Stop Monsanto Now: Crucial Shareholder Resolution Coming Up

Protesting Monsanto, San Francisco (msdonnalee)

by SumOfUs

Monsanto: it's one of the greatest corporate scandals of our time.

This mega-corporation has paid off our politicians, taken over our regulators, and bullied public opponents into submission while it silently monopolizes our food system with its genetically-engineered products.

Now a brave group of Monsanto shareholders are making a stand - the crucial vote is only one week away, and they desperately need our support to force Monsanto to face up to the risks associated with GMOs.

Monsanto has been keeping us and its shareholders in the dark for too long - this shareholder resolution tells Monsanto to be open with the risks of GMO.

This is a serious shareholder proposal, and some big, credible investors are already supportive. But many of the biggest investment and retirement funds that invest OUR money are lining up to vote with Monsanto bosses against transparency.

These big institutional investors think that no one's watching them - and unless we do something now, they'll be right. Together, we can make sure shareholders know what's up and that we're watching - and secure their votes against Monsanto's corporate racket.

The vote happens in just one week. We understand if you can't, but if just 5,000 of us can chip in $1 now, we can launch our urgent campaign to tell Monsanto to come clean on GMOs.

Here's just some of what we could do if we all chip in now:

• Secure advertising in Monsanto's home town of St Louis, Missouri, so that shareholders hear our message as they arrive to vote and know we're watching
• Send organizers to St Louis to raise a media storm outside the shareholder meeting with creative tactics, to make sure the public knows what's happening
• Buy a small, strategic stake in Monsanto - so that we can speak out as shareholders ourselves and demand they act

This shareholder resolution is legitimate, serious business - Harrington Investments Inc. is telling Monsanto to come clean, and they need other big shareholders to back them. 

If the resolution gets a high vote, it would send a very clear signal that Monsanto should disclose the risks associated with GMOs: including contamination of non-GMO crops, damage to "non-target organisms" like bees and other pollinators, and soil contamination.

But Monsanto's board is refusing to back the proposal, despite claiming to be transparent and even though the resolution doesn't require them to disclose any proprietary information.

Meanwhile, the company has spent more than $15 million is California and Washington alone to defeat proposals to label GMO food - a measure that over 90% of Americans support.

Can you chip in just $1 now to stand up to Monsanto and support these brave shareholders in their campaign? We know you might not be able to, but if you can we really appreciate your support.

Big institutional shareholders invest the funds of people like us - but too often they vote against our own interests and cozy up to management. It's only when we publicly hold them to account that we can change this.

We're already reaching out to big Monsanto shareholders to call on them to act - but we need to be able to tell them that we've got the whole SumOfUs community behind us, and we need to be able to show them that we're ready to make a media storm at the shareholders' meeting to hold them to account.

We know what we need to do: get institutional investors to speak to the expert advisors to win their support, show thse investors we'll be there to hold them to account, and to keep piling the pressure on with national and international media coverage - but we can't do it unless we all come together to make it happen.

If we don't, then Monsanto's shareholders will know that no one is watching when they vote down this crucial resolution on GMO transparency.

Can you chip in just $1 now to fund our campaign to tell Monsanto to come clean on the risks associated with GMOs? This is the only shot we'll get to directly change the direction of Monsanto this year.

Thanks for all you do,
Paul, Lisa, Johnny and the rest of us.

SumOfUs is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.