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| See Below* |
Monsanto: Butterflies, Bees and You’re Next
Fake News is one thing; but “fake scientific research” is
quite another.
The first we can heatedly argue; the latter will put an end
to us.
Enter stage right, Monsanto.
It appears that Monsanto Corporation, a company that has
cornered the world market in providing herbicides, insecticides, and
questionable genetic modifications, has worked for decades to produce falsified
“research papers” that were ghost written by executives and officials and then
handed over to legitimate scientists for editing?
Why? In order later
to affix their names on the documents as supportive of false findings; when in
fact, they were only asked to edit a section or paragraph here and there for
clarification, appropriate attributions, sentence construction, etc.
Despite all the “evidence” produced over the years by
Monsanto, the state of California has decided to list glyphosate - the chief
active ingredient in Roundup herbicide -
as a likely carcinogen. This
follows the same designation given by the World Health organization in March of
2015.
One trillion, four hundred million tons of Roundup are used
on crops and lawns across the world annually; the United States consumes nearly
20% of the herbicide: 280 million pounds per year.
As the CEO Hugh Grant notes in his company’s letter
to shareholders this last year, “From the Earth’s deepest roots to its highest satellites, we are
more connected than ever to our planet and the food it produces. At Monsanto,
we believe these connections hold the key to unlocking positive potential for
growers and consumers.”
And
a positive potential for profits as well. The company’s revenues exceed $15
billion annually.
In order to keep the lid on the downsides of our carefree
consumption of herbicides by large Agra and even smaller family farms and
gardeners, Monsanto was able to coerce the assistance of the EPA – or at least
one of the EPA’s watchdog officials: Mr. Jess Rowland.
For some time, Jess Rowland had been running interference
for the company by curtailing investigations from other EPA and investigative
sub-agency groups like the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
(part of Health and Human Services).
After the World Health Organization’s identification of
glyphosate as a carcinogen in April of 2015, Rowland promised to find ways to
kill any investigative scrutiny by HHS, and he quipped he should “get a medal,”
for his successful efforts.
Rowland’s and the company’s ploy was to inform the HHS that
a scientific review was already in process, and any duplicative investigation
would be a waste of labor and government money.
While Rowland blocked or parried interests by other outside
agencies, inner-company officials like the heads of toxicology and his manager
Bill Heyden ghost wrote scientific reports promoting conclusions that
glyphosate should not be classified as carcinogenic.
To make the falsified reports more “palatable” and “less
expensive,” according to communications written by Heyden, they handed sections
of the reports to scientists to review for accuracy, clarity, scientific
argumentation, and other editing labors.
After that, they would pay them minimally and sign their names to the
documents. Thus, what was an in-house
and slanted preparation appeared as research which was scientifically
substantiated.
For years, Monsanto also conducted research indicating that
toxic levels of Roundup’s glyphosate were much lower than suggested. While Monsanto argued that the chemical did
not bio-accumulate, it in fact did. They
covered over the report’s findings that “After only 24 hours, the toxic
chemical was found in the lungs and all body fluids: lymph, blood, urine, and
cerebral spinal fluid. Glyphosate also
accumulated in the bone by 30 ppm and in the bone marrow by 4 ppm.”
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| Mexican Political Street Art |
Monsanto avoided including the injurious interaction between
the main chemical in Roundup and pancreas of its mammalian subjects. After review of the research collected, two
researchers from MIT believe this oversight was intentional.
In
the Monsanto Sustainability Report, CEO Hugh Grant reminds his shareholders,
“Our mission is simple: Provide tools for farmers to help nourish the growing
global population and help preserve the Earth for people, plants, wildlife and
communities.”
In France, meanwhile, studies of rats and mice fed a
Monsanto GM maize diet for an additional month, four months, just one month beyond
the research distributed by Monsanto on the safety of their modified corn were
disconcerting. Gilles-Eric Seralini and
his French team looked beyond Monsanto’s 3-month studies and “observed profuse
cancer and tumor development developed after the 4th month of the
study.” Monsanto disregards these
studies as inconclusive.
Europe has always been more cautious of our rush to
genetically modify animals, plants, and produce. Much of the millions of pounds of Roundup
used in the United States finds its way into our streams and rivers, thus the EPA
(with Monsanto’s help and influence?) has developed guidelines for the amount
that’s acceptable in our drinking water.
The safe level for U.S. water is set at 0.7 ug/L, a level unchanged
since 1994 despite the revelations of its actual toxicity. In Europe, the number has always been 0.1 ug/L. (micrograms per liter)
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| Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant |
Meanwhile, Monsanto’s CEO also reminds his shareholders and
all of us that the company’s authentic ethos can be found in its “longstanding
commitment to people, planet, and our company.”
Here’s what Hugh Grant promises they’ll do:
Act Ethically and Responsibly.
Advocate for Biodiversity.
Advance Product Stewardship.
Create a Great Work Environment.
Drive Modern Agricultural Innovation.
Engage Communities and Society.
Foster Collaboration and Transparency.
Improve Global Food and Nutrition Security.
Reduce Our Environmental Impact.
And, sadly, this kind of false and despicably twisted
pontificating will be further stimulated in a Trump Presidency where funding
for the EPA (not one bad character like Rowland) will be cut by nearly a third
of its original budget to protect us from poisons like glyphosate.
Reports Reviewed:
*Above: My friend
Hector Duarte, muralist and activist in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, invited
me into his gallery one afternoon to show me a work in progress. Mr. Duarte; originally from Michoacán,
Mexico; knows the insidious affects of corporate poisoning on his beloved
Monarchs, the bees, and all of our peoples. The work is pictured in the banner. (Thank you TS)
