In
their rush to readily promote neoliberal dogma and corporate-inspired
PR, many government officials, scientists and journalists take as given
that profit-driven transnational corporations have a legitimate claim to
be custodians of natural assets. There is the premise that water, food, soil and agriculture should be handed over to powerful and wholly corrupt transnational corporations to milk for profit, under the pretence these entities are somehow serving the needs of humanity.
These natural assets (‘the commons’)
belong to everyone and any stewardship should be carried out in the
common interest by local people assisted by public institutions and
governments acting on their behalf, not by private transnational
corporations driven by self interest and the maximization of profit by
any means possible.
Concerns about what is in the public
interest or what is best for the environment lie beyond the scope of
hard-headed commercial interests and should ideally be the remit of
elected governments and civil organisations. However, the best-case
scenario for private corporations is to have supine, co-opted agencies
or governments. And if the current litigation cases in the US and the ‘Monsanto Papers’ court documents tell us anything, this is exactly what they set out to create.
