'The World According to Monsanto' + VIDEO & Transcript

[Guest guest]

'The World According to Monsanto'

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CONTACT: _The Real News Network_ (http://www.therealnews.com/)

Alain Latour, 416-916-5202

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June 23 - Monsanto is a world leader in industrial agriculture, providing

the seeds for 90 percent of the world's genetically modified crops. In an

interview with The Real News Network, filmmaker Marie-Monique discussed her

recent film 'The World According to Monsant'o in which she exposes many of

Monsanto's controversial practices, from concealing knowledge of toxicity of

PCBs to

producing genetically modified seeds and related herbicides.

Monsanto has long history of manufacturing dangerous products. In 1949, an

explosion in Nitro, a Monsanto factory in the US, caused 228 workers to

develop an extremely disfiguring illness caused by dioxin, a highly toxic

by-product of 2,4,5-T, a powerful herbicide manufactured in the factory.

Monsanto product Roundup, an herbicide which Monsanto advertised as

biodegradable, is still sprayed on crops by unprotected farmers in Paraguay

even

though Monsanto has already been convicted twice of false advertising for the

product.

Robin also denounces Monsanto for not only denying that it ever heard of

Agent Orange, a herbicide sprayed by the US Army on crops during the Vietnam

war

and which Monsanto had in fact manufactured, but also for manipulating

scientific studies to hide links between Agent Orange and cancer.

According to Robin, Monsanto has bought fifty seed companies in the last

year ten years. In a clip from Robin's film, physicist and ecologist Dr.

Vandana

warns: " Once [Monsanto has] established the norm that seed can be owned as

their property (…) we will depend on them. If they control seed they control

food (…). It's more powerful than bombs. This is the best way to control the

populations of the world. "

In a Monsanto declassified file " we can't afford to lose one dollar " even as

toxicity of PCBs was discussed. This, Robin says, sums Monsanto's philosophy

rather well.

Watch the full interview here: _ " The World According to Monsanto " _

(http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content & task=view & id=31 & Itemid=74\

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1582 & updaterx=2008-06-22+09:47:01)

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8-06-22+09:47:01)

(smcommunications)

 

Monsanto is a world leader in industrial agriculture, providing the seeds

for 90 percent of the world's genetically modified crops. Once a chemical

company based in the US, Monsanto has transformed into an international life

sciences company, aiming to solve world hunger and protect the environment.

Filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin, however, exposes the company's troubling past, in

her recent film, The World According to Monsanto. In an interview with The Real

News Network, she discusses Monsanto's controversial practices from a

producer of PCBs and Agent Orange to genetically modified seeds and related

herbicides.

 

 

Bio

Marie-Monique Robin is an award winning French journalist and filmmaker who

specializes in social and political issues. She is also the author of several

books including Le monde selon Monsanto, De la dioxine aux OGM ,which

coincides with the launch of her documentary by the same name.

 

Transcript

ZAA NKWETA (VOICEOVER): Providing the seeds for 90 percent of the world's

genetically modified crops, Monsanto is a world leader in industrial

agriculture. Filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin exposes the company's troubling past

in her

recent film, The World According to Monsanto.

 

MARIE-MONIQUE ROBIN, FILMMAKER: I've been working as a journalist for 25

years, and I have a lot of pharmacy friends. I mean, I have a big interest for

agriculture. I made a lot of documentaries all over the world about this issue

and about human rights. I mean, Monsanto is a question of agriculture right

now and human rights.

 

DR. VANDANA SHIVA, PHYSICIST AND ECOLOGIST: There's nothing they're leaving

untouched—the mustard, the okra, the brinjal, the rice. Once they have

established the norm that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be

collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow.

If they control seed, they control food. They know it. That's more powerful

than bombs. It's more powerful than guns. This is the best way to control the

populations of the world.

 

ROBIN: Monsanto is now the big—it's the first seed company in the world.

They bought up, in the last ten years, about 50 seed companies, and they are

the

first leader in GMOs. I decided to make this documentary because, you know,

Monsanto is saying that GMOs are safe for consumers, safe for the

environment. And I thought, my God, can we trust a company when it is saying

that? And I

proposed to Arte, which is a Franco-German channel, a very good one, a

public one, I said, " I would like to make a documentary about this company. Who

is

this company? " I began with the beginning, because Monsanto has been

created, you know, at the beginning of the 20th century exactly, in 1901, in

Missouri, in St. Louis. It used to be a very big chemical company, and they

made

very nice products like PCBs, for instance. They could reveal that Monsanto

knew

from the very beginning that these PCBs were very toxic, and they're so

toxic that they're forbidden, you know? But Monsanto concealed the data. There

was a very interesting internal file, which is declassified now, which says,

" We can't afford to lose one dollar of business. " I think this sentence is a

very good summary, you know, of their practices.

 

DAVID BAKER, PRESIDENT OF COMMUNITY AGAINST POLLUTION: Terry was my bigger

brother. He died in 1971 from a cancer of the brains, a tumor of the brains,

cancer of the lungs, [inaudible] of the heart. He was 16. In the last three

years, I have lost more friends, and they died from illnesses—cancer,

[inaudible] diabetes, hepatitis, all these different illness that comes with

PCBs and

that have been related to PCB.

 

ROBIN: They did the same with Agent Orange. Ancient Orange is a defoliant,

an herbicide used by the US Army during the Vietnam War. They used to spray

the herbicide, you know, in South Vietnam. Monsanto knew that it was very

dangerous, very toxic, because it contains dioxin. They not only concealed the

data they had about this product; they manipulated a scientific study to hide,

you know, the link between Agent Orange exposure and cancer.

 

VOICEOVER: The story began in Nitro, in a Monsanto factory that produced a

powerful herbicide called 2,4,5-T. In 1949, an explosion in the factory

provoked unexpected side effects. Two hundred twenty-eight workers developed an

extremely disfiguring illness caused by dioxin, which is a highly toxic

biproduct of 2,4,5-T.

 

ROBIN: And one example more, maybe, because it's really the link between

GMOs: Roundup. It's an herbicide sold everywhere in the world. And Monsanto

always said its biodegradable, it's good, good for environment. One lie more.

It's not true.

 

VOICEOVER: Today, Roundup is sprayed all over Paraguay by plane or

mechanical spreaders driven by unprotected farm workers.

 

JORGE GALEANO, FARM ACTIVIST (VOICEOVER TRANSLATION): It destroys the

biodiversity of the countryside. It brings death, poverty, and illness, as well

as

destruction of the natural resources that help us live.

 

ROBIN: The company has been convicted, first in New York ten years ago and

last year in France, for false advertising. It's not biodegradable; it's not

good for the environment. And I have an interview of scientists in France, who

made a study which showed that Roundup leads to the first steps of cancer.

It's important to understand that, because 90 percent of GMOs grown in the

fields belong to Monsanto, and 70 percent of the GMOs grown in the world have

been manipulated to resist Roundup. The goal of my investigation is what is

called principle of substantial equivalence. What does it mean? It means it's a

principle that a GMO is supposed to be similar to its conventional

counterpart. This principle of substantial equivalence was not based on any

scientific

data. And the person who tells it in front of my camera is not everyone; I

mean, it's James Maryanskyi, who used to be the chief of biotechnology in the

FDA. And he recognized that this principle wasn't based on any scientific

data; it was based on a political decision taken by the White House to push

biotechnology in the world.

 

MAN: And I would say, quite frankly, we have no complaint about the way USDA

is handling it. They're going through an orderly process; they're making

sure as they deal with these new things they do them properly. And now, if

we're

waiting until September and we don't have our authorization we may say

something different.

 

GEORGE H. W. BUSH, US PRESIDENT: Call me. We're in the de-reg business.

Maybe we can help.

 

TEXT ON SCREEN: Scenes from The World According to Monsanto

 

Courtesy of:

 

ARTE France

National Film Board of Canada

Image & Compagnie

WDR