Monsanto

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Monsanto is a leading global provider of agricultural products and systems sold to farming concerns. Their leading products are the Roundup herbicide, DEKALB and Agrow seed products, and biotechnology traits. Products have also included Agent Orange (1) the now ubiquitous PCBs, DDT, recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone and Aspartame.

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History

The Monsanto company was created in 1901 by John Francis Queeny (photo). Named after his wife, Olga Mendez Monsanto, the name Monsanto has since, for many around the world, come to symbolize the greed, arrogance, scandal and hardball business practices of too many multinational corporations. A couple of historical factoids not generally known: Monsanto was heavily involved during WWII in the creation of the first nuclear bomb for the Manahttan Project via its facilities in Dayton Ohio and called the Dayton Project headed by Charlie Thomas, Director of Monsanto's Central Research Department (and later Monsanto President) [1] [2] and it operated a nuclear facility for the federal government in Miamisburg, also in Ohio, called the Mound Project until the 80s. Also "In 1967, Monsanto entered into a joint venture with IG Farben" "It is the German chemical firm that was the financial core of the Hitler regime, and was the main supplier of Zyklon-B to the German government during the extermination phase of the Holocaust" [3][4]; IG Farben was not dissolved until 2003. For a short Monsanto history see [5].

Monsanto and the pollution of Anniston, Alabama

In the Washington Post article (Jan 1, 2002) "Monsanto Hid Decades Of Pollution PCBs Drenched Ala. Town, But No One Was Ever Told" a grim story of Monsanto's treacherous behavior in Anniston Alabama was revealed. It is summed up in this chilling paragraph: "They also know that for nearly 40 years, while producing the now-banned industrial coolants known as PCBs at a local factory, Monsanto Co. routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills. And thousands of pages of Monsanto documents -- many emblazoned with warnings such as "CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy" -- show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew." [6] [7] For more see Monsanto and the pollution of Anniston, Alabama.

The Roundup Ready Controversy

(Note: In addition to the issues raised on this page, there are a host of other concerns with genetic modification. Furthermore, the issues and statistics in the fast-paced biotech world are ever in flux. The reader is encouraged to visit the other websites below for more and up-to-date info.)

Monsanto is considered the Mother of agricultural biotech. Their "Roundup Ready" crops have been genetically engineered to allow direct application of the Monsanto herbicide glyphosate allowing farmers to drench both their crops and crop land with the herbicide so as to be able to kill nearby weeds without killing the crops (3). "RR soybeans are heavily herbicide dependent" [8][9] says Charles M. Benbrook, an expert in the field. For more see Monsanto and the Roundup Ready Controversy.

Terminator Technology

Monsanto also came under heavy public fire with their "Terminator Technology", a.k.a. "suicide seeds", in which they developed and planned to market seeds that, after one season's growth would not germinate again forcing farmers around the world to buy their seed from them every year rather than saving their best seed for the next years planting, a traditional and economical practice [10]. Seed saving has had the benefit of allowing farmers to continually improve the quality of their crops through careful artificial selection. Fears were also expressed that Monsanto's terminator genes could spread to wild plants. In 1999 Monsanto called the program off, however there are disturbing indications that they may be planning to resurrect it. [11] [12]

On June 29, 2004 The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture went into effect giving farmers in those countries which have ratified it with the exception of the U.S., the right to save seeds [13].

The Campaign to Undermine Organic Agriculture

Monsanto partially funds the anti-organic Center for Global Food Issues, a project of the right-wing Hudson Institute. It is run by Dennis Avery [14][15] and his son Alex Avery. Here find the latest on Hudson's pro-biotech spinmeister Michael Fumento, and his secretly taking money (at least $60,000) from Monsanto. See also [16].

In 1998 Dennis wrote an article that began "'According to recent data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), people who eat organic and natural foods are eight times as likely as the rest of the population to be attacked by a deadly new strain of E. coli bacteria (0157:H7)'.

However, according to Robert Tauxe, M.D., chief of the food borne and diarrheal diseases branch of the CDC, there is no such data on organic food production in existence at their centers and he says Avery's claims are 'absolutely not true.'" [17]. Following in his father's steps Alex distorted a study from the Journal of Food Protection that showed that organic food does not contain more pathogens than conventionally grown, contrary to Avery's claims. For more see Monsanto and the Campaign to Undermine Organics.

Genetic Pollution a deliberate strategy?

Organic farms are increasingly finding that via cross-pollination their pure food has been contaminated with GM DNA thus ruining their businesses [18] [19]. "In 2002, Ontario farmer Alex Nurnberg had tests conducted on his 100-ton harvest of organic corn. Twenty tons were found to be contaminated by GMOs, which Nurnberg believes were blown by the wind from the corn on a neighboring farm. 'I was not ready for it. I feel such a wrath about it,' says Nurnberg" [20]. For more see Monsanto and Genetic Pollution.

G.M. Trees and Grasses

Food crops are not the only area Monsanto and others have hoped to cash in on with their technology, also with frightening consequences, a range of genetically engineered "designer" trees and forests are also high on their list.

From trees modified to withstand Monsanto's Roundup to trees designed with a reduced lignin content (it's lignin that gives trees their strength and rigidity) to appeal to the paper making and construction industry to "terminator trees" which don't produce seeds. This has met with fierce resistance from activists and scientists alike, but again, to no avail [21] [22] [23] [24]. Already there has been a contamination issue with the GE papaya tree, the world's first commercially planted genetically engineered tree, which enraged local farmers in Hawaii [25]. For more see Monsanto and Genetically Engineered Trees.

The Indian Suicides

Farmers in India are finding that the "biotechnology revolution" is having a devastating effect on their crop lands and personal debt levels. "In 1998, the World Bank's structural adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations like Cargill, Monsanto, and Syngenta. The global corporations changed the input economy overnight. Farm saved seeds were replaced by corporate seeds which needed fertilizers and pesticides and could not be saved" Says Vandana Shiva, leader of the movement to oust Monsanto from India. For more see Monsanto in India

Mexican Maize Mischief

Monsanto has employed the services of a firm called Bivings Group which used a phony e-mail campaign to persuade the prestigious science journal Nature to retract the Chapela and Quist paper finding that GM maize had escaped into Mexico - the first time in the publication´s 133 year history that it had ever retracted a paper [26] [27] see also Monsanto's World Wide Web of Deceit. The architect of the deception is thought by some to have been Monsanto´s Jay Byrne who was also active in attempts to shut down web sites critical of Monsanto [28] see also Biotech's Hall of Mirrors.

Chapela and Quist have since been vindicated as it turns out that GM maize has indeed invaded Mexico. Says Science 3/1/2002 "Surprisingly, even Quist and Chapela's most strident critics agree with one of their central points: Illicit transgenic maize may well be growing in Mexico.... At a 23 January meeting in Mexico City, CINVESTAV official Elleli Huerta presented preliminary PCR findings indicating that transgenic promoters, mostly CaMV 35S, were present in about 12% of the plants. In some areas, up to 35.8% of the grain contained foreign sequences, INE scientific adviser Sol Ortiz Garcia told Science last week." "This is the world's worst case of contamination by genetically modified material because it happened in the place of origin of a major crop. It is confirmed. There is no doubt about it." Jorge Soberón Secretary of Mexico's National Biodiversity Commission told the London Daily Telegraph, April 19, 2002 [29]. See also [30]. Also see CARMA International and this Spinwatch article on the Congress of Racial Equality for more on Monsanto's PR tactics.

Unfortunately for Chapela, despite overwhelming support from Berkeley staff and students alike, Chancellor Robert Berdahl decided to deny him tenure. Supporters then petitioned the new Chancellor to reverse the decision. However "the Budget Committee knows the chancellor wants to get his hands on that corporate loot [Berkeley receives tens of millions of dollars from biotech] Chapela is exactly the kind of person we need around here. He has wisdom, and above all he has courage and integrity" said Joe Nielands, emeritus professor of biochemistry [31].

Global Bully

Monsanto has sued many a farmer when their GM crops have turned up on the farmer's fields even though the farmers say they never planted them (examples)[32] [33] [34]. For an alarming expose of Monsanto's legal battles with American farmers see this report Monsanto vs. U.S. Farmers. For more see Goliath and David: Monsanto's Legal Battles against Farmers.

Labeling Issues, Revolving Doors, rBGH and Bribery

An issue of growing concern is the Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods [35]. Many have questioned why it is that while consumers in Europe have the right to know through labeling which foods contain GM ingredients and thus to make an informed choice consumers in the United States, purportedly the bastion of freedom, democracy and the "free market" in the world are denied this same right. Polls indicate that the great majority of Americans who are aware of the issue want labels [36]. Attempts to accomplish some kind of labeling have repeatedly been rebuffed due to tremendous opposition from biotech, which fear loss of sales if people know [37] [38]. In 2002 Oregon tried and failed to pass just such a labeling initiative (Measure 27). The campaign cited big money and misinformation propagated by biotech as contributing to the defeat [39]. For more see Labeling Issues, Revolving Doors, rBGH, Bribery and Monsanto.

Monsanto and Fox: Partners in Censorship

Courtesy of Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber

By all accounts, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson are tough, bulldog reporters--the sort of journalists you'd expect to make some enemies along the way.

That, according to Florida TV station WTVT, was why it hired the husband-and-wife team with much fanfare in November 1996 to head the station's "news investigative unit." Now, in the wake of their firing barely a year later, the Fox network affiliate is accusing them of theft for daring to independently publish the script of the story that they were never allowed to air. For more see Monsanto and Fox: Partners in Censorship.

Monsanto recently made news when it decided to withdraw its GM wheat from the market due to worldwide opposition. [40] Environmental risks of GM wheat.

California's Mendocino County as of March 2, 2004 became the first county in the nation to ban the growing of genetically altered crops and animals [41] via ballot Measure H despite a massive campaign against it from the usual suspects.

Monsanto was the creator of several attractions in Disney's Tommorrowland [42]. Often they revolved around the the virtues of chemicals and plastics. Their "House of the Future" was constructed entirely of plastic, but biodegradable it was not. "After attracting a total of 20 million visitors from 1957 to 1967, Disney finally tore the house down, but discovered it would not go down without a fight. According to Monsanto Magazine, wrecking balls literally bounced off the glass-fiber, reinforced polyester material. Torches, jackhammers, chain saws and shovels did not work. Finally, choker cables were used to squeeze off parts of the house bit by bit to be trucked away" [43]. However another of their synthetic inventions, Astroturf, survives.

(1) Monsanto was accused of fraud in assessing the risks of dioxin, a by-product of Agent Orange manufacture. Regarding this William Sanjour, Policy Analyst at the EPA wrote "This kind of cold-blooded analysis is bad enough when the product is used by the general public, but it is insufferable when used on our own armed forces who were exposed in combat.... The issue wasn't false science, but allegedly using false science to cover-up a callous hard-hearted decision to continue poisoning our GIs and their children because it was cheaper to do so." [44]

"Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the F.D.A.'s job" - Phil Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate communications. "Playing God in the Garden" New York Times Magazine, October 25, 1998.

"What you are seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it’s really a consolidation of the entire food chain" - Robert Fraley, co-president of Monsanto's agricultural sector 1996, in the Farm Journal. Quoted in: Flint J. (1998) Agricultural industry giants moving towards genetic monopolism. Telepolis, Heise.

"People will have Roundup Ready soya whether they like it or not" - Ann Foster, spokesperson for Monsanto in Britian, as quoted in The Nation magazine from article "The Politics of Food" [45] by Maria Margaronis December 27, 1999 issue.

"I recognized my two selves: a crusading idealist and a cold, granitic believer in the law of the jungle" Edgar Monsanto Queeny, Monsanto chairman, 1943-63, "The Spirit of Enterprise", 1934.

"Genetically engineered food constitutes a massive experiment on the planet, with potentially devastating effects on human health and the global environment" Adam Kapp, Columnist for the Penn State Digital Collegian, Nov. 7, 2002.

"Stark denials in the face of documented evidence to the contrary have been corporate policy at Monsanto and GE for decades." Eric Francis author of Conspiracy of Silence [46]

"For years, these guys said PCBs were safe, too. But there's obviously a corporate culture of deceiving the public." Mike Casey of the Environmental Working Group

"Genetic Power's the most awesome force the planet's ever seen, but you wield it like a kid who's found his dad's gun.... and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunch box, and now you're selling it, you want to sell it." Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park

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