Monsanto Chief is horrible...
and I got to tell him that to his face after his interview on CBS This Morning. Approaching someone like this isn’t really my thing. But being so well behaved all the time doesn’t seem to be helping people. It made me really uncomfortable to do it. But that’s how we change. We must become uncomfortable. We must act out of our comfort zones for things to change. We must call out the people who are doing horrible things when they do them. Hugh Grant must be made to feel uncomfortable for what he allows his company to do in the world. That is why I told him what I did today and why I am sharing it with you.
Before a segment I was doing on the movie Spotlight with Mike Rezendes this morning, I was waiting in the green room watching Hugh Grant (Monsanto CEO not the Actor) worm his way through the strong questions he was getting from the CBS team. His handlers clearly have been working very hard with him to give him every slippery non-answer to every question he was asked. I was beside myself watching this guy who is responsible for so much misery and sickness throughout the world slime his way through his interview I could not hold my tongue. He came through the Green Room door ready to do high fives with his press agent and I simply told him this…
“You are wrong. You are engaged in monopolizing food. You are poisoning people. You are killing small farms. You are killing bees. What you are doing is dead wrong. “
A bead of sweat broke out on his head…”Well, what I think we are doing is good.”
When people get paid the kind of money he gets paid their thinking becomes incredibly clouded and the first thing to go is their morality.
He says Monsanto needs to do a better job with their messaging.
Hugh, it’s not your messaging that makes you and your company horrible. It’s the horrible stuff you guys do that makes you and your company horrible. People don’t walk around making horrible stories up about good companies because they got nothing else better to do with their time. People like you and your company are horrible because… you are horrible. No matter how much jumping around you do on morning shows (where no one can really nail you down for the horrible stuff you do) you will still always be horrible, and people will always greet you the way I did, when you go around trying to cover up the fact that you are horrible.
Want to know more about the real Monsanto, and Hugh Grant? Watch this…
http://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2015/jun/04/undercurrent-monsanto-roundup-pesticide-herbicide-who-carcinogenic-video
There is a lot more horrible stuff to look at here.
Monsanto’s greatest hit jobs.
In 2003, Monsanto settled a lawsuit for $700 million with 20,000 Anniston, AL residents who claimed that a Monsanto plant contaminated the local rivers, lakes, soil and air with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Plaintiffs reported a range of health issues including cancer, birth defects, and neurological disorders.
NYTimes: $700 Million Settlement in Alabama PCB Lawsuit
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/21/business/700-million-settlement-in-alabama-pcb-lawsuit.html
CBS News: Toxic Secret: Alabama Town Never Warned of Contamination
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/toxic-secret-07-11-2002/
In 2012, Monsanto settled a lawsuit with tens of thousands of plaintiffs in West Virginia for $93 million. Residents of Nitro, WV claimed they had been poisoned by decades of contamination from cancer-causing chemicals used in the manufacturing of Agent Orange produced in a Monsanto plant.
The Guardian: Monsanto Settles ‘Agent Orange’ Case with US Victims
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/feb/24/monsanto-agent-orange-west-virginia
In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organization, concluded in a study that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s widely used weedkilling product Roundup, was “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
World Health Organization:
http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf
Shortly after the IARC’s study was made public, France took steps to limit the sale of Roundup. France has also banned the cultivation of genetically modified crops.
Reuters: Frances Bolsters Ban on Genetically Modified Crops
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/17/us-france-gmo-idUSKCN0RH1BV20150917#fXGsoHblh5ZgGJm3.97
Newsweek: Frances Bans Sale of Monsanto’s Roundup in Garden Centers After UN Names it Probable Carcinogen
http://www.newsweek.com/france-bans-sale-monsantos-roundup-garden-centers-after-un-names-it-probable-343311
In September 2015, a French appeals court in Lyon upheld a decision that held Monsanto liable for poisoning a French farmer. The grain farmer, Paul Francois, developed neurological damage after inhaling Monsanto’s weedkilling product Lasso.
Reuters: French Court Confirms Monsanto Liable in Chemical Poisoning Case
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/11/us-france-monsanto-court-idUSKCN0RA1UM20150911#bPqGhYIjCbbUQwBl.97
Le Monde: Monsanto Condamné pour L'Intoxicite d'un Agriculteur Français
http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2015/09/10/monsanto-condamne-en-appel-pour-la-toxicite-de-son-hebrbicide-lasso_4751628_3244.html
In September 2015, two U.S. farm workers filed suit against Monsanto claiming that exposure to Roundup caused them to develop cancer.
Reuters: US Workers Sue Monsanto Claiming Herbicide Caused Cancer
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/29/us-monsanto-lawsuit-idUSKCN0RT2L220150929#H4LdTbt1hK86CxcU.97
You can find reports of Monsanto products being linked to cancer and other health issues all over the world, for example:
Argentina is the world’s third largest soy-producing country. According to Mother Jones, nearly 100% of the soy crop is genetically altered, and Monsanto’s Roundup is very widely used. As the use of pesticides and herbicides in Argentina has increased, cancer clusters have begun to develop around farming communities. A 2010 study at the University of Buenos Aires also found that injecting glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) into chicken and frog embryos caused the same sort of spinal defects that doctors have found to be increasingly prevalent in communities where farm chemicals are used.
Mother Jones: Argentina is Using More Pesticides than Ever. And Now It Has Cancer Clusters.
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2013/10/argentina-cancer-cluster-pesticide
On Monsanto Suing Small Farmers:
The Guardian: Monsanto Sued Small Farmers to Protect Seed Patents
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/12/monsanto-sues-farmers-seed-patents
Vanity Fair: Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/05/monsanto200805
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