Donna Bird
New Zealand resident and musician Donna Bird tells her story about biotech executive Pam Marrone who made money from pesticides but in the process poisoned hundreds of people in New Zealand and thousands of people around the world. The pesticide was developed at AgraQuest in Davis, California. Pam Marrone was the founder of AgraQuest.
Donna lives in New Zealand where residents were sprayed with BTK Foray 48B (a genetically modified bacteria named Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki) for the painted apple moth.
On the morning of January 7, 2003, Donna was reading a book when she heard an aircraft flying very low over the house. She went outside to see what was going on. A small yellow plane appeared to be in trouble.
She stood on the deck of her house and saw the plane flying straight toward her house. The plane swooped and just cleared the roof with engine spluttering. She yelled to a young man nearby “He’s going to crash - look at all the smoke!”
He yelled back “No, he’s spraying.” At that point, panic set in. She shut the doors and ran for the shower.
Two hours later, Donna had severe joint pain in her pelvis. Many trips to the doctors ensued. Donna's arms and legs were partially paralyzed, and she had chills, high temperatures and impaired vision. Donna and her son and many others developed cysts and tumors, and many residents developed enlarged hearts.
Her friend had nine surgeries, and his legs were amputated. People started getting motor neuron disease, and many kids developed rickets. More than 14,000 people had stomach ulcers that year.
The bees, pigeons, tui and lizards disappeared. The red tide appeared (a toxic algae bloom), the shellfish were poisoned. The beaches were closed. There were dead animals at the zoo and lots of dead fish.
Hundreds of residents became ill, and many have died.
Learn more about Donna's story and the involvement of AgraQuest, Pam Marrone and Denise Manker. Read the articles posted on IndyBay.org on May 25, 2009, and IndyMedia.org.nz on May 26, 2009.
Donna has spent a huge amount of time researching what happened. The patent for BTK Foray 48B is listed as United States Patent 6,406,691 and was filed on January 26, 1998. It was issued to Valent Bioscience Corporation in Libertyville, Illinois, on on June 18, 2002.
Donna discovered an elaborate and confusing web of patents related to BTK Foray 48B. Through her research, Donna found that everything ties back to Pam Marrone and Monsanto (and later, Pam's own company, AgraQuest). To learn more about these patents and the connections that Donna discovered, read the news article.
In 2006, the People's Inquiry released their report titled "Report of the March 2006 People's Inquiry into the Impacts and Effects of Aerial Spraying Pesticides Over Urban Areas of Auckland." The report discusses in great detail the devastating human impact of the 2 1/2 year aerial spraying program (January 2002 through May 2004) to eradicate the painted apple moth.
Donna continued to speak out against pesticides for many years. In 2008, she attended a meeting of the New Zealand Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA). Donna gave a presentation, along with many others. After hearing the presentations, the Committee voted to ban the pesticide Endosulfan in New Zealand. It is interesting to note that the U.S. did not stop using Endosulfan until 2016.
SPREAD THE WORD. RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT RISKS IN THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY.
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