Madagascar Pranks March Against Monsanto - What is the difference?

To my new friends from March Against Monsanto:

I apologize, I have tricked you for many days now, and I must now stop because I am getting scared of your community, and even though I do not respect your ways, you are humans and I feel bad tricking you into thinking I am one of your group. You mean well, but you are not using science in a good way to help Madagascar.

There was no March Against Monsanto (MAM) in Madagascar. I made the signs and gave them to my friends to see what your group would say. My teacher (who does not agree with this project because of the trickery) told me that your group will accept almost anything regardless of the scientific process, this was my experiment to see if he is correct. In my opinion, he is correct, and your group should not have the same respect as people who are careful about their science. When we talk about science, we must be very careful how we use peoples emotions, otherwise it is manipulation.

Below I will put the pictures from our fake protest and write my real thoughts. During this experiment I was encouraged and instructed by MAM organizers to destroy or damage golden rice experiments. I was encouraged to allow locusts to eat all our food crops instead of allowing the emergency use of insecticides (this is a very difficult problem for the Malagasy people!). The signs and "memes" below were made to have no factual truth and are very offensive to many Malagasy people, and yet you shared them, you say you will use them in your marketing, and you encouraged me to take more pictures of "people with diseases" to spread your message. You encouraged me to mistrust a man from the USA who starts organic school gardens here, just because he also thinks that agriculture is complicated and biotechnologies might be able to help us. You encouraged me to stop working with this man and focus instead on vandalizing my imaginary gold rice experiments. This was offensive and unpleasant for me to experience.

I had to stop my experiment when I found
this picture at the MAM website - my fake
signs can not get this extreme.
Please stop using this approach.

My experiment was also a failure in another way. I made my signs in a way that I thought was so extreme and offensive that they would be rejected by your community. Instead, all of the signs received compliments, and I could not think of anything more extreme until I searched your own website! My signs were untrue, offensive, and even incoherent or contradictory - but after my experiment, when I look at your websites I ask myself "What is the difference?".

For Madagascar, I think we will be better off if we have nothing to do with March Against Monsanto. I think Monsanto is probably not a good company. I do not know if biotechnology will be good for Madagascar. One thing that I do know is that March Against Monsanto is not an organization that is able to help the Malagasy people learn about the risks and benefits of biotechnology in any meaningful way. Thank you for keeping your signs and "memes" out of our country, we welcome you back when you learn about what science is.

Thank you,
Navid Rakotofala




Photo Expose:

I pretended to have a "special laboratory" at a fake university, and I told MAM organizers that I was testing Madagascar's frogs for heavy metals to check for GMOs in our country where GMOs are not allowed. This disgusting picture is just a butchered frog carcass for meat eating, and it is not good for our environment for reasons different than Monsanto's GMOs.

This is all a terrible joke of course. I think it is clear that any group that is using science in the right way would not allow this kind of imagery combined with nonsense words. For example - one study can never "PROVE" anything.

"Monsanto Tests Agent Orange on Homeless Malagasy"
WOW - that is really untrue, a horrible thing to say about any human
even if they work at Monsanto, and is very disrespectful to any true
historical victim of the real agent orange!

Also, we understand that NaturalNews.com is a joke website for bad science.
My friends are happy to play a trick on people who try to spread lies, even though I still feel bad for what I did here.

"Monsanto Kills & Eats Baby Lemurs for Profit"
This doesn't even make any sense - Monsanto does
not work in Madagascar, and even if they did - what would this mean?

One MAM Organizer said to me that many people really would
rather go blind than eat golden rice. "Its really that important to them" she posted in a
facebook comment. It turns out my teacher is more correct. This man does not want to be blind
and IF golden rice could have helped him as a child, I think he would have taken the risk.

The problem is first we must get all the Malagasy people good education about agriculture so they can make these decisions themselves. March Against Monsanto has nothing to offer us for this need.

This image was liked and shared among MAM organizers.
I was even encouraged to take more pictures of "people with diseases" to support the cause.

This young man survived polio and thinks that Americans who advocate against vaccines are not good people.
He was happy to play a joke on MAM organizers to see if they enjoy using pictures of "people with diseases" to promote bad science. 

"HELP!!!! Monsanto is using our Locust Infestation to FORCE Agent Organge into MADA"
One MAM organizer agreed that I should prefer that ALL of the crops in Madagascar get eaten by locusts rather than to spray "ONE DROP" because that will only lead to super bugs.

I am worried about the impacts of pesticides, but in our current emergency of locus infestation, it is important to understand how complicated it is! MAM does not help us with this.

Like I said, this MEME does not make any sense in any way, and is horrible and offensive.

I put the name of #MarchAgainstMonsanto & the Global GMO Free Coalition on the picture and sent it to their leaders to see if they would tell me not to use this. 

There are many more things I could tell you about my experiment to see what it is like in the extremist anti-science group #MarchAgainstMonsanto, but I think the examples above give an example of how this group is willing to spread bad information at any cost.

Madagascar Marches Against Monsanto!!!

On May 24^th in Madagascar's southwestern capital city of Toliara, more than 100 farmers, students, and citizens gathered in the city's Jardin de la Mer, to join in solidarity with protesters around the world in opposition to the biotechnology giant, Monsanto and their associated genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The event was organized by Navid Rakotofalala, a graduate student of agricultural sciences at the University of Betioky, and was supported by regional farmer's cooperatives after reports surfaced that proponents of biotechnologies were attempting to reverse Madagascar's ban on GMOs in agriculture. “Monsanto is bribing [the newly elected national government's] Ministry of Agriculture” Rakotofala said over a loudspeaker to the gathering crowd. He continued to explain “they seek to poison our children and destroy our farmer's way of life to make room for their corporate profits”, to which the crowd enthusiastically cheered. Following Rakotofalala's introduction, a local vegetable farmer, Madame Andrianampianianana offered her vision for the future of Madagascar's food supply. “We can feed ourselves with native species and traditional methods alone, our local farms are doing fine thank you very much!” Andrianampianianana concluded. To end the speaking event, Dr. Roland Ranitsoa-Azafady, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering from the University of Fort Dauphin spoke on the issue of GMOs and Madagascar's importance to global biodiversity. Ranitsoa-Azafady described a possible future of unstoppable genetic pollution spoiling this most important of natural resources. He drew connections between the loss of biodiversity and such other issues as eco-tourism decline and the possibility of ecosystems services failing in what can be described as ecocide. “Our children absolutely deserve better, we must work together to resist Monsanto's forced entry into Madagascar!”. The event was not without controversy. Professor Henry Ranitsiraka, a nutritionist from the northern Malagasy University of Ampefy was not a public speaker, but made a point to dissent from the opinion of the crowd. “New biotechnologies like Golden Rice may be an important technology for improving nutrition in this country, we just shouldn't rule out everything and limit ourselves so strongly, each crop should be judged individually” Ranitsiraka tried to explain to a skeptical crowd. Raktofalala was quick to engage this point noting that “Golden Rice is a myth and not needed here, children can get enough vitamin A from our ample supply of fruits and vegetables. It is true, there are problems – my own cousin has lost his vision early in life, but he should have eaten a better diet, not untested western technologies funding private corporations! And Ranitsiraka LIES - we don't need ANY GMOs here, he is paid by Monsanto DIRECTLY, this is a JOKE!!!”. Madagascar currently prohibits the agricultural production or importation of GMOs, yet multiple recent reports indicate strong pressure to change these laws and flood the food system with processed food imports and expensive patented seeds from developed countries. 

Dr. Roland Ranitsoa-Azafady Speaks: Monsanto's GMOs GREATEST Threat to Madagascar's Biodiversity

Dr. Roland Ranitsoa-Azafady, the professor emeritus of mechanical engineering from the University of Fort Dauphin, Madagascar - is speaking in Jardin de la Mer RIGHT NOW!

#MarchAgainstMonsanto Madagascar's first protesters!

Monsanto tests agent orange against the homeless of Madagascar!
Our government lies to us, but we know better nutrition because
we follow Mike Adams and NaturalNews.com 

Monsanto kills and eats baby lemurs for profit! Zilbert farms rice, manioc,
vegetables, and marijuana near Mahjanga, in the north of Madagascar!

#MarchAgainstMONSANTO

Monsanto tries to force the golden rice on this country
- we will NOT allow it!

Everyone gets involved #MarchAgainstMonsanto

This is a farm couple chased from their farm by "milaso", 
Malagasy cattle theives, they know Monsanto is the real farm theif!

Let real science lead the way!

We need independent scientists, like our amphibian health laboratory in Madagascar, and like the Global GMO Free Coalition & Mike Adam's work on Heavy Metals in the USA, to let REAL science lead the way!

Madagascar invited to join Global GMO Free Coalition!

Organizer, Navid Rakotofalala is a friend to the frogs of Madagascar!

We are very proud to be invited join the Global GMO Free Coalition (http://www.gmofreeglobal.org/) for all of Madagascar, if their steering committee will accept our extremist group. GMO is the biggest problem for Madagascar's small farmers, and monsanto is always pushing this stuff on our people. Monsanto's maize, rice, papaya, and cassava promise only to poison our children and kill our farmers - just like they already do to our farms!

We want to work with Global GMO Free Coalition to promote real science showing these dangers to the Malagasy people!

Unfortunately the GMO Agriculture
is not their friend, it kills them!

{UPDATE: after our joke was told, Global GMO Free Coalition is not going to accept us. That is okay for us)

Monsanto Kills Madagascar's Frogs!

Monsanto kills Madagascar's frogs today,
and our small farmers tomorrow!

In my studies of agricultural science, I have a special laboratory at the University of Betioky, to test amphibians for many health indicators. Because farmer's spray so much more round-up on the industrial GMO maize crops here, the frogs are dying. I have personally discovered very disturbing levels of heavy metals in our local frogs. It is my opinion Monsanto is trying to poison our small-scale farmers so they can take over our lands.

People say that sustainable development in Madagascar is complicated... I say that we must #MarchAgainstMonsanto as the #1 simple thing to do improve the situation here.