Monsanto

Watching Marie-Monique Robin's documentary about Monsanto, the corporation that has plagued the world with various biotechnological products and ideologies, I realize how little I know about these things. I should try to learn more.

Monsanto has specialized in weed killing herbicides and, most importantly, GM and genetically engineered seeds. Its proud history includes products such as Agent Orange. One of the scary perspectives presented by the documentary is that Monsanto, by means of lobbying, patenting, suing and frauding combined with the "natural" spreading of their GE seeds, will eventually come to own the food of the world and make small-scale, independent agriculture almost impossible (due to, for instance, competition). From Greenpeace' review of Robin's film:

Over the last decade, Monsanto aggressively bought up over 50 seed companies around the globe. Seeds are the source of all food. Whoever owns the seeds, owns the food. The process of genetic engineering allows companies, such as Monsanto, to claim patent rights over seeds. Ninety percent of all GE seeds planted in the world are patented by Monsanto and hence controlled by them.

So far, Monsanto has been most successful among American farmers. They have a hard time touting their products in the rest of the world, as GE/GM food is prohibited in many countries.

An example: quite a few farmers have been sued for patent infringement because the wind has blown the seeds into their crops. That way Monsanto got their way into the farmer's production, whether he wanted it or not. In addition to this, Monsanto is accused of dumping toxic waste and offering harmful products (to the animals that make up the production* and to the consumers). They have also been said to have been selling fraudulent seeds ("the terminator seed"). Many claim that their policies and business have made many farmers fall into debt because they are persuaded into buying the "superprofitable" Monsanto seeds (in India, and elsewhere). One of the major points emphasized in Robin's documentary is the close links between government (governmental authorities) and Monsanto.

On their homepage, Monsanto makes it appear as if their main interest is global sustainability. It was a slightly different picture I got from Robin's documentary... "Conserve resources – Monsanto will develop seeds that will reduce by one-third the amount of key resources required to grow crops by the year 2030. We will also join with others to address habitat loss and water quality in agriculturally important areas." In the documentary, Robin explained how some of Monsanto's seeds for their successful growth required use of other Monsanto products....

Farmers who buy Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready seeds are required to sign an agreement promising not to save the seed produced after each harvest for re-planting, or to sell the seed to other farmers. This means that farmers must buy new seed every year. Those increased sales, coupled with ballooning sales of its Roundup weed killer, have been a bonanza for Monsanto. (vanity fair)

"Help improve farmers’ lives – Our company is committed to help improve the lives of farmers, including an additional five million people in resource-poor farm families by 2020." There has been a wave of suicide among Indian farmers who, due to the Monsanto industry, have fallen into debt. Monsanto declares integrity (oh, yeah, they'll sue your ass all right!, so that one is true), transparencey (Monsanto chose not to appear in Robin's film because they feared she would not be "positive") and sharing (so get rid of those patents, then!) among their values.

We will share knowledge and technology to advance scientific understanding, to improve agriculture and the environment, to improve crops, and to help farmers in developing countries.

A great part of the Monsanto homepage revolves around the idea that the greatest global problem of today is how to solve the problem of availability of food. But I've heard many commentators who take quite a different view on what the food crisis is all about. Fair distribution, not availability, is the problem, according to some (the controversy of how crops are to be used - for fuel or for the production of food? - belong to this difficult discussion, as far as I've understood).

And what's in the news section? Do the transparent Monsanto at least acknowledge their critics? "Monsanto fund gives §1M for teaching training." And this one is funny: "Monsanto launches centre for child labour". A training centre for former child laborers, of course. And does their history section include one of their most (in)famous products, Agent orange? You guessed it, no.



This is the picture Monsanto promotes of themselves. The documentary by Robin is available on Youtube.

* On a more positive note, Monsanto recently announced that they will no longer produce the controversial milk-boosting hormone Posilac that is said to be harmful to dairy cows but also to the consumers.