Since I know there are some Monsanto fans (heavy sarcasm) here...
Has anybody read The World According to Monsanto by Marie-Monique Robin? See link. I got it on a cheap Kindle deal a while back but started reading it just last week. I'm 3/4 of the way through and there are a lot of things I've heard before about Roundup and GMOs, but I didn't know the company was so involved in Agent Orange and rGBH. The writing is extremely biased and I haven't looked for any independent sources to verify the claims, but apparently it won an award in 2011 from the NY public library. I'm curious to hear what any of you might think who know more than I do on the topic.
It's really hard to find any unbiased sources when it comes to Monsanto. Either you have Monsanto or their lobbyists/companies benefiting from their resources, or you have scientists, etc. that have been screwed by Monsanto that look like raving lunatics, because really how can a company be just that bad?
It's really hard to find any unbiased sources when it comes to Monsanto. Either you have Monsanto or their lobbyists/companies benefiting from their resources, or you have scientists, etc. that have been screwed by Monsanto that look like raving lunatics, because really how can a company be just that bad?
Maybe this (bolded) is where my skepticism was set off...I mean, is it really plausible that a single company has ruined the reputation of so many scientists? But the other side of me loves a good conspiracy theory, and Monsanto seems to have arranged those aplenty.
Also, as with climate change, I do think it's more plausible that a powerful for-profit company is stacking the deck to increase its profits than that individual scientists are going crazy trying to make names for themselves to try to get more research funding, but it seems that the scientific consensus is pretty quiet when it comes to GMOs etc. I can see how a scientist might not want to get into that if his/her reputation is going to be trashed in the end, but why would Monsanto trash reputations more thoroughly than say Exxon? Is it even more devilish? Is it that Monsanto has even more political swing?
In any case it is frightening to lose food diversity so rapidly.
I have an anecdote that you can choose to believe or not: I worked for an organization that compiled several different research endeavors around the world. At one point we selected several of the scientists and invited them to a retreat where they could showcase their research to other scientists from around the world. One scientist was from Mexico. I can't remember what his base research was on, but one of the other scientists had known him previously and asked the guy what happened with his corn research. He became very tight lipped, but as the evening wore on he opened up. He was one of the scientists that was working with the indigenous farmers on the cross pollination of their corn with Monsanto's TM corn. Once he began publishing his findings his funding sources for his research started drying up. Being a smart guy, he backed off the research, and low his funding sources reappeared. No real direct connection, but it's very suspect.
I'm glad you saw this because I was just coming in to post this book rec. in your other thread.
One of the descriptions in the book was about how the genetic modifications are done - I'm far from an expert in the field so you should read it yourself, but the analogy was to a shotgun spraying the desired traits into a cell (I guess nucleus) hoping at least a couple of them would land where you want them. So you do end up with some viable plants that are resistant to Roundup or whatever pest, but you don't actually know where in the DNA the genes landed and therefore you simply can't know all the possible outcomes.
Monsanto is also evil for it's predatory policies against anyone who decides not to use their seeds and against any scientists who try to study their products independently - they've ruined many careers and I'm afraid the reason we don't see more scientific opposition to GMOs is that people are simply too afraid to study it.