Thus, Ajinomoto has succeeded in getting billions of people to pay for their own self-embalming before they are actually dead! In all fairness, and to be as egalitarian as I can get herein, I must point out that aspartame was patented by G.D. Searle in 1966; the patent was later sold to Monsanto, and then they sold it to Ajinomoto, which at that point was already the world's largest maker of another neurotoxic poison, Monosodium Glutamate.
This biochemical mayhem on developing nations is one of the most devastating 21st Century forms of genocide, but a few letters to heads of state and to Health Ministers could completely put a stop to all of this, maybe....despite the fact that the twin forces of government ignorance and bribes, plus a set of meticulously planned corporate strategies and tactics could make our effort much more difficult than it really should be than if we were dealing with a saner set of parameters and historic precedents.
We should let these African officials know about one vital development in this struggle for consumer protection: California is moving towards requiring all aspartame containing products to carry a carcinogen warning label! That in itself is shocking enough that they might put the brakes on Ajinomoto's ruinous onslaught and its evil efforts to subvert African health.
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Following is a summarized version of Lily Kuo's article in Quartz. She is a journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya, who covers East Africa and China in Africa from Nairobi. She previously reported for Quartz from Hong Kong. Before that she covered general news for Reuters in New York and the Los Angeles Times in Beijing. She holds a dual master's degree in international affairs from the London School of Economics and Peking University, as well as degrees in English and Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She won the 2014 Society of American Business Editors and Writers award for best international feature for a series on China's water crisis.
Japanese food giant Ajinomoto, whose name is synonymous with the flavor enhancer it invented, monosodium glutamate (MSG), is now targeting Africa's middle class, by buying a 33% stake in Promasidor, which sells powdered milk, drinks, and seasonings in more than half of the African Nations. The $532 million deal is a major bet that middle-class Africans will increase their appetite for packaged processed food, which already makes up one third of food purchases for families in southern and eastern Africa, according to a 2014 Michigan State University study, increasing to half in the next 30 years. Although Ajinomoto products have been present on the continent for many years via importers and affiliates, this is a major corporate move into Africa by the 100-year old company.
In 2015, Kellogg's spent $450 million on a 50% stake of a Nigeria-based food distribution company. Now Africa's largest retail chain, South Africa's grocery chain, Shoprite, has expanded to 14 African countries.
Indomie, an Indonesian instant noodle brand that first entered Nigeria in the 1990s, helped create an $600 million instant noodle sector of which it had a 70% market share, by 2013. (From Stephen Fox: the hidden implication, if it is not already clear to you, is that all of those noodle products contain Monosodium Glutamate, another proven neurotoxic food additive.)
More processed food, which is increasingly being consumed by both rural and urban African households, raises public health questions. Ajinomoto is the world's largest manufacturer of aspartame, the artificial sweetener used in brands like Equal and Nutrasweet that has been under scrutiny for years over potential health problems.
Ajinomoto is relying on developing markets elsewhere too. Ajinomoto began manufacturing in India last year and earlier this year bought the Turkish food company Orgen Gida Sanayl for $67 billion. ( from Stephen Fox: that amount is actually an error. From Ajinomoto's own Nov. 16 2016 press release: "Ajinomoto Co. said Wednesday it will acquire Turkey' major food company Orgen Gida Sanayl ve Ticaret A.S. for around 220 million Turkish lira (about $67 million or 7.4 billion yen), to cater to rising demand for seasonings and processed foods."
One of Lily Kuo's conclusions: There are major health concerns that while Africa's middle class consumes more processed foods as part of urban life style, there will be a corresponding increase in non-communicable diseases. For example, the prevalence of diabetes in African adults has more than doubled since 1980.
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Stephen Fox: TALK ABOUT SPIN DOCTORS and CORPORATESPEAK AND SMOKE AND MIRRORS! Ajinomoto's public relations writers deserve a prize for their ignominious PR accomplishments, as well!
Did I fail to mention this? Ajinomoto has exercised so many insidious public relations moves to enhance their image in Japan that we can safely say that the Japanese Government seems to love this company. It is the size of General Motors and has its finger in all sorts of biomedical endeavors, and one of the largest stadiums in Tokyo is the Ajinomoto Stadium which somehow confers upon them among the sports-loving Japanese public a kind of street credibility as producing something that must be healthy....
Here is a summarized recent press release that shows what I mean:
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