The Last Roundup
The Monsanto Company is an American multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation. It is a leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, which it markets under the Roundup brand. Monsanto is also a leading producer of genetically engineered seed.
As one of pioneering companies in applying biotechnology to agriculture, Monsanto also brought into agriculture the standard biotechnology industry business model, in which patent rights play a key role, as patents allow such companies to recoup the expense of biotech research. Monsanto's application of this business model to agriculture, along with a growing movement to create a global, uniform system of plant breeders' rights in the 1980s, came into direct conflict with customary practices of farmers to save, reuse, share and develop plant varieties. Monsanto's role in these changes in agriculture, has made Monsanto controversial, as have its current and former products, which include genetically engineered seed and bovine growth hormone.
Monsanto is the largest producer of glyphosate herbicides in the United States through its brand Roundup, which is used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses that compete with commercial crops. Monsanto's United States patent on glyphosate expired in 2000. While glyphosate has been associated with birth defects in laboratory animals, possibly by affecting retinoic acid signalling, its impact on humans remains unclear. As of 2009, sales of Roundup herbicides represent about 10% of Monsanto's yearly revenue.
In 1926, when environmental policy was generally governed by local governments, Monsanto founded and incorporated the town of Monsanto, later renamed Sauget, Illinois, to provide a more business friendly environment for one of its chemical plants. For years, the Monsanto plant in Sauget was the nation's largest producer of polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs), a chemical once used as a common electrical insulator. And although PCBs were banned in the 1970s, they remain in the water along Dead Creek in Sauget. EPA officials referred to Sauget as "one of the most polluted communities in the region" and "a soup of different chemicals"
In 2002, The Washington Post carried a front page report on Monsanto's legacy of environmental damage in Anniston, Alabama related to its legal production of PCBs. Plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit provided documentation showing that the local Monsanto factory knowingly discharged both mercury and PCB-laden waste into local creeks for over 40 years. In a story on January 27, The New York Times reported that during 1969 alone Monsanto had dumped 45 tons of PCBs into Snow Creek, a feeder for Choccolocco Creek which supplies much of the area's drinking water. The company also buried millions of pounds of PCB in open-pit landfills located on hillsides above the plant and surrounding neighborhoods. In August 2003, Solutia and Monsanto agreed to pay plaintiffs $700 million to settle claims by over 20,000 Anniston residents related to PCB contamination.
According to an anonymous 2001 document obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, Monsanto has been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as being a "potentially responsible party" for 56 contaminated sites (Superfund sites) in the United States. Monsanto has been sued, and has settled, multiple times for damaging the health of its employees or residents near its Superfund sites through pollution and poisoning.
A UK government report showed that 67 chemicals, including Agent Orange derivatives, dioxins and PCBs exclusively made by Monsanto, are leaking from the Brofiscin quarry, near Groesfaen in Wales, an unlined porous quarry that was not authorized to take chemical wastes. It emerged that the groundwater had been polluted since the 1970s. The government was criticised for failing to publish information about the scale and exact nature of this contamination. The UK Environment Agency estimated that it would cost £100m to clean up the site, called "one of the most contaminated" in the UK.
More info on Monsanto's controversial practices here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto
The Last Roundup
The Monsanto Company is an American multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation. It is a leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, which it markets under the Roundup brand. Monsanto is also a leading producer of genetically engineered seed.
As one of pioneering companies in applying biotechnology to agriculture, Monsanto also brought into agriculture the standard biotechnology industry business model, in which patent rights play a key role, as patents allow such companies to recoup the expense of biotech research. Monsanto's application of this business model to agriculture, along with a growing movement to create a global, uniform system of plant breeders' rights in the 1980s, came into direct conflict with customary practices of farmers to save, reuse, share and develop plant varieties. Monsanto's role in these changes in agriculture, has made Monsanto controversial, as have its current and former products, which include genetically engineered seed and bovine growth hormone.
Monsanto is the largest producer of glyphosate herbicides in the United States through its brand Roundup, which is used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses that compete with commercial crops. Monsanto's United States patent on glyphosate expired in 2000. While glyphosate has been associated with birth defects in laboratory animals, possibly by affecting retinoic acid signalling, its impact on humans remains unclear. As of 2009, sales of Roundup herbicides represent about 10% of Monsanto's yearly revenue.
In 1926, when environmental policy was generally governed by local governments, Monsanto founded and incorporated the town of Monsanto, later renamed Sauget, Illinois, to provide a more business friendly environment for one of its chemical plants. For years, the Monsanto plant in Sauget was the nation's largest producer of polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs), a chemical once used as a common electrical insulator. And although PCBs were banned in the 1970s, they remain in the water along Dead Creek in Sauget. EPA officials referred to Sauget as "one of the most polluted communities in the region" and "a soup of different chemicals"
In 2002, The Washington Post carried a front page report on Monsanto's legacy of environmental damage in Anniston, Alabama related to its legal production of PCBs. Plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit provided documentation showing that the local Monsanto factory knowingly discharged both mercury and PCB-laden waste into local creeks for over 40 years. In a story on January 27, The New York Times reported that during 1969 alone Monsanto had dumped 45 tons of PCBs into Snow Creek, a feeder for Choccolocco Creek which supplies much of the area's drinking water. The company also buried millions of pounds of PCB in open-pit landfills located on hillsides above the plant and surrounding neighborhoods. In August 2003, Solutia and Monsanto agreed to pay plaintiffs $700 million to settle claims by over 20,000 Anniston residents related to PCB contamination.
According to an anonymous 2001 document obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, Monsanto has been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as being a "potentially responsible party" for 56 contaminated sites (Superfund sites) in the United States. Monsanto has been sued, and has settled, multiple times for damaging the health of its employees or residents near its Superfund sites through pollution and poisoning.
A UK government report showed that 67 chemicals, including Agent Orange derivatives, dioxins and PCBs exclusively made by Monsanto, are leaking from the Brofiscin quarry, near Groesfaen in Wales, an unlined porous quarry that was not authorized to take chemical wastes. It emerged that the groundwater had been polluted since the 1970s. The government was criticised for failing to publish information about the scale and exact nature of this contamination. The UK Environment Agency estimated that it would cost £100m to clean up the site, called "one of the most contaminated" in the UK.
More info on Monsanto's controversial practices here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto