Cold Mud and Monsanto

Cold Mud www.coldmud.com  – the excellent site that links you to all you need to know about food posted Monsanto profit news this morning.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a1GHj4N2tLEI&refer=us  –

All very interesting.  Some time ago, Coldmud reminded us that Monsanto invented Agent Orange, “herbicide and defoliant” used by the States Armed Forces in its Warfare programme during the “Vietnam War.  Between 1963 and 1966, 6 million gallons of Agent Orange were used in Vietnam.

Monsanto is pretty good at silencing the critics. As Spinwatch pointed out a few years ago, “Monsanto was also finding other equally aggressive ways to silence critics”:

The Ecologist Journal issue on Monsanto (The Monsanto Files) was pulped by the printers without any notice being given to the editors. The printers refused to comment on its decision although it is understood the company was afraid of a possible libel action. Monsanto insisted that it had nothing to do with the printers action, thus highlighting the effect of its reputation.

In 1997 in the US, Fox TV commissioned a report on rBGH. As the programme was to be aired, Fox TV received a visit and a letter from Monsanto: the journalists, who had investigated the link between rBGH and cancer in humans, were asked to re-write the report and eventually were offered money to resign and keep quiet about the whole affair. The reporters are now suing Fox TV.

The UK Guardian is and has been critical of Monsanto. Three Monsanto representatives visited the Guardian offices to ‘ask’ them to end this criticism: the Guardian refused and published a story about it the next day.

Werner Reisberger who had an email server based in Germany was sued by Monsanto for forwarding a call to action published by German Activists where they referred to Monsanto as ‘vultures’. Monsanto lost the case.