In case you are not familiar with “ecocide,” it’s the newest thrust by radical environmentalists to criminalize large-scale exploitation of natural resources and innovations such as GMO foods and products. Ecocide is envisioned as a “crime against peace,” equivalent to genocide or ethnic cleansing. The idea is to put corporate CEOs in the dock at the Hague.

Now, a mock trial is occurring at said Hague to convict Monsanto of ecocide. From the AFP story:

Global activists Friday launched a people’s tribunal, accusing giant U.S. seeds firm Monsanto of violating human rights and committing the crime of “ecocide”, by posing a “major threat” to the environment.

Monsanto, which produces genetically modified seeds as well as controversial pesticides, has already dismissed the gathering in The Hague organised by hundreds of grassroots groups as a “parody” with no legal standing, and refused to attend.

But five professional international judges will hear from 30 witnesses, including scientists, farmers, and beekeepers, who have travelled from five continents for the three-day event.

The aim is to draw up a legal advisory opinion which could be fed into existing law, including writing “ecocide” as a crime into international criminal law.

Don’t worry, Wesley: Surely ecocide will never be enacted into law! That would cause too much economic contraction and dislocation.

Sorry. As I detail more fully in my book The War on Humans, stifling our economies and impeding freedom are precisely the points.

Cross-posted at The Corner.
Photo credit: Rosalee Yagihara, [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.