Unveiling Monsanto’s Legacy: From PCBs to Roundup, A Story of Deception and Damage
Besides using such mafia-like tactics to control the world seed market, another important factor highlights their true intentions to profit from chemicals. Before the worldwide ban on PCBs, GMO seeds were not the only thing Monsanto planned to invest in. Being the largest chemical company for over 80 years, their fortunes came through chemicals.
So how could they leave the chemical business just because their bestselling PCBs were banned? There had to be a new chemical product to replace the PCBs that would go hand in hand with the GMO seeds to generate multiple profits. After the ban and the huge controversies regarding the extensive damage caused to the environment and to the people for four decades, changing their image was most important. By claiming to become an agricultural company with an aim to help farmers produce healthier food to meet the needs of a growing population was more of an eyewash to repair their chemically-tainted image. In actual fact, they had already launched their replacement product Roundup in 1974 with their patented chemical, glyphosate. The GMO seeds were then genetically engineered to tolerate high doses of Roundup by making them immune to this dangerous chemical.
Monsanto indeed planned their transition with great precision. They invented glyphosate and today are the largest producer of herbicides through their Roundup products. The genetically modified seeds are immune to these herbicides, which means, farmers can freely spray as much as required to kill the weeds. Using their extensive network and close contacts with regulatory agencies, Roundup has been approved worldwide, but concerns over its harmful effects on human beings, animals, and the environment have remained in direct comparison to the harmful effect of PCBs. In fact, if you look at the actual scenario, nothing has really changed.
Monsanto now claims to be an agriculture company, but still produces the largest selling chemical glyphosate under the brand name Roundup, which they seemingly claim is totally safe. For over 40 years the same company claimed PCBs, that were eventually banned worldwide, were safe too. So how can they be trusted this time around, especially when evidence of damage from these new chemicals is fast emerging? In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on cancer classified glyphosate as cancerous.
In view of this finding environment officers in California have issued a notice of intent to place a cancer warning on Roundup.
The study of what happened in Argentina is a good case example of what is happening with GMO seeds and its related chemicals. Monsanto convinced the farmers and agricultural authorities to focus on soybean production, which helped turn this nation into the world’s third-largest soybean producer.
But the chemicals associated with the genetically modified seeds were not only confined to the agriculture fields. They alão contaminated homes, schools, and drinking water, and became responsible for a major increase in multiple health problems. In the farming communities cancer rates have been found to be four times higher than the national average. Since the launch of GMO seeds, chemical spraying has increased eightfold from 9 million gallons to 84 million currently. As Argentina does not apply any national standards for such chemicals and allows the provinces to enforce their own regulations, Monsanto’s Roundup products are being used eight to ten times more per acre, when compared to the use in USA. Imagine the amount of profits Monsanto derives from the sale of not only the seeds, but also their major chemical-Roundup, at the expense of the health of people and damage to the environment.
Argentina was best known for its grass-fed beef, but all that has changed since Monsanto introduced their patented GMO seeds and chemicals in 1996. They had assured the farmers that these seeds and chemicals will greatly increase and enhance crop yields and lower the amount of pesticide use. Initially, agrochemical use did decline, but then it bounced back ten-folds as pests became resistant to these new chemicals. In addition, their claims about increased yields with the genetically modified seeds are not backed by any tested or proven results. In fact, many studies have found that there is not much difference in crop yields with GMO seeds, when compared to the regular seeds used in conventional farming.
As was the case with Monsanto’s PCBs during their four decades of world dominance, the same alarming patters of intense harm to human health and the environment are fast emerging with these seeds and chemicals. Some of the noteworthy cases in our study of Argentina are worth looking at with a deeper perspective. A farm worker who was never properly trained in the use of pesticides is a living skeleton at age 47, hardly able to eat or walk without assistance.
A lady lost her newborn due to kidney failure, and her complaint led to the first criminal conviction in Argentina for chemical spraying. A government study found extremely high levels of agrochemical contamination in the soil and water, and majority of the people tested had high traces of pesticides in their blood. Birth defects have increased significantly and doctors have warned that these pesticides could be the reason behind growing health issues in the nation’s vast farm belt. The great change in how agriculture is now done has brought in an even greater change in disease patterns. From a healthy society during the times of conventional farming, the modern genetic farming introduced by Monsanto has gradually increased the rates of birth defects, cancer, and many other diseases rarely seen before.
A study conducted by a biologist at the University of Buenos Aires confirmed that even a low dose of glyphosate injected into embryos caused similar spinal defects in frogs and chickens, which doctors are finding in the farming communities. As they did with the negative reports on PCBs for years, Monsanto rebutted these results saying these tests should be done on live animals, and that injecting embryos was less reliable and less relevant for human risk assessments. In a similar way, they have totally disregarded and discredited the other independent research which revealed how glyphosate destroys human health and greatly aids in the development of multiple chronic diseases and conditions, such as: Autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Colitis, Infertility, Obesity, Depression, Chronic diarrhea, Cardiovascular disease, and Cancer.
Monsanto’s well-publicized global marketing strategy and manipulative persuasion projecting their products as environmental friendly, high yielding and beneficial for health is nothing new, as this is what they did for over 40 years. Knowing fully well the extent of damage their PCBs caused to human health and the environment, they consistently denied the facts and hid vital information from the public.
Once again it is the same story that’s getting repeated with GMO seeds and the deadly chemical Roundup, and this time the goal is to control the entire seed and agrochemical market of the world.
