MONSANTO
ImagineTM.
"We help farmers grow yields sustainably so they can be successful, produce healthier foods, better animal feeds and more fiber, while also reducing agriculture's impact on our environment."
Corporate Headquarters:
800 N. Lindbergh Blvd.,
St. Louis, MO 63167
U.S.A.
Tel. (314) 694-1000
CEO:
Hugh Grant
Company Web Site:
www.monsanto.com
COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS: (this is just a small glimpse)
*1901 founded by John Francis Queeny. Names company after his wife.
*1902 saccharin, an artificial sweetener, originally made from coal tar derivatives and later used to sweeten candies, chewing gum, soft drinks and toothpaste, is produced by Monsanto. In 1917, the U.S. government sues over the safety of saccharin. Today thought to be a possible human carcinogen.
*1934 to 2000 77 law suits filed against Monsanto and related companies over its trichlorophenol plant in Nitro. It unlawfully disposed of dioxin waste materials by a continuous process of open pit burning.
*1947 an explosion of about 2,300 tonsammonium nitrate fertilizer (produced by Monsanto) resulted in one of the largest industrial accidents in US history, killed about 580 people. This was known as the Texas City disaster.
*1949, 226 workers became sick after a chemical cloud formed as a result of the failure of a safety disc at the Nitro, West Virginia plant.
*1960s produced, with Dow Chemical, Agent Orange, the defoliant used during the Vietnam War. Monsanto later sued by Vietnam Veterans and the Vietnamese government. Agent Orange has been linked to cancer and birth defects.
*1965-1972 dumps toxic waste and turns Brofiscin, near Cardiff, Wales, into the most contaminated place in the UK. The site contains 67 toxic chemicals, PCBs, vinyl chlorides, and naphthalene. Contaminates groundwater. Samples taken by toxicologists in 1967 are never acted upon by the Welsh Office. Internal Monsanto papers show that the company knew of the dangers of PCBs as early as 1953. In a 1969 company memo, the company admitted that the "problem involves the entire United States, Canada and sections of Europe, especially the UK and Sweden."
*1966 "Adventure Through Inner Space" sponsored by Monsanto replaces "Hall of Chemistry," also sponsored by Monsanto in Disneyland's Tomorrowland. In 1957, Disneyland exhibited Monsanto's "House of the Future."
*1970-1977 Knowingly dumps 30 to 40 pounds of dioxin a day into the Mississippi which enters the St. Louis food chain.
*1979 70,000 liters of chlorophenol leaks from a derailed train in Sturgeon, Missouri coming from Monsanto's Sauget plant. Becomes the trial case Kemner vs Monsanto which begins in 1984.
*1980 Monsanto's first study of dioxin is published while Monsanto is defending itself in three different legal actions relating to dioxin exposure from their products. Monsanto issues a press release entitled "Study Fails to Link 'Agent Orange' to Deaths of Industrial Workers". The report states "[T]he human evidence supporting an association between 2,3,7,8-TCDD [dioxin] and cancer is considered inadequate. " The study went on to promote the idea that human beings, unlike other animals, are relatively immune to TCDD. Today, TCDD is a known human carcinogen and thought to be the most toxic substance known to science.
*1982 Time Beach, Missouri evacuated on federal orders because of contamination. The high levels of PCB, produced by Monsanto, were thought to be the main reason behind the soil contamination. The White House later ordered Mrs. Burford, the head of the EPA, to hide all documents pertaining to Time Beach and other toxic sites in Missouri and Arkansas.
*1984 In a letter to the Canadian government, Monsanto asserts that their disinfectant Lysol contained no dioxin. Lysol, a product made from Monsanto's Santophen, was contaminated with dioxin with Monsanto's knowledge. Monsanto's chemist, Fred Hileman, testified in the Kemner case that Monsanto knew that Lysol is recommended for cleaning babies' toys and for various other cleaning and that there were no dioxin warning on the Lysol package. Hileman testified that he knew people who used Lysol were contacting three parts per billion of 2,3,7,8 and that 2,3,7,8 is extremely toxic.
*1985 G.D. Searle Co. (pharmaceutical company) and Monsanto merge. Searle would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Monsanto.A key role of the merger was played by Donald Rumsfeld, former CEO of Searle and later Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush.
*1990 Dr. Cate Jenkins, a chemist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, wrote to the EPA Science Advisory Board that there was evidence that the Monsanto studies of dioxins were fraudulently done. If done correctly, she stated, the studies would have shown the connection between dioxin and cancer in humans. This accusation received considerable press attention. The EPA decided to launch a criminal investigation of Monsanto. In 1992, under pressure, the EPA closed the criminal investigation without concluding whether the studies were valid or invalid.
*1991 Three British scientists who analyzed data on rBGH for Monsanto charged that the company tried to block publication of their research. Erik Millstone, Eric Brunner and Ian White said the company blocked publication of their paper on the hormone's links to increases in somatic cell (pus and bacteria) counts as a result of mastitis.
*1991-1993 Despite the warning, Monsanto continued bending or breaking the anti-promotion rules. The report faulted FDA for not issuing a warning or sanctioning Monsanto. Instead, the FDA sent the company letters that "would have been interpreted as excusing the conduct."
*1994 A report released concludes that Monsanto violated federal law by illegally promoting rBGH prior to FDA approval. According to the report, issued by the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services which oversees the FDA, the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine warned Monsanto in 1991 about improper promotion of the hormone and cited 24 instances of the company making promotional statements. One was labeled "BST Worksheet" and was designed to help dairy farmers figure their profits from using the drug.
*1994 Calgene (a Monsanto subsidiary) releases FlavrSavrTM tomato, the first genetically modified (G.M.) food approved for human consumption. It is engineered to ripen longer. In 1997 it is withdrawn from the market, because they were so soft and bruised they could not be sold as fresh produce.
*1994, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) program Fifth Estate televised a one-hour documentary reporting that Monsanto had tried to bribe Health Canada, offering to pay as much as two million dollars under the condition that Monsanto receive approval to market rBGH in Canada without being required to submit data from any further studies or trials. According to journalists who worked on the documentary, Monsanto tried to kill the show, arguing through its lawyers that CBC had maliciously rigged interviews. CBC ran the program. rBGH or Polisac is banned in most countries except the United States.
*1997 crop failure of 30,000 acres of G.M. cotton in Mississippi cause farmers to sue Monsanto for failure to perform as advertised. Monsanto settled out of court and paid $2 million to 3 farmers. Monsanto blamed the weather.
*1999, five American farmers and one French farmer filed a class action suit against Monsanto and nine alleged corporate coconspirators for forming a cartel to monopolize control of genetically engineered corn and soybean markets as well as price fixing.
*2000 Pharmacia/Upjohn (pharmaceutical company) merges with Monsanto. New company named Pharmacia Corporation. Pfizer buys Pharmacia in 2003. The agricultural division is separated from Pharmacia to become The Monsanto Company.
*2000 Cornell University study finds that the pollen of G.M. corn made by Monsanto could kill monarch butterflies.
*Annually pursues 500 cases of suspected patent infringement of its G.M. seeds, including family owned farms in Canada and the US who's fields have been unknowingly contaminated by Monsanto's G.M. seeds (seeds can be carried by wind, birds or insects into neighboring land).
*2002 Monsanto found guilty of "negligence, wantonness, suppression of truth, trespass and outrage." Company pays 700 million dollars to residents of Anniston, Alabama for PCB by-product pollution.
*2002 Express Scripts, one of the largest pharmacy benefit-management companies, states that Celebrex (Pharmacia drug) and a rival Merck drug, Vioxx, overly prescribed and have only a narrow benefit over older drugs like ibuprofen and naproxen, which are available in generic and over-the-counter versions for a fraction of the price.
*2002 Monsanto is listed fourth on a EPA list of about 100 companies determined to be a "potentially responsible party" for most of America's Superfund sites. The EPA linked the company to 56 sites.
*2003, Monsanto sues Oakhurt Dairy for adverting that its products did not come from cows treated with bovine growth hormones (a Monsanto product), claiming such advertising hurt Monsanto's business.
*2005 tries to patent a breeding technique for pigs which would grant it ownership of any pigs born by that method.
*2005 admits to bribing Indonesian officials in order to evade environmental assessment and regulations of Bt cotton Bollgard. The Securities Exchange Commission fined Monsanto $1.5 million for bribery, including $50,000 in cash, falsifying books and invoices,and purchase of land and construction of a house in the name the wife of a senior Ministry of Agriculture official. From 1997-2002 the SEC reported that Monsanto made $700,000 in payments to at least 140 current and former officials and their family members. Hugh Grant, Monsanto's current CEO, was in charge of Monsanto's Asia Pacific division at the time of the bribes.
*2005 A CRIIGEN study, published in the American review of Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, shows that laboratory rats fed Monsanto's G.M. MON863 corn for 90 days were found to have kidney and liver problems. This corn has been authorized in Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Korea, Taiwan and the United States.
*2006 Monsanto's biotech seeds and traits account for 88% of the total world area devoted to genetically modified crops. Even though consumers have overwhelmingly rejected genetically modified foods, world governments continue to allow their entry onto the consumer market, especially in Canada, the United States and Argentina. The British government, for example, subsidized biotechnology research with more than 100 million dollars of taxpayer money. Their annual budget for organic agriculture research was 3.5 million.
*2006 purchases Delta & Pine Land Company which holds the patent The Terminator seed, a seed that produces plants with sterile seeds to prevent farmers from replanting.
*2007 ex-Monsanto director JP Princen found guilty of false advertising by a Lyon, France court for claiming that the herbicide Round Up is biodegradable and environmentally friendly. In independent scientific studies conducted by the CRIIGEN, Round Up is found to be highly toxic. Round up is found to be responsible for contaminating about 60% of France's water systems.
*2008 G.M. cotton imported by Monsanto into Thailand contaminates crops. Thailand had banned all G.M. foods. The military appointed government lifted the ban two days after they took power in early 2008.
*2009 enters into a joint venture with Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc., to develop new broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach.
*2009 a corn developed by Dow Chemical and Monsanto that "stacks 8 different sets of foreign genes" into corn (which is claimed to resist numerous pests and the Monsanto herbicide Round Up) was approved by the Canadian government despite the government not doing any health assessments. The Canadian government has relied on Dow and Monsanto's claims that the corn is safe, even though the company has not made any health testing public or been required to by the government. Dow and Monsanto have stated that they have tested the eight genes separately, but not in it's final form (which is how it will eventually be consumed). The UN food safety guidelines recommends that foreign genes be tested in combination and independently.
Want to know more?
"Science for Sale" by Daniel S. Greenberg
"The World According to Monsanto" by Marie-Monique Robin
"Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods" by Jeffrey M. Smith
PUBLIC RELATIONS/LOBBYING: (this is just a small glimpse)
*1986 headed by Monsanto, the industry successfully lobbies the Regan Administration that no new legislation is required to regulate research and production of G.M. foods.
*1990s Michael Taylor, who had been a lawyer at Monsanto, drafts the biotech substantial equivalence policy at U.S.D.A. Former Monsanto employees and beneficiaries include: Clarence Thomas (a former Monsanto lawyer/Supreme Court Judge), Ann Veneman (Board of Director's of Calgene Corp owned by Monsanto/former US Secretary of Agriculture) , Linda Fischer (worked for Monsanto and the E.P.A.), Donald Rumsfeld (earned $12 million dollars from increased stocks when G.D. Searle, of which he was a board of director, & Company was sold to Monsanto/Secretary of Defense), Terence Harvey (Deputy Commissioner at F.D.A. then went to work for Monsanto),Tommy Thompson (former secretary of health/Wisconsin governor/received $50,000 in donations from Monsanto), John Ashcroft (received the most donations from Monsanto during his 2000 elections), Robert Shapiro (former Monsanto CEO and served in the Carter Administration), William D. Ruckelshaus(Chief administrator of the E.P.A. and worked for 12+ years on Monsanto's Board of Directors), Rufus Yerxa (Monsanto's chief counsel and appointed as the US deputy to the WTO) and Carol Tucker Foreman (Monsanto lobbyist for rBGH, then Assistant Secretary of Agriculture appointed "consumer advocate" at USDA).
*1992 Monsanto's board member, Mickey Kantor, was the chairman of Mr. Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. Marcia Hale, another former Clinton assistant and his director for intergovernmental affairs, now works as Director of International Government Affairs for Monsanto Corporation coordinating public affairs. Al Gore lobbied Paris to permit the sowing of G.M. crops in France. He even stated his approval of genetically modified crops during his senate years. David W. Beier, his principal advisor for internal affairs, became director of governmental affairs at Genentech (a biotech company).
*2001 Ignacio Chapela and another researcher at UC Berkley published a paper in Nature Magazine which claimed that native maize in Mexico had been contaminated, across vast distances, by G.M. pollen.
This would have meant ruin for Monsanto who was trying to persuade Mexico, Brazil and the EU to lift their G.M. embargoes.
Before publication, one of the researchers Ignacio Chapela was approached by the director of a Mexican corporation who offered him a research post if he would withhold his paper, then threatened that "he knew where to find his children."
On the day of the paper's publication, messages started to appear on a biotechnology listserv used by more than 3000 scientists called AgBioWorld (AgBioWorld was established in January 2000 by Professor Prakash and Gregory Conko of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who's contributors include - Pfizer, General Motors, Chlorine Chemistry Council, American Plastics Council, American Petroleum Institute).
The first message on the listserv was from a correspondent named "Mary Murphy." Her hotmail account was linked to the same hotmail address sent to another server that contained the identification bw6.bivwood.com, which is the property of Bivings Woodell, which is part of the Bivings Group.
Another attacker of the the UC Berkeley researchers' study was "Andura Smetacek." She falsely claimed that Chapela's paper had not been peer reviewed, that he was first and foremost an activist and that the research had been published in collusion with environmentalists. She even accused Greenpeace of terrorism.
Because of the campaign, some senior bio technologists called for Chapela to be fired from UC Berkley.
"Andura Smetacek" turned out to be a promoter for "the Center For Food and Agricultural Research." The center existed as a web site, which accused greens of plotting violence. Cffar.org was registered to someone called Manuel Theodorov, who was the "director of associations" at Bivings Woodell.
Bivings' head of online PR, Todd Zeigler, had confided to the BBC that one of the e-mails in question was sent by someone "working for Bivings" or "clients using our services".
The Bivings Group specializes in internet lobbying. An article on its web site, entitled "Viral Marketing: How to Infect the World," warns that "there are some campaigns where it would be undesirable or even disastrous to let the audience know that your organization is directly involved...it is simply not an intelligent PR move."
It also stated that "perhaps the greatest advantage of viral marketing is that your message is placed into a context where it is more likely to be considered seriously."
A senior executive from Monsanto is quoted on the site, thanking the firm for its "outstanding work."
*2002 A protest march at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg reported as a protest by poor Third World farmers in support of GMOs." A representative of the Biotechnology Industry Organization declared the march "a turning point" because "real, live, developing-world farmers" had begun "speaking for themselves". A commentary on the march in The (London) Times was headlined, "I do not need white NGOs to speak for me" while, during the march itself, a "Bullshit award" was presented to the Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva for being "a mouthpiece of western eco-imperialism".
The Fake Parade demonstrated that the march was staged. For instance, the main "developing-world farmer" quoted by the man from BIO turned out never to have farmed in his life. Instead, Chengal Reddy headed a lobby for big commercial farmers in Andhra Pradesh in India. Similarly, the "media contact" for the march and for the "Bullshit award" was the daughter of a US lumber industrialist, who had worked out of various free market NGOs, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Her specialty was "counter protest".
*2006 Richard Doll, a world renowned British epidemiologist, revealed to have been paid by Monsanto for at least 20 years as a consultant. His salary was listed as up to $1,500 dollars a day. While paid by Monsanto he wrote to the Australian commission investigating the cancer causing effects of Agent Orange. Mr. Doll said there was no evidence that the chemical caused cancer. Mr. Doll was also paid 15,000 pounds by the Chemical Manufacturers Association, Dow Chemical and ICI for a review of vinyl chloride (used in PVC plastics) that denied any link of the chemical to cancer. His review was used for a decade to defend vinyl chloride.
*2006 The Canadian government adopts an undercover strategy using a sophisticated high tech PR propaganda technique called Public Perception Management (PPM), the strategy uses computerized analysis of daily media coverage of GM issues to feed pro-GMO stories to public relations companies and industry-friendly journalists.
Shane Morris, an Irish citizen is hired as a Senior Consumer Analyst at the Consumer Analysis Section of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. In June 2006, Morris pressured a senior executive at Bord Bía (the Irish Government Food Board) into withdrawing their sponsorship for a Green Ireland conference on branding for food, farming and eco-tourism.
The Canadian government then threatened the GM-free Ireland Network with a so-called Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP).
This is a form of litigation filed by a large organization or plaintiff, to intimidate and silence critics by so severely burdening them with the cost of a legal defense in the hopes that they abandon their criticism. The SLAPP technique has been widely used by Monsanto to intimidate farmers contaminated by GMOs in the USA and Canada.
Shane Morris then co-authored an article on consumer attitudes to GM food which won the British Food Journal "best scientific paper of the year" in 2003, even though it was widely criticized for being scientifically misleading and unethical, triggering a controversy reported by New Scientist magazine. The paper has been denounced as “misleading” by Cambridge University research ethics expert Dr. Richard Jennings, Prof. Joe Cummins (Emeritus Professor of Genetics at the University of Western Ontario, Canada), by other scientists at York and Guelph Universities in Canada, the University of New South Wales in Australia, and in various publications including New Scientist, Food Consumer, The Ecologist and Private Eye magazines. Forty scientists wrote to the British Food Journal demanding it withdraw the paper and the award.
On the 31st of January, 2008, an early day motion (EDM 425) in the UK House of Commons had this to say about Shane Morris: "That this House regrets the continuing attempts to silence or misrepresent scientists whose research indicates possible human health problems from GM crops, as in the case of Dr Irina Ermakova who was misled by the editor of Nature Biotechnology into submitting an article to the journal to be published under her name, with the article in fact published under the editor's name with criticisms by four well-known GM supporters not seen by Dr Ermakova prior to publication; deplores the continuing efforts by an employee of the Canadian Government, Shane Morris, to close down websites in the UK and Republic of Ireland which have, along with Dr Richard Jennings of Cambridge University, said that research which claimed that consumers prefer GM sweetcorn published by this employee and others and given an Award for Excellence, is a flagrant fraud; and calls on the Government Chief Scientist to protect the integrity and objectivity of science by reasserting the right of scientists to have their views published by journals without underhand interference by journal editors, and for the Chief Scientist to encourage journal editors to withdraw papers they have published which subsequently turn out to be grossly misleading or even fraudulent."
*2009 Monsanto sponsors NPR Radio's show 'Marketplace.' The show promises to commit issues related to "sustainable agriculture, creating hybrid and biotech seeds designed to increase crop yield and conserve natural resources."
*2009 Monsanto launches ad campaign "9 billion. A changing climate. Now what?" Followed by "producing more. Conserving more. Improving farmers' lives."
The world today produces more food per inhabitant than ever before. Enough food is available to provide 4.3 pounds for every person every day: 2.5 pounds of grain, beans, and nuts, and about a pound of meat, milk, and eggs, and another of fruits and vegetables.
In 1999, enough grain was produced globally to feed a population of eight billion (6.2 billion inhabit the planet in 2000), had it been evenly distributed or not fed to animals. In the USA, seven out of ten pounds of grain are fed to animals. Brazil, Paraguay, Thailand and Indonesia devote thousands of acres of agricultural land to produce soybeans and manioc for export to feed cattle in Europe.
