This powerful corporation from the USA is one of the leaders in the field of genetically modified foods. Half of the world already consumes GMO vegetables from Monsanto. The official website of the company is filled with beautiful landscapes of fields, photographs of cute children and many phrases about kindness, care, benefit and respect. Articles about innovations, awards, charity, pretentious corporate oath … After getting to know the site, you might think that this is the very company that you can entrust to feed all of us. But only those who are not familiar with the real results of Monsanto's violent activities on our planet can think so. And the results are terrible.
In 1929, Monsanto first produces PCB (Polychlorinated biphenyl) -polychlorinated biphenyls. PCBs are then widely used in industry in most countries and cause many thousands of deaths, poisoning and congenital malformations around the world. PCB is the most massive pollutant in the biosphere and the cause of a huge list of diseases. In Western Europe, in the 20th century, after the discovery of PCB in breast milk of women, the duration of breastfeeding was limited to 1.5-2 months. and began to transfer babies to purified artificial nutrition. In the city of Aniston (USA), where the largest Monsanto plant is located, pollution leads to mass deaths among the population. For decades, Monsanto has been killing Aniston residents with impunity, and only in 2002 did the families of the victims receive financial compensation through the courts. The documents provided to the court confirmthat Monsanto was aware of the dangers faced by the townspeople, not wanting to lose profits. In 2002, the court found Monsanto guilty of 6 different violations: negligence, disregard of the law, withholding information, creating a dangerous situation, abuse and arbitrariness. The court's verdict also stated that Monsanto "grossly violated the law, these violations are so great that they go beyond all possible boundaries of decency, are brutal and completely unacceptable in a civilized society."these violations are so great that they go beyond all possible boundaries of decency, are atrocious and completely unacceptable in a civilized society. "these violations are so great that they go beyond all possible boundaries of decency, are atrocious and completely unacceptable in a civilized society."
In the 1960s, Monsanto was the leading manufacturer of Agent Orange, a plant killing agent during the Vietnam War … About three million Vietnamese were poisoned, and by 2008, about a million people under the age of 18 were hereditarily disabled. The Vietnamese were denied compensation payments. Only the affected Americans were paid.
In 1970, Monsanto launches Roundup, a herbicide with the active ingredient glyphosate. Roundup effectively destroys weed plants, becoming very popular all over the world. Monsanto, of course, is again silent about the toxicity of glyphosate. In early 2009, Professor Gilles Séralini and his team from the University of Cannes were able to prove that even a small amount of glyphosate leads to the death of individual human cells.
Products containing glyphosate are acutely toxic to animals, including humans. The surfactant used in the common glyphosate-based product (known as Roundup) is more toxic than glyphosate itself, and the combination of the two is even more toxic.
Glyphosate-based herbicides are marketed as harmless, but laboratory data is striking: medium-term toxicity (damage to the salivary glands), long-term toxicity (inflammation of the stomach walls), genetic damage (in human blood cells), reproductive effects (decreased sperm production in rats, increased incidence of abnormal sperm in rabbits), carcinogenicity (increased incidence of liver tumors in males and thyroid cancer in female rats).
Observations of people (mainly farmers) who have contact with glyphosate have shown that such contact is associated with an increased risk of miscarriages, preterm birth and cancer (non-Hodgkin's) lymphoma.
Nevertheless, Monsanto's active efforts to promote Roundup are paying off: it can still be bought in many countries around the world, including Russia. Farmers and gardeners use it without understanding what they are doing.
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In 1994, Monsanto launches bovine growth hormone, growth hormone, under the brand name Posilac. It is used in the United States but is banned in Canada and Europe. For cows, the side effects of the hormone are bloating, diarrhea, knee and leg problems, eating disorders, fever, low blood hemoglobin levels, reproductive diseases, shorter gestation, and less calving. and mastitis - infections of the udder.
And while Monsanto claims no side effects for humans, Canadian scientists have described several different cases of cancer, including colon and prostate cancers. In the process of creating this hormone, an unusual, unsuitable amino acid was built into it. Monsanto fell silent on this fact. But if at least one amino acid in a hormone or protein differs from the normal genetic code, then dire consequences are possible. One example is sickle cell anemia (blood disorder). Another example is Alzheimer's disease, when the replacement of only one amino acid, phenylalanine, becomes the basis for one of the varieties of the disease.
In 1996, Monsanto entered the world for the first time in the market with genetically modified soybean and cotton seeds. The corporation withheld research data on the safety of transgenic soybeans. When this information was obtained, it was revealed that GM soy contains significantly lower levels of proteins and other nutrients, and toasted GM soy contains twice as much lectin (protein), which can block the body's ability to absorb other nutrients. What's more, roasted GM soy contains seven times more inhibitors of trypsin, the main allergen in soybeans. In the European Union, Monsanto declined to disclose the results of its own experiments on feeding animals with GM corn (which showed serious abnormalities in rats fed GMOs), calling it a trade secret. Later, a court in Germany ordered the company to publish this data. One of the pest-resistant GM crops Monsanto (the only one allowed for cultivation in the EU) was banned for cultivation in France and other EU countries after the publication of the experts' conclusions.
2009 A US federal court ruled in September 2009 that the US Department of Agriculture violated federal law by granting Monsanto permission to commercialize transgenic sugar beets.
Monsanto actively lobbies for its interests around the world and spends huge amounts of money to bribe officials on whom access to markets depends.
2005 - According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, at least 140 Indonesian officials or their family members were bribed in order to obtain permission to grow transgenic cotton without environmental impact assessment. For this, in the same year, the company was fined $ 1.5 million by the US Department of Justice.
2005 Six scientists working in the Canadian government reported that Monsanto offered health officials $ 1 to $ 2 million in bribes to authorize the commercial use of transgenic bovine growth hormone (banned in many countries) without additional research.
2005 The US Patent and Trademark Office revoked 4 key Monsanto patents for GMOs due to a Public Patent Fund challenging these patents. The foundation said Monsanto uses harassment, intimidation and litigation and, in some cases, bankrupt American farmers. The company spends more than $ 10 million annually on activities against farmers who, without proof, suspect of using seeds it patents.
Monsanto is constantly buying up or bankrupting smaller seed companies.
Monsanto's main trick is to claim that GM foods are "substantially identical" to natural foods. And the company is always silent about the differences between modified products and the consequences of their use.
It was Monsanto who invented the seeds from which only one crop can be grown. That is, if you try to plant new wheat seeds that you have grown from Monsanto seeds next year, they will not sprout. The farmer again has to go out and buy seeds and pay Monsanto. Countries that allow such products to dominate their markets become completely dependent on Monsanto. As you can see, in order to completely put a country under control, it is not at all necessary to surround it with a ring of military bases, aim nuclear missiles at it, and the like. Much more sophisticated and effective methods have appeared.
Literally ten firms in the world control most of the entire production of genetically modified grain, which is gradually becoming dominant in the world. What's interesting is that most of these firms are owned by the same individuals, who are simply front figures for certain financial and industrial groups. The largest of them is the Monsanto corporation, well known in the world and in Russia.