Boycott Monsanto

Soaring Spirit with Tears
February 13, 2008

Who is Monsanto?

The world's largest supplier of herbicides, bioengineered seeds, and hormones to increase milk production. Its primary product is Roundup and its goal is global dominance of the food supply.

Roundup and its cousins are marketed under about 90 different names. In 1997, Monsanto lost a lawsuit and agreed to stop using the terms "bio-degradable" and "environmentally friendly" in its advertising. Why? Because these products would appear to be direct descendents of Agent Orange, the company's most infamous product. The company has stated that Roundup is safer than table salt but independent analyses show that the product contains 41% glyphosate and the rest is water and any of 2300 other chemicals that are "trade secrets."

The primary byproduct of herbicide manufacture is dioxin, a chemical described by some as the most toxic on the Planet. It has been implicated in any number of issues from Agent Orange to the Love Canal.

A study at Lund University in Sweden suggests that herbicides seriously lower immunity in such a way as to allow viruses such as Epstein-Barr to proliferate. They are also implicated in the epidemic increase of non-Hodgkins lymphomas.

Why boycott Roundup and other herbicides? About half of Monsanto's income is derived from herbicide sales. Boycotting this product would vastly inhibit the company's ability to poison the Earth.

Roundup Resistant Seeds are genetically modified seeds that are specially designed to be tolerant to Roundup. Many of them are based on "terminator seed" technology that causes seeds to be sterile, thereby obliging farmers to purchase seeds each year from Monsanto subsidiary Delta and Pine Land Co.

These terminator seeds encroach on surrounding crops, spreading at the rate of about seven miles per year. Native species of corn that have been pollinated by genetically modified crops have been found in remote areas of Mexico.

The main crops grown with these seeds are canola, soybeans, corn, sugar beets, and cotton. The company's goal is to have 620 million acres planted with its seeds!

Bovine Growth Hormone is a genetically modified substance that is injected into cows to cause them to produce more milk. Beef derived from cows treated with this hormone has been banned in the European Union and Canada. The hormone has been linked to increased incidence of breast and prostate cancer. It is sold under the name Posilac.

According to Dr. Samuel Epstein, rBGH causes cows to become sick. Among the 20 or more different illnesses caused by this genetically engineered hormone is mastitis. Milk from rGBH-treated cows is often contaminated by both the pus from the mastitis and antibiotics used to treat the mastitis.

Higher levels of growth hormone in the milk create a nutritional hazard. Moreover, the milk itself tends to go bad faster because of its impurities. Horizon and many other dairies assure consumers that their products do not use milk from cows injected with rBGH.

My awareness of some of the exploits of Monsanto goes back to the mid-60s when I worked on Wall Street. My boss was the chemical analyst and a great enthusiast for Monsanto but when I had to cover for him, I spent long hours in the company library reading files on law suits against pharmaceutical and drug companies. I developed a healthy distrust for their ad campaigns and later for their influence on Government.

Monsanto has a simply enormous influence on Government, and where the new technologies are concerned, it is a case of putting the fox in charge of the chickens because others do not have the means to substantiate the claims made by companies dealing with cutting edge technologies.

No matter how you cut it, Monsanto is probably the biggest cause of deterioration of both health and the environment. Moreover, because of its collusion with Government, its products, such as Aspartame, have curious ways of reappearing after being banned (for causing seizures and brain tumors.) This company produces more PCBs, defoliants, herbicides, and dangerous chemicals and drugs than anyone else on the Planet. It's time to speak by boycotting their products.

The hottest place in Hell is not reserved for those who did evil, but for those who saw evil and did nothing.

Dante's Inferno

For more information:

http://www.purefood.org/rbghlink.html

http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/monprob.html

http://www.psrast.org/gefonmarket.htm

http://www.greenmatters.com/gm/subscribers/activism/monsantoplist.html

http://bluegreen.weblogs.com/discuss/msgReader$157?mode=day

http://csf.colorado.edu/ecofem/nov98/0078.html

http://www.causesthatmatter.org/Environment/Environment.cfm?ID=97&c=1

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/022505G.shtml