NORTHERN LIGHTS

I should be in Rowe right now at Al Giordano's welcome back party. I'm sorry to miss it but it's interesting that Al blows into the Happy Valley and even the sun flares to send the Northern Lights to herald his return. I saw the tail end of a light show right over lovely downtown Noho this evening. Odd coincidence don't you think?

As if that weren't enough magic for one night, I received final confirmation that my scholarship to the Drug Policy Alliance conference has come through and I'll be blogging you from the New Jersey Meadowlands next week. Check out the agenda. I can't tell you how bowled over I am to be going to this event. I'm already agonizing over which break out sessions to go to. A great big thanks to Drug Policy Alliance for this opportunity.

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CORPORATE CULPRITS

Meanwhile, multicorporate malfeasance surfaced at the top of the inbox tonight. To this day I don't know how I got on the Sojourners newsletter but I have to say I keep reading it because David Batstone has a surprisingly clear perspective on politics and the state of the world at large that I wouldn't expect from a guy who publishes from such a holy roller Christian platform. Tell you the truth, he and I are not that different except I would bet the farm he doesn't smoke cannabis.

From today's Sojo News he focuses on a disturbing attempt by Monsanto to legally intimidate a small organic dairy from truth in labelling.

Oakhurst Dairy, a small dairy with headquarters in Maine, has placed a label on its milk carton, stating, "Our Farmer's Pledge: No Artificial Growth Hormones." For the past five years, Oakhurst has ensured that all of its milk originates from farms that pledge in writing - with a notarized affidavit - that they won't use artificial hormones on their herds.

Sounds reasonable doesn't it? That's information I want as a consumer. Monsanto thinks I shouldn't have that choice.

But last July, the huge biochemical company Monsanto sued Oakhurst and asked the court to force the company to remove its hormone-free label. Monsanto charges Oakhurst with deceptive advertising and unfair business practice. Monsanto makes Posilac, the leading recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). Monsanto markets the growth hormone as a way to boost a cow's milk production by as much as 15 percent, and promises that it is safe. Milk from cows supplemented with rBGH, says Monsanto, is the same as other milk in every respect - nutrition, taste, quality, and health. For that reason, Monsanto charges that Oakhurst's label misleads consumers into believing that there is a difference in milk products. According to the suit filed in a Boston court, business relationships between Monsanto and dairy producers have suffered because the farmers, fearing consumer revulsion, have stopped using Posilac.

Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the bovine growth hormone, all 15 countries in the European Union, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have banned it. Parties who oppose its use claim that it is linked to breast and colon cancer and premature puberty in children.

This is exactly the sort of thing that infuritates me when Libertarians start touting the virtues of the free market. Free to do what? Litigate their competition out of business at the expense of the public health? The Libs tell me the consumer will dictate the marketplace, but it looks to me that these guys are looking to define it in the courts.

Talk about greed. How big a chunk could that little corporation be taking out of their obscene profits anyway?

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Speaking of the profits, from the newsletter:

Tax windfalls for U.S. corporations

U.S. corporations that have deferred taxes for years on the profits they made overseas could be in line for a huge windfall from Congress. Here are the amounts kept abroad that new legislation proposes to be brought back to this country at a greatly reduced tax rate (5.25%):

Company Profits kept abroad but not taxed in U.S.

Merck $15.0 billion
Hewlett-Packard $14.5 billion
Johnson & Johnson $12.3 billion
Schering-Plough $9.4 billion
Eli Lilly $8.0 billion

Total estimated corporate profits held overseas: $400 billion

Ever wonder why public funds seemed to disappear? Now you know why.

*Source: The New York Times, October 2, 2003

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And on a related note from an earlier edition of Sojo News:


U.S. citizens pay more for prescription drugs

U.S. citizens pay higher prices for prescription drugs than do residents of other industrialized countries. How much more do they pay than people in these countries?

Switzerland 58%
United Kingdom 60%
Canada 67%
Germany 74%
Sweden 78%
France 102%
Italy 112%


Sources: Alan Sager and Debrorah Socolar, Health Reform Program, Boston University School of Public Health; Patented Medicines Price Review Board, Canada; USA Today.

Think of those statistics while the DEA shuts down an on-line pharmacy selling Canadian prescriptions and politicians scramble in this election year to pander to their most loyal voting constituents, the elderly, to legally sanction their field trips over the border for their medications.

What I don't get is why they don't just investigate the reasons that the same exact drug plummets in price as soon as you cross the border. Why don't they just sell it directly to the American public at Canadian prices?

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LAST WORD

I leave you with this statistic, Of the world's 100 largest economies, 51 are now global corporations, rather than countries. Check out the chart.

Think global, buy local.

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