Methyl Bromide Global Coalition (MBGC) has exerted significant influence on all aspects of the methyl bromide debate, inserting itself as a central player in international scientific panels, diplomatic negotiations and public pronouncements on the issue. |
| Dead Sea Bromine Group Political Ecology Group March 31st, 1997 Dead Sea Bromine produces as much as 30 percent of world output of methyl bromide, which it exports to Europe, Africa, the United States and China. However, very little information is available on this Israeli transnational corporation. |
| The Bromide Barons Political Ecology Group March 31st, 1997 A handful of corporations control the methyl bromide industry. Enter the realm of the Bromide Barons. |
| Albemarle Corporation Political Ecology Group March 31st, 1997 Today the Albemarle Corporation is one of the top three producers of methyl bromide in the world. Founded in 1887 to produce blotting papers for fountain pens, Albemarle stayed a paper products company for many years. |
| First Hand Experience by Alba Morales, Political Ecology Group March 31st, 1997 Photos and words from farm workers and communities neighboring methyl bromide injected fields. |
| Push Back the Poison: Ban Methyl Bromide by Joshua Karliner, CorpWatch March 31st, 1997 Methyl bromide is a silent killer. Colorless and odorless, it is highly toxic to a wide spectrum of organisms, including human beings. It would be fast on its way out today if it weren't for a small handful of corporations, industry associations and elected officials which have worked stealthily and assiduously to keep this deadly product on the market and in the field. |
| Farm Workers on the Front Lines CorpWatch March 31st, 1997 CorpWatch talks with Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers about their long history of working to ban dangerous pesticides. |