So, who is Monsanto anyway, and what do they do?
According to Monsanto.com
Monsanto is a relatively new company. While we share the name and the history of a company that was founded in 1901, the Monsanto of today is focused on agriculture and supporting farmers around the world in their mission to feed, clothe and fuel our growing world. We are an agricultural company.
a whole lot more below the fold . . .
- Monsanto Chemical Works is formed.
- Production of PCBs is terminated.
- Monsanto chemical businesses are spun off as Solutia Inc.
- John Hunter is named chairman and CEO.
- Pharmaceutical Services division is formed.
- PCB trial results in sharp drop in stock price
fundinguniverse
Monsanto began as a traditional manufacturer of chemicals, but expanded into drugs, buying G. D. Searle in Skokie, and into agricultural products, becoming a leader in that area with its patent on the weed-killer Roundup. In 1997 the company spun off its traditional chemical business, which became Solutia Inc.
Sales of agricultural products grew steadily, from 40 percent of total volume in 1996 to 56 percent in 1999. As the company expanded into genetically modified crops, it acquired seed companies, notably DeKalb Genetics Corp., previously DeKalb AgResearch, to use as development and distribution channels.
In 2000 Monsanto merged with the drug-maker Pharmacia & UpJohn Inc., which took control of the Searle pharmaceutical operations, and the current Monsano Co. was incorporated as a subsidiary in October 2000.
nsreporter.com
First, let's see how Donald Rumsfeld ties into this.
"When Donald Rumsfeld was CEO of Searle, that conglomerate manufactured aspartame. For 16 years the FDA refused to approve it, not only because its not safe but because they wanted the company indicted for fraud. Both U.S. Prosecutors hired on with the defense team and the statute of limitations expired. They were Sam Skinner and William Conlon. Skinner went on to become Secretary of Transportation squelching the cries of the pilots who were now having seizures on this seizure triggering drug, aspartame, and then Chief of Staff under President Bush's father. Some of these people reach high places. Even Supreme Justice Clarence Thomas is a former Monsanto attorney. (Monsanto bought Searle in 1985, and sold it a few years ago). When Ashcroft became Attorney General, Thompson from King and Spalding Attorneys (another former Monsanto attorney) became deputy under Ashcroft. (Attorneys for NutraSweet and Coke).
newswithviews.com
Donald Rumsfeld never served on the board or held any office at Monsanto, but Monsanto must occupy a soft spot in the heart of the former defense secretary. Rumsfeld was chairman and C.E.O. of the pharmaceutical maker G. D. Searle & Co. when Monsanto acquired Searle in 1985, after Searle had experienced difficulty in finding a buyer. Rumsfeld’s stock and options in Searle were valued at $12 million at the time of the sale.
bartlettandsteels.com
Even though after Rumsfeld said he would call in his markers and get aspartame approved which he did, with it being approved in l981, it was never proven safe. Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, FDA toxicologist, said in her testimony before the U.S. Senate in l987: "It would appear that the safety of aspartame and its breakdown products has still not been satisfactorily determined. Since many of the flaws cited in these three studies were also present in all of the other studies submitted by Searle." She also told Congress that ALL studies were built on a foundation of sand and should have been thrown out. The Board of Inquiry of the FDA said aspartame was not safe, triggered brain tumors and the petition for approval is hereby revoked. If Rumsfeld had not intervened and Dr. Hayes had not over-ruled the Board of Inquiry this deadly poison would not have ever made the market to poison the world.
fda.gov
bold emphasis in this quotation was added by the diarist
When an FDA docket calls Aspartame poison it is time to pay attention.
Some of Monsanto's Former Employees
Charles Martin, SEC Sues Former Senior Monsanto Manager Charles Martin for Authorizing a Bribe of $50,000 in 2007
Linda J. FisherVice President of Government Affairs for Monsanto, who then went on to be our former EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation (OPPE) and yes, a Bush Jr Appointee, she is now a VP and chief sustainability officer for DuPont.,
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, prior to being named to the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas was an Attorney for Monsanto between 1977-79
Michael Taylor, former legal advisor to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s Bureau of Medical Devices and Bureau of Foods, later executive assistant to the Commissioner of the FDA,...still later a partner at the law firm of King & Spaulding where he supervised a nine-lawyer group whose clients included Monsanto Agricultural Company, ... still later Deputy Commissioner for Policy at the United States Food and Drug Administration, ... and later with the law firm of King & Spaulding ... now head of the Washington, D.C. office of Monsanto Corporation
On the Current Board Of Directors
Janice L. Fields - executive VP and COO of McDonald’s
Arthur H. Harper - managing partner of GenNx360 Capital Partners
Gwendolyn S. King - deputy assistant to the President and director of Intergovernmental Affairs for President Ronald Regan
C. Steven McMillan - retired chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Sara Lee Corporation
William U. Parfet - chairman of the board and CEO of MPI Research Inc., a preclinical toxicology research laboratory
George H. Poste, Ph. D., D.V.M. - Chief Scientist, Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative at Arizona State University
monsanto.com
Some of the biggest beneficiaries of Monsanto's campaign contribution largess.
Top 10 Donations Recipients for the 2008 Campaign
1. Sen Ton Harkin $8000
2. Sen Mitch McConnell $4250
3. Sen Pat Roberts $2500
4. Rep Sam Graves $2300
5. Pres Candidate Rudy Guiliani $2300
6. Sec of Agri. Tom Vilsack $2100
7. Mitt Romney $1750
8. Al Franken $1500
9. Sen Larry Craig $1000
10. Sen Carl Levin & Rep Bob Goodlatte $500 each
www.politicalbase.com/groups/monsanto/13227/&electionYear=2008
Top Donations for upcoming 2010 Campaign
1. Sen Christopher S. Bond $4,600
2. Sen John Thune $2,000
3. Sen Evan Bayh $1,500
Total Corporate Donations by Monsanto up to 2010
Total Donations through 2008
Democratic Party - $315,372
Republican Party - $251,874
Independant Party - $250
Libertarian Party - $1,500
Other - $127,210
www.politicalbase.com/groups/monsanto/13227/&electionYear=2010
So there has been a lot of money to spread around along with the other poisons.
Strangely, Tom Vilsack has been one of Monsanto and other Bio-Engineering Firms dearest and oldest friends. In 2001 he was given the Governor of the Year award by BIO, or the Biotechnology Industrial Organization, which counts Monsanto among it's members.
Some of Monsanto's greatest contributions to mankind
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Agent Orange
Agent Orange was manufactured by Monsanto, Dow Chemicals (manufacturers of napalm), Uniroyal, Hercules, Diamond Shamrock, Thompson Chemical and TH Agriculture. Monsanto were the main supplier. The Agent Orange produced by Monsanto had dioxin levels many times higher than that produced by Dow Chemicals, the other major supplier of Agent Orange to Vietnam.
Dioxins are one of the most toxic chemicals known to man. Permissible levels are measured in parts per trillion, the ideal level is zero. The Agent Orange manufactured by Monsanto contained 2,3,7,8-tetrachlordibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD), extremely deadly even when measured against other dioxins. The levels found in domestic 2,4,5-T were around 0.05 ppm, that shipped to Vietnam peaked at 50 ppm, ie 1,000 times higher than the norm.
home.clara.net
bold emphasis added by the diarist
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Dioxins
A Charleston attorney has filed more than 70 cancer lawsuits against Monsanto and related companies over its old plant in Nitro.
~snip~
"During the years that Monsanto was operating its trichlorophenol plant, it adopted an unlawful practice of disposing of dioxin waste materials by a continuous process of open 'pit' burning," the complaints state. "This practice was largely denied by Monsanto whose representatives characterized the practice as an 'incineration process' when asked by regulatory authorities.
~snip~
Monsanto owned and operated the plant from 1934 to 2000, according to the complaints. The Nitro plant was operated by Monsanto until 1995 when the plant merged with Akzo Nobel, a Dutch company, and began operating as Flexsys America Inc. In 1997, Monsanto renamed a subsidiary as Solutia Inc. and the Nitro was distributed to Solutia. The plant closed in 2004.
corpwatch.org
A Federal jury found today that the Monsanto Company was not responsible for the illness of seven retired employees who said they had been poisoned on the job by dioxin. The jury did allow the damage claim of one of the seven whose illness was linked to another chemical.
The seven men had contended that their lingering medical problems, including skin cancer, bladder cancer and a variety of nervous disorders, stemmed from exposure to dioxin and five other chemicals at the company's plant at Nitro, where they had worked an average of 35 years. They had sued the company for $4 million each in compensatory and punitive damages.
~snip~
An attorney for Monsanto, David F. Snively, said: ''Our actions were clearly consistent with the rest of the industry at the time in protecting our employees' health and safety. We certainly view this as a victory for Monsanto's position after a long and arduous trial.''
NY Times, May 1985
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PCB's at one point Monsanto had a 40 year monopoly on PCB's, which were used in a variety of household products before Monsanto stpped producing PCB's in 1977.
In 1966, Monsanto managers discovered that fish submerged in that creek turned belly-up within 10 seconds, spurting blood and shedding skin as if dunked into boiling water. They told no one. In 1969, they found fish in another creek with 7,500 times the legal PCB levels. They decided "there is little object in going to expensive extremes in limiting discharges." In 1975, a company study found that PCBs caused tumors in rats. They ordered its conclusion changed from "slightly tumorigenic" to "does not appear to be carcinogenic."
Monsanto enjoyed a lucrative four-decade monopoly on PCB production in the United States, and battled to protect that monopoly long after PCBs were confirmed as a global pollutant.
"We can't afford to lose one dollar of business," one internal memo concluded.
Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered General Electric Co. to spend $460 million to dredge PCBs it had dumped into the Hudson River in the past, perhaps the Bush administration's boldest environmental action to date. The decision was bitterly opposed by the company, but hailed by national conservation groups and many prominent and prosperous residents of the picturesque Hudson River Valley.
Washington Post Jan 2002
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Bovine Growth Hormone(rBGH)
Recent research is beginning to confirm that dairy foods produced with Monsanto's genetically-engineered Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) may speed the growth of human breast and prostate cancers. Because of the extreme dangers from regular ingestion of such dairy foods, the Cancer Prevention Coaltion and a research scientist issued a press release earlier this year detailing the risks. The dangers should have been obvious many years ago when much of this information was presented to Monsanto. Instead, they chose to ignore it and force their rBGH-dairy on the general population -- unlabelled.
~snip~
What is particularly reprehensible is that Monsanto has reportedly threatened companies with lawsuits if they label their milk as being "rBGH-free"! This means that children at school have no way to tell if they milk was produced by the use of rBGH. They appear to be trying to prevent people from making up their own minds about what to ingest! Currently, most people can avoid rBGH-dairy by purchasing certified organic milk and other dairy products at the local health food store. While it may be slightly more expensive, it will likely save money on medical bills in the long run.
ethicalinvesting.com
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GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms); the majority of their business today
According to Monsanto.com
- Biotech crops have been grown worldwide for more than a decade. Welcome to the one place where you can hear about the benefits of genetically modified foods and crops from the people who know best — the farmers and families who grow GM crops and the experts who research and study the benefits of biotechnology in agriculture.
According to citizen watch dog groups and non boughtoff paid experts
In India the financial figures for the 2002 cotton growing season have finally been crunched. Although Monsanto convinced many of India's farmers that buying the more expensive GE cotton seeds would result in higher yields and better cotton, the reverse is actually true. Crop yields for GE cotton were 5 TIMES LESS than traditional Indian cotton and the income from GE cotton was 7 TIMES LESS than conventional cotton due to Monsanto's cotton having lower quality short fibers. As a result of the insurmountable deluge of debt accrued from paying more for the GE seeds and having a cruddy crop, more than 70 Indian farmers have
committed suicide in the last three months.
monsantosucks.com
GM diets cause liver damage
The state of the liver—a main detoxifier for the body—is another indicator of toxins
* Rats fed the GNA lectin potatoes described above had smaller and partially atrophied livers.
* Rats fed Monsanto’s Mon 863 corn, engineered to produce Bt-toxin, had liver lesions and other indications of toxicity.
* Rabbits fed GM soy showed altered enzyme production in their livers as well as higher metabolic activity.
* The livers of rats fed Roundup Ready canola were 12%–16% heavier, possibly due to liver disease or inflammation.
* And microscopic analysis of the livers of mice fed Roundup Ready soybeans revealed altered gene expression and structural and functional changes.15 Many of these changes reversed after the mice diet was switched to non-GM soy, indicating that GM soy was the culprit. The findings, according to molecular geneticist Michael Antoniou, PhD, "are not random and must reflect some ‘insult’ on the liver by the GM soy." Antoniou, who does human gene therapy research in King’s College London, said that although the long-term consequences of the GM soy diet are not known, it "could lead to liver damage and consequently general toxemia."
sourcewatch.org
In 1999, Dr. Arpad Pusztai, the world’s top GMO safety researcher at the prestigious Rowett Institute in Scotland was working on a UK government grant to design long-term testing protocols intended to become part of the official European GM food safety assessment process. When Pusztai fed supposedly harmless GMOs to rats, they developed potentially pre-cancerous cell growth, smaller brains, livers and testicles, partially atrophied livers, and showed signs of a damaged immune system. Moreover, the results clearly indicated that the cause of the problem was due to the unpredictable side effects arising from the process of genetic engineering itself. In other words, his study suggested that the GM foods already on the market, which were created from the same process, might also create such effects. When Dr Pusztai expressed his concern he was fired from his job of 35 years and silenced with threats of a lawsuit. His 20-member research team was disbanded, all testing protocols were abandoned, and the pro-GM establishment embarked on an extensive disinformation campaign to discredit the study’s results to protect the reputation of GM foods already in the marketplace.
seedsofdeception.com
In this case the diarist has added both bold and emphasis.
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Aspartame, the main ingredient in Nutrisweet, Equal, and other sweeteners
By 1976 Searle's campaign to achieve FDA approval for aspartame was mired in controversy. Amid objections and protests from consumer advocate attorney Jim Turner and Dr. Olney, the FDA launched an investigation into Searle's laboratory practices.
The FDA investigation determined that Searle's lab practices were shoddy and produced inaccurate results by manipulating data. The subsequent FDA report triggered a grand jury investigation into Searle's attempts to defraud the FDA. The investigation was led by U.S. Attorney Samuel Skinner. Six months after the grand jury was convened, Skinner gave up his job with the Department of Justice to take a position at Searle's law firm Sidley & Austin. The statute of limitations ran out and the grand jury investigation was dropped.
By March, 1977, Searle had hired former Illinois congressman and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as its CEO. According to former Searle sales rep Patty Wood-Allott. Before a Senate committee discussing proposed labeling requirements for products containing aspartame in 1987, former Searle sales rep Patty Wood-Allott testified under oath that Rumsfeld circulated a telling memo among the company's sales staff in 1981. In the memo, Rumsfeld reportedly stated that, if necessary, ".he would call in all of his markers and that, no matter what, he would see to it that aspartame would be approved that year."
True to his word, aspartame was approved for use in dry food products July 15, 1981.
proliberty.com
Fully 11% of aspartame is methanol -- 1,120 mg aspartame
in 2 L diet soda, almost six 12-oz cans, gives 123 mg
methanol (wood alcohol). If 30% of the methanol is turned
into formaldehyde, the amount of formaldehyde, 37 mg,
is 18.5 times the USA EPA limit for daily formaldehyde in
drinking water, 2.0 mg in 2 L average daily drinking water,
185 times the New Jersey limit,
615 times the California and Maine limits,
1850 times the Maryland limit.
medicalnewstoday.com
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Roundup, a pesticide
In the US the EPA estimates that between 20m and 24m g of glyphosate are
spread every year. Vast quantities of it are used in growing soya,
wheat and hay, and on grazing and fallow land. Its use has increased
some 20% a year since 1998. Contained in Roundup, it is the most widely
sold herbicide in the world, earning Monsanto around $1.5bn every year.
The patent expired last year, but Monsanto will keep some of the
monopoly because its genetically modified plants are designed to be
tolerant to glyphosate. In Brittany glyphosate is a major and regular
pollutant. In October 1999 as much as 172 times the safe level were
found in the Elorn River, which supplies one third of Finistere with
drinking water. "This proves that calling Roundup biodegradable is a
fraud", explains Dr Lylian Le Goff, a biotechnologist with the
organisation France Nature Environnement. Pollution of the soil, water,
rain, the entire food chain and the atmosphere by pesticides has become
a serious public health problem that the French government has been slow
to recognise. Hence Le Goff believes that "it's essential that we apply
the precautionary principle and stop encouraging the use of pesticides,
especially when it's done through misleading advertising that claims
glyphosate-based products are harmless and biodegradable."
Consumers would ingest much more pesticides if genetically modified
plants were to spread because they contain so much of them. Like
dioxins, pesticides, including glyphosate, are not broken down in the
human body; they are a form of invisible pollution . Their molecules have allergenic, neurotoxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic and hormonal effects and are harmful to male fertility. They have similar properties to female hormones, oestrogens; over all, these hormonal effects could be responsible for a 50% decline in sperm counts over the last 50 years.
organicconsumers.org
What is a glyphosate?
Glyphosate is an organic solid of odorless white crystals. It is a non-selective herbicide used on many food and non-food crops as well as non-crop areas such as roadsides. When applied at lower rates, it serves as a plant growth regulator. The most common uses include control of broadleaf weeds and grasses in: hay/pasture, soybeans, field corn; ornamentals, lawns, turf, forest plantings, greenhouses, rights-of-way.
The list of trade names given below may help you find out whether you are using this chemical at home or work.
Trade Names and Synonyms:
Glialka
Roundup
Sting
Rodeo
Spasor
Muster
Tumbleweed
Sonic
Glifonox
Glycel
Rondo
~snip~
What are the Health Effects?
Short-term: EPA has found glyphosate to potentially cause the following health effects when people are exposed to it at levels above the MCL for relatively short periods of time: congestion of the lungs; increased breathing rate.
Long-term: Glyphosate has the potential to cause the following effects from a lifetime exposure at levels above the MCL: kidney damage, reproductive effects.
EPA.gov
Thousands and thousands of acres in the United States are being sprayed annually with nearly 50 million pounds of Roundup, a broad-spectrum herbicide designed to kill any plant it hits, unless the plant has been genetically altered to tolerate the chemical. Roundup has accounted for half of Monsanto's corporate profits in recent years. Now the company has expanded its Roundup market by genetically engineering "Roundup Ready" soybeans, corn, and other crops. Monsanto's advertising campaigns have convinced many people that Roundup is safe, but the facts simply do not support that conclusion. Independent scientific studies have shown that Roundup is toxic to earthworms, beneficial insects, birds and mammals. Plus it destroys the vegetation on which they depend for food and shelter. And although Monsanto claims that Roundup breaks down into harmless substances, it has been found to be extremely persistent, with residue absorbed by subsequent crops over a year after application. Roundup show adverse effects in all standard categories of toxicological testing, including medium-term toxicity, long-term toxicity, genetic damage, effects on reproduction, and carcinogenicity.
chem-tox.com
According to Monsanto
Monsanto's agricultural herbicide product offerings deliver valuable crop protection. We offer a variety of effective, weed control options that form the basis of integrated solutions with other Monsanto products.
Monsanto.com
In England, employees have asked that Genetically Modified (GM) food be removed from the employees cafeteria!
The Independent newspaper reports that there is a notice in the cafeteria of the Monsanto pharmaceutical factory is High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, advising customers "as far as practicable, GM soya and maize (has been removed) from all food products served in our restaurant. We have taken the steps to ensure that you, the customer, can feel confident in the food we serve."
~snip~
"The public has made its concerns about GM ingredients very clear - now it appears that even Monsanto's own catering firm has no confidence in this new technology.
cbc.ca Nov 2000
But if we ask you to label your products as such, you will sue us?
And who helps them misinform us? The traditional media, of course!
For their next big venture, Monsanto is going to try to genetically engineer, and then copyright, the pig.
this is the first of a series of five videos. It is legit and disturbing stuff. I advise anyone who is interested to watch these videos on YouTube.
How do we stand up to this Corporation?
Or is it already too late?
With lawyers named Snively and a product that sounds like Brondo being used on our crops, the question of whether Monsanto is pure evil or not sounds better coming from Jon Stewart than it does in this diary. You could not make this stuff up!
In all of my research on Monsanto, their products, and other companies like them, one theme keeps coming up. Any tests that have been done in laboratories have been done to mice and lab-rats. I have yet to see substantial studies done on humans for long term effects that have been done in laboratories.
I think the real experiments are taking place on our dinner tables instead.
When all of your products harm the health of your customers, when you disregard public safety, circumvent government regulators, pull political strings to get your way and profit off of crushing the small businessman around you, and generally could care less about people and the effects of your actions on their lives,you are the Donald Rumsfeld of Corporations.