Monsanto - Part I

*** This is a review of the documentary film, "The World According to Monsanto."

They are the death dealers.

Since 1901 Monsanto, an American chemical company, has sought to produce the most effective killing agents known to man. This sounds much more sinister than it is. Maybe.

Their flagship product, RoundUp is the most successful herbicide in the world. Herbicide means "kills plants." Remember that. Marketed as a weed killer, it will kill any plant it is applied to. Remember that, too. The longtime claim that it was the only biodegradable herbicide was, recently, dropped in a case of false advertising. Is this a sole instance of corporate falsehood? Perhaps.

Dioxin, created by Monsanto, is the active agent in the Vietnam war defoliant Agent Orange, produces a cascade of toxic effects in subjects exposed to it. These effects were not disclosed to the soldiers who were exposed to Agent Orange over the course of the war. Much less were the Vietnamese people upon whom 40 million litres of Agent Orange were dropped producing hideous birth defects, debilitating diseases, and cancers. Monsanto settled, out of court with the American servicemen it deemed afflicted, however, no such settlement was reached with the Republic of Vietnam.

Monsanto is also the chemical company that mass-produced polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs, as a cooling agent. This substance, after almost 40 years of production, was outed as a massive toxin. The discovery that Monsanto had, for decades, buried massive amounts of PCBs near a small town in America, and that the state government had given the company permission to do so, shows the influence that a company can have over public policy and the welfare of people. But, with all of this influence, Monsanto must also produce positive results for people. Right?

Bovine growth hormone (or rBGH or Posilac) is injected to increase, by up to 20%, the milk yield of dairy cows. The world is, however, awash in milk. Of any farm product, milk is among the last that needs to be increased in yield. Monsanto has decided to cover up this fact, as well as the facts that active carcinogens and mast cells from over-milked cows ends up in the milk and, consequently, in people. Basically, the pus-infested milk can give you cancer. Monsanto actively blocked an investigative news report of this occurrence from airing in the US. Further, Monsanto had a hand in the dismissal of Health Canada officials that blew the whistle on rBGH. They protected the public welfare, as their job descriptions demand, but they lost their jobs. Who is protecting us now, Monsanto?

Monsanto, further evidence of their beneficence, has moved into the bioengineering of food itself. Genetically engineered crops of soy, corn, and cotton are already on the market. These proprietary crops, patented at the genetic level, are resistant to Monsanto's flagship herbicide. To repeat, these genetically engineered plants resist herbicide. What is not mentioned is the susceptibility of these transgenic crops to all manner of emergent disease that non-transgenic crops naturally fight off. That the crops are, currently, undergoing human trials in the general population is only a footnote to the successful implementation of multinational food policies by a multinational corporation.

In the end, and what the second part of this recap will look at, is the question: what does it mean when a corporation co-opts human populations capacity to decide? This is especially pertinent a question in considering that, as a matter of good fiscal conduct and proper business practice, Monsanto seeks to own the rights to produce every last gram of food on earth.