Monsanto
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As stated on Monsantos website, “Monsanto is a leading provider of agricultural products and solutions Monsantos focus as an agricultural company is on the farmer…” (Monsanto) And Monsanto pledges to: reduce all toxic emissions to work toward the zero effect; ensure that no Monsanto employee be put under undue risk; work to achieve sustainable agriculture through new technology and practices; ensure groundwater safety; keep our plants open to the communities and get them involved; manage all corporate real estate, including plant sites, to benefit nature; and search worldwide for technology to reduce and eliminate waste from our operations, with top priority being not making it in the first place. (McSpotlight) Monsanto is an agricultural biotechnology corporation. Its leading market is Roundup, herbicide glyphosate. Monsanto leads the market in producing (GE) genetically engineered seed, owning at least 70% shares for most crops and 100% for other crops. Monsanto is now the worlds largest seed company in the world and its total revenue reaches over $5.4 billion. (Wikipedia) A few of Monsantos more popular products include: NutraSweet and Equal; Simple Pleasures Frozen Dairy Desserts, Salad Dressings, and Mayonnaise; Astroturf and Wear Dated Carpets; Fome-Cor; Roundup and Dimension; Lasso, Harness Plus, Far Go, etc.; Feed supplement – Aliment; and Flavr Savr tomato. (McSpotlight)
Monsanto was founded in 1901 in St. Louis, Missouri. The man who started it was a pharmaceutical veteran so he knew a thing or two about chemicals. Their first products were the artificial sweeteners Equal and NutraSweet, which were sold to Coca-Cola along with vanillin and caffeine. Monsanto soon moved on too much larger things, such as: Agent Orange, PCBs, and the bovine growth hormone. In the 1940s, Monsanto assisted with the Manhattan Project, which developed our first nuclear weapons. The largest industrial accident on US soil was due to some of Monsantos ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploding in Galveston Bay. During Vietnam, Monsanto was the leading producer of Agent Orange for the US Military. (Wikipedia)
During the Vietnam War, Monsanto was big into chemicals. The military wanted something that would wipe out the tree cover of the rain forests of Vietnam. This way it would be easier to see the enemies and dispose of them. So Monsanto stepped up and created a colorless chemical known as Agent Orange. It was known as Agent Orange because of the orange tape they put across the cans. Agent Orange proved to be quite effective, however, it was almost too effective. The chemical, Agent Orange, had many side effects. Many of these side effects included: Many types of cancer, diabetes, fatigue, birth defects, chloracne (a more severe form of acne), memory lapses, violent rages, and depression which often times led to suicide. The Vietnamese were not the only ones feeling the side effects of Agent Orange. The American troops were down there as well; so many veterans of this war are suffering from these side effects still today. (Organic Consumer)
Percy Schmeiser is a farmer/former mayor from Bruno Sask. He has been growing canola, an increasingly popular crop, for about 40 years. Schmeiser was no stranger to seeds because he had been around them for quite some time and has experimented with them, making his own breeds. While Schmeiser was planting his “normal” seeds, Monsanto came up with a new type of canola seed. Monsanto patented canola seeds that were immuned to their plant-killing chemical, roundup. This enabled farmers to plant their crops and spray round up with no worries. Farmers that purchased these seeds had to sign a contract that they would only use them for one year. They would not be able to use leftover seed from one year to use the next year. Monsanto, being the large corporate power they are, also made the contract so that they would be able to investigate the farmers crops willingly to test and see if the farmers were staying true to the contract. This “test” happened to Schmeiser, and they found traces of their roundup resistant canola seed in his crop. Schmeiser had never purchased any seed produced from genetic engineering. So he took them to court for trespassing on his land. Schmeiser claimed that the seeds could have just as easily been carried there by the wind or cross-pollination. Monsanto was trying to sue Schmeiser for patent infringement. The case kept getting put off and ended up getting stretched out for a few years. Its almost as if they couldnt tell where Monsantos rights ended and Schmeisers begun. The case eventually ended in a draw. This was not the only lawsuit concerning farmers, just the biggest one. Monsanto has been granted about $15 million from farmer lawsuits alone. (Percy Schmeiser)
Many, if not all, of Monsantos chemical plants have dozens of chemical dumps on them. A few of these dumps have notable amounts of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) that can cause cancer. These PCBs are at unsafe percentage levels, such as 7.4 percent. Monsanto claimed that out of all their workers who were exposed to these “safe” chemicals, no increase in cancer deaths had occurred. However, there claimed to be errors in the reports from these tests, because Monsanto didnt classify between exposed and unexposed workers. So, more than likely, they were testing the unexposed workers to get away with it. Later on, a test conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health showed a dramatic