Monsanto. I was reading a blog once and the blogger spoke of Monsantan. I thought, what or who the hell is that? So I googled it. I read about them for hours. Them being Monsanto. I was overwhelmed with emotion. How in gods name have they pulled this off? Monsanto GMO seeds blow into surrounding fields taking root in non GMO farmers fields. Monsanto then swoops in with their teams of lawyers and sues these farmers, effectively shutting many of them down. Farmers have a hard enough time making a go of it without $100,000 legal bills. My family has been farming in Ontario Canada since the early 1800's and this really upsets me, to put it mildly. These small farmers are not the bread and butter of Monsanto and I believe they are trying to get rid of small farms.
Then, the seed company purchases. They are buying up seed companies and now control over half of all seeds. Their GMO seeds must be purchased every year and require massive quantities of their herbicide Roundup. They are very expensive. The weeds are becoming resistant (of course) and now require even more Roundup than before. I don't think I'm alone in thinking that they are trying to corner the seed market. Could they be buying up the seeds that will reproduce by collecting your own seed and replanting (Heirloom and open-pollinated varieties), then destroy them and they will control our food. One tries not to be too 'conspiracy theory', but if you google Monsanto and have a nice leisurely read some evening, I think you could see it as a possibility.
Since then I have spent upwards of a thousand hours (I'm not exaggerating) reading about food, the politics of food, Monsanto and ultimately about healthy food, safe food, non GMO food and how to get ultra healthy using our home grown organic fruit and vegetables in addition to whole pure foods.
I have included here some history of Monsanto. It has been heavily cut/edited due to the scope of this company. It would literally have turned into a book.
I highly recommend that you go to the video page of this blog and watch Genetic Roulette and David versus Monsanto.
Monsanto was founded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901, by John Francis Queeny, a 30‑year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry. In the 1920s Monsanto expanded into basic industrial chemicals like sulfuric acid and PCBs. Monsanto operated the Dayton Project, and later Mound Laboratories in Miamisburg, Ohio, for the Manhattan Project, the development of the first nuclear weapons and, after 1947, the Atomic Energy Commission. Monsanto began manufacturing DDT in 1944, along with some 15 other companies. Due to DDT's toxicity, its use in the United States was banned in 1972. In 1977 Monsanto stopped producing PCBs; the US Congress banned domestic PCB production two years later. In the 1960s and 1970s, Monsanto was also one of the most important producers of Agent Orange for United States Military operations in Vietnam. Monsanto scientists became the first to genetically modify a plant cell in 1982. Five years later, Monsanto conducted the first field tests of genetically engineered crops. In 1994 Monsanto introduced bovine somatotropin or Growth Hormone.
In 1996 Monsanto purchased Agracetus, the biotechnology company that had generated the first transgenic (GMO) varieties of cotton, soybeans, peanuts, and other crops, and which Monsanto had already been licencing technology from since 1991.
In 1998 Monsanto purchased Cargill's seed business, which gave it access to sales and distribution facilities in 51 countries. In 2005, it finalized the purchase of Seminis Inc, a leading global vegetable and fruit seed company, for $1.4 billion. This made it the world's largest conventional seed company at the time.
In January 1997, Monsanto announced the purchase of Holden's Foundations Seeds, a privately held seed business. By acquiring Holden's, Monsanto became the biggest American producer of foundation corn, the parent seed from which hybrids are made. The combined purchase price was $925 million.
2008: Monsanto purchased the Dutch seed company De Ruiter Seeds for €546 million.
Monsanto chemist John E. Franz invented glyphosate (Roundup) in 1970. Monsanto is the largest producer of glyphosate herbicides (Roundup) in the United States through its Roundup product line, which is used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses that compete with commercial crops.
As of 2009, sales of Roundup herbicides represent about 10% of Monsanto's yearly revenue. In 2007 glyphosate was the most used herbicide in the US agricultural sector, with 180 to 185 million pounds applied, and the 2nd most used in home and garden market where users applied 5 to 8 million pounds; additionally industry, commerce and government applied 13 to 15 million pounds. While glyphosate has been approved by regulatory bodies worldwide and is less toxic than all the herbicides it replaced, concerns about is effects on humans and the environment persist.
As of 2012, Monsanto's line of seed products includes agricultural seeds and vegetable seeds. Many of Monsanto's agricultural seed products are genetically modified for resistance to herbicides, such as their own "Roundup" - Monsanto calls these seeds "Roundup Ready". Monsanto's introduction of this system (planting Roundup resistant seed and then applying Roundup once plants emerged) provided farmers with an opportunity to dramatically increase the yield from a given plot of land, since this allowed them to plant rows closer together. Without it, farmers had to plant rows far enough apart to control post-emergent weeds with mechanical tillage. Farmers have widely adopted the technology - for example over 90% of corn, soybean, cotton, sugar beet, and canola planted in the United States are Roundup Ready GMO's.
In addition, Monsanto invented and sells agricultural seeds that are genetically modified to make a crystalline insecticidal protein from Bacillus thuringiensis, known as Bt. In 1995 Monsanto's potato plants producing Bt toxin were approved for sale by the Environmental Protection Agency, after having approved by the FDA, making it the first pesticide-producing crop to be approved in the United States. Since then Monsanto has developed Bt Corn, Soybeans, and Cotton. The Bt effect on the insect eating the Bt plant is that their stomachs explode. There is much concern over what these GMO's are doing to human stomachs, especially after years of consuming them.
Until it stopped production in 1977, Monsanto was the source of 99% of the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) used by U.S. industry. PCBs are a persistent organic pollutant, and cause cancer in animals and likely in humans as well, among other health effects; PCB production was banned by the U.S. Congress in 1979 and by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2001. PCBs were used as dielectric and coolant fluids in transformers, capacitors, and electric motors, and in a wide variety of other industrial applications.
The Monsanto plant in Sauget was the nation's largest producer of PCBs, which remain in the water along Dead Creek in Sauget. An EPA official referred to Sauget as "one of the most polluted communities in the region" and "a soup of different chemicals" In 2002, the Washington Post carried a front page report on Monsanto's legacy of environmental damage in Anniston, Alabama, related to its legal production of PCBs. Plaintiffs in a lawsuit pending at that time provided documentation showing that the local Monsanto factory knowingly discharged both mercury and PCB-laden waste into local creeks for over 40 years. In another story published in 2002, the New York Times reported that during 1969 alone Monsanto had dumped 45 tons of PCBs into Snow Creek, a feeder for Choccolocco Creek which supplies much of the area's drinking water and that the company buried millions of pounds of PCB in open-pit landfills located on hillsides above the plant and surrounding neighborhoods. In August 2003, Solutia and Monsanto agreed to pay plaintiffs $700 million to settle claims by over 20,000 Anniston residents related to PCB contamination. Monsanto has been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as being a "potentially responsible party" for 56 contaminated sites in the United States. Monsanto has been sued, and has settled, multiple times for damaging the health of its employees or residents near its Superfund sites through pollution and poisoning. United Kingdom; UK government report showed that 67 chemicals, including Agent Orange derivatives, dioxins and PCBs exclusively made by Monsanto, are leaking from the Brofiscin quarry, near Groesfaen in Wales, an unlined porous quarry that was not authorized to take chemical wastes. It emerged that the groundwater had been polluted since the 1970s. The government was criticised for failing to publish information about the scale and exact nature of this contamination. The UK Environment Agency estimated that it would cost £100m to clean up the site, called "one of the most contaminated" in the UK.
The use of rBST has been controversial. In some markets, milk from cows that are not treated with rBST is sold with labels indicating it is rBST-free; this milk has proved popular with consumers. In reaction to this, in early 2008 a pro-rBST advocacy group called "American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology" made up of dairies and originally affiliated with Monsanto, formed and began lobbying to ban such labels. AFACT stated that "absence" labels can be misleading and imply that milk from cows treated with rBST is inferior. The organization was dissolved in 2011. This is the same argument they are using to fight the labeling of GMO's in our food.
Monsanto is notable for its involvement in high profile lawsuits, as both plaintiff and defendant. It has been involved in a number of class action suits, where fines and damages have run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, usually over health issues related to its products.
Monsanto has also made frequent use of the courts to defend its patents.
In 2003 Monsanto filed patent applications with claims on breeding techniques for pigs. Greenpeace claimed that Monsanto was trying to claim ownership on ordinary breeding techniques and the filings became the target for demonstrations in Germany. A UK news article indicated that "the practices it (Monsanto) wants to protect involve identifying genes that result in desirable traits, breeding pigs to achieve those traits and using a specialised device to inseminate sows deeply in a way that uses less sperm than is typically required". In Europe, the European Patent Office rejected some claims as relating to an essentially biological process excluded from patent protection.
Monsanto indicates that it has sued 145 individual U.S. farmers for patent infringement and/or breach of contract in connection with its genetically engineered seed.
The Center for Food Safety has listed 112 lawsuits by Monsanto against farmers for claims of seed patent violations. The usual claim involves violation of a technology agreement that prohibits farmers from saving seed from one season's crop to plant the next, a common farming practice. One farmer received an eight-month prison sentence for conspiracy to commit fraud during litigation with Monsanto in addition to having to pay damages. Monsanto sued the Pilot Grove Cooperative Elevator in Pilot Grove, Missouri, on the grounds that by cleaning harvested seeds covered by Monsanto's patents so that farmers could replant them, the elevator was inducing them to infringe Monsanto's patents. The Pilot Grove Cooperative Elevator had been cleaning conventional seeds for decades before the development of genetic engineering and developments in patent law led to the existence of issued patents that cover seeds. In one case in 2002, Monsanto mistakenly sued Gary Rinehart of Eagleville, Missouri for patent violation. Rinehart was not a farmer or seed dealer, but sharecropped land with his brother and nephew, who were violating the patent. Monsanto dropped the lawsuit against him when it discovered the mistake.
In 1996, the New York Times reported that: "Dennis C. Vacco, the Attorney General of New York, ordered the company to pull ads that said Roundup was "safer than table salt" and "practically nontoxic" to mammals, birds and fish. The company withdrew the spots, but also said that the phrase in question was permissible under E.P.A. guidelines."
In 2001, French environmental and consumer rights campaigners brought a case against Monsanto for misleading the public about the environmental impact of its herbicide Roundup, on the basis that glyphosate, Roundup's main ingredient, is classed as "dangerous for the environment" and "toxic for aquatic organisms" by the European Union. Monsanto's advertising for Roundup had presented it as biodegradable and as leaving the soil clean after use. In 2007, Monsanto was convicted of false advertising and was fined 15,000 euros.
In 2003, Monsanto reached a $300 million settlement with people in Alabama affected by the manufacturing and dumping of the toxic chemical polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
In 2004 Monsanto was sued in a US court by a group of Vietnamese, along with Dow and other chemical companies for the effects of its Agent Orange defoliant, used by the US military in the Vietnam War. The case was dismissed, and plaintiffs appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which also denied the appeal.
In 2004, the world's largest agrichemical company, Switzerland's Syngenta, launched a US lawsuit charging Monsanto with using coercive tactics to monopolize markets. A flurry of litigation ensued, all of which was settled in 2008. In 2005, the US DOJ filed a Deferred Prosecution Agreement in which Monsanto admitted to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and making false entries into its books and records. Monsanto also agreed to pay a $1.5m fine. The case involved bribes paid to an Indonesian official. Monsanto admitted a senior manager at Monsanto directed an Indonesian consulting firm to give a $50,000 bribe to a high-level official in Indonesia's environment ministry in 2002 related to the agency's assessment on its genetically modified cotton. Monsanto told the company to disguise an invoice for the bribe as "consulting fees". Monsanto also has admitted to paying bribes to a number of other high-ranking Indonesian officials between 1997 and 2002. On 5 March 2008 the deferred prosecution agreement against Monsanto was dismissed with prejudice (unopposed by the Department of Justice) by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, thereby indicating that Monsanto had complied fully with the terms of the agreement. In late 2006, the Correctional Tribunal of Carcassonne, France, ordered two directors of Monsanto subsidiary Asgrow to pay a €15,000 fine related to their knowledge of the presence of unauthorized GMOs in bags of seeds imported by Asgrow on 13 April 2000. Monsanto was the subject of an investigation by the Environmental Agency of the UK regarding pollution caused by disposal of PCBs and other toxic waste at Brofiscin Quarry, Groes Faen. In February 2011 The Ecologist and the Guardian reported that Monsanto had "agreed to help" with the costs of remediation, but did not accept responsibility for the pollution. A webpage at the Environmental Agency site put up at around that time states: "We have completed our extensive enquiries to identify those we consider should be held responsible under the contaminated land laws and be held liable for the cost of remediating Brofiscin Quarry. We are at an advanced stage in our consultations with BP, Veolia and Monsanto to provide them with the opportunity to help remediate the land on a voluntary basis.
As plaintiff In 2003, Monsanto sued Oakhurst Dairy over Oakhurst's label on its milk cartons that said "Our farmer's pledge: no artificial hormones," referring to the use of bovine somatotropin (rBST). Monsanto argued that the label implied that Oakhurst milk was superior to milk from cows treated with rBST, which harmed Monsanto's business. The two companies settled out of court, and it was announced that Oakhurst would add the word "used" at the end of its label, and note that the US FDA claims there is no major difference between milk from rBST-treated and non rBST-treated cows.
In 1997, the news division of WTVT (Channel 13), a Fox–owned station in Tampa, Florida, planned to air an investigative report by Steve Wilson and Jane Akre on the health risks associated with Monsanto's bovine growth hormone product, Posilac. Just before the story was to air, Fox received a threatening letter from Monsanto, saying the reporters were biased and that the story would damage the company. Fox tried to work with the reporters to address Monsanto's concerns, and the negotiations between Fox and the reporters broke down. Both reporters were eventually fired.
In 2009, high prices of Bt Cotton were blamed for forcing farmers of the district Jhabua India into severe debts when the crops died due to lack of rain. Bt resistance In 2009, Monsanto scientists initially discovered that insects had developed resistance to the Bt Cotton planted in Gujarat and when studies were completed, Monsanto communicated this to the Indian government and its customers, stating that "Resistance is natural and expected, so measures to delay resistance are important. Among the factors that may have contributed to pink bollworm resistance to the Cry1Ac protein in Bollgard I in Gujarat are limited refuge planting and early use of unapproved Bt cotton seed, planted prior to GEAC approval of Bollgard I cotton, which may have had lower protein expression levels." The company advised farmers to switch to its second generation of Bt cotton – Bolguard II – which had two resistance genes instead of one. However, this advice was criticized; an article in The Hindu reported that "an internal analysis of the statement of the Ministry of Environment and Forests says it 'appears that this could be a business strategy to phase out single gene events [that is, the first generation Bollgard I product] and promote double genes [the second generation Bollgard II] which would fetch higher price." In the early 2000s, farmers in the state of Andhra Pradesh, were in economic crisis due to high interest rates and crop failures, leading to widespread social unrest and suicides. Monsanto was one focus of protests with respect to the price of Bt seed and yields of Bt seed. In 2005, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, the Indian regulatory authority, released a study on field tests of certain Bt cotton strains in Andhra Pradesh and ruled that Monsanto could not market those strains in Andhra Pradesh because the yields were poor, and extended the ban on one of them, Mech-12 Bt, to all of south India. At about the same time, the state agriculture minister barred the company from selling any Bt cotton seeds in the state, because Monsanto refused a request by the state government to provide a compensation package of about Rs 4.5 crore (about 1 Million US$) to indebted farmers in some districts, and because the government blamed Monsanto's Bt seeds for crop failures. The order was later lifted. In 2006, the Andhra Pradesh state government tried to convince Monsanto to reduce the price at which it sold Bt seeds. When Monsanto did not reduce the price enough to satisfy the government, the state filed several cases against Monsanto and its Mumbai based licensee Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds. Child labor; As in much of the developing world and especially in agricultural areas, child labor is widespread in India's agricultural sector, which employs ~60% of India's child labor. Child labor is especially used in seed production. The seed production is done mostly through child labor—it is carried out on plots owned by small farmers, who sell the seed to "seed organizers", who in turn sell the seed to public and private seed agencies and companies. The public and private agencies and companies include Indian state corporations, Mahyco-Monsanto, Syngenta, and others. Monsanto's website states that the company complies with all child labor laws and that they are working towards minimizing its occurrence. Farmer suicides in India; In the late 1990s and early 2000s, public attention was drawn to suicides by indebted farmers in India following crop failures. Some stated that the crop failures could "often be traced to" Monsanto's Bt cotton, and that the seeds increased farmers' indebtedness.
In 2009 Monsanto asked the US government to maintain its strong pressure on the European Union legislation for the introduction of GMO foods. After moves in France to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety, Wikileaks revealed a recommendation by the US ambassador to France to 'calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU'.
Lobbying In 2008, Monsanto spent $8.8 million for lobbying. $1.5 million was to outside lobbying firms with the remainder used by in-house lobbyists. In 2011, total money spent on lobbying was about $6.3 million, more than any other agribusiness firm except the tobacco company Altria.
Monsanto has contributed $4,208,000 to oppose the passage of California Proposition 37**, which would mandate the disclosure of genetically modified crops used in the production of California food products.
The U.S. state of California is scheduled to vote in November 2012 on the Proposition for labeling of genetically modified food. The argument is that consumers have a right to know the content of their food and to choose to avoid it if they wish, while advocates such as Monsanto and the Council for Biotechnology Information, which represents companies such as Monsanto, call this an attempt to scare consumers and make them feel that the food is unsafe. Biotechnology labeling is not required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but it has been adopted by over 40 countries. According to public disclosures, the Council for Biotechnology Information and The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which also opposes this initiative, have each made matching donations of $375,000 to fight the initiative.
**proposition 37 failed to pass in California. The NO side of the vote is being accused of false advertising using fake Doctors and professionals in the ads to sway the vote. The threat of hugely inflated costs of food if labeling was forced was outrageous. There are even postings that the FBI is now involved in the fraud as is the US Postal Service as there were mailings sent out using the FDA logo which is against the Postal Regulations.
Former Monsanto employees currently hold positions in US government agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Supreme Court. These include:
Michael A. Friedman, MD, was Senior Vice President of Research and Development, Medical and Public Policy for Pharmacia, and later served as an FDA deputy commissioner.
Linda J. Fisher was an assistant administrator at the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before she was a vice president at Monsanto from 1995 to 2000. In 2001, Fisher became the deputy administrator of the EPA.
Michael R. Taylor was an assistant to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner before he left to work for a law firm, one client of which was Monsanto. Taylor then became deputy commissioner of the FDA from 1991 to 1994, during which time the FDA approved rBST. Anti-GM activists accused him of conflict of interest but a Federal investigation cleared him. Taylor was later re-appointed to the FDA in August 2009 by President Barack Obama.
United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas worked as an attorney for Monsanto in the 1970s. Thomas wrote the majority opinion in the 2001 Supreme Court decision J. E. M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. which found that "newly developed plant breeds are patentable under the general utility patent laws of the United States."
Documentaries:
Food, Inc.
The Future of Food. Critical of Monsanto's activities in Canada and the US.
The World According to Monsanto
The Monsanto Story
Life Running Out Of Control
David Versus Monsanto
Books:
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001)
Silent Spring Captive State Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply by Vandal Shiva
Seeds of Deception
Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods
It describes numerous controversial facts and allegations about Monsanto. Marie-Monique Robin travelled the world to meet scientists and political figures in order to investigate Monsanto's actions, controversy over GM crops, and the effects of the globalization of industrial agriculture on farmers in the developing world.
Those interviewed include Shiv Chopra, a Canadian researcher who was fired by Health Canada for revealing an attempted bribe by Monsanto regarding the attempted introduction of bovine growth hormone into Canada.
The author of the research met several independent scientists around the world who tried to warn the political authorities about the use of genetically modified seeds. According to Robin, most of these scientists actually lost their jobs as a consequence of their speaking out. The "revolving door syndrome" is also pointed out in the research as a threat to the quality and independence of the scientific conclusions about the effects of Monsanto products, especially those reached by the Food and Drug Administration. Robin travels to India, Mexico, Argentina, and Paraguay to see how Monsanto's genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have affected local farmers using it for their crops. The claim is that suicide rates of farmers in India have increased as farmers are finding it harder to earn a living using more expensive Monsanto seeds that, despite claims, still require specific pesticide and fertilizer (see above).
