WHO'S AFRAID OF MONSANTO?


Red Pepper: November 1998

Know your Enemy: Monsanto, the company best known for its hard sell of genetically modified foods, acts tough on those who challenge their activities. Andy Rowell reports

Last month in Cornwall, Penwell, the printers for The Ecologist magazine for 29 years, pulped 14,000 copies of a special edition on Monsanto. Although Penwell refuse to comment on its action, it is believed that they were terrified of being sued by Monsanto, even though The Ecologist had promised to underwrite any legal costs. Why were Penwell so afraid? It may be because Monsanto has a history of tough action against its critics.

Monsanto is undertaking a two-pronged strategy to overcome what they see as "Luddite superstition", over GMOs in Europe. Whilst the company has mounted an unprecedented public relations offensive, Monsanto has been quick to crack down on its critics. Two weeks before the Ecologist pulping , the anti-GMO group Genetics Snowball received their second injunction banning all members from Monsanto's land. Monsanto had already sued five women from the Group for damages.

Whilst Britain remains problematic, Monsanto has succeed in getting its first commercial biotech product, bovine growth hormone, (rBGH), onto the market in the US. rBGH's appeal is obvious: it increases the milk produced by a cow by 5-15 per cent. The US Food and Drug Administration declared rBGH "safe" in 1993, but raising the milk supply can increase the chance of mastitis - inflammation of the udder, although this can be treated with antibiotics. The more antibiotics there are, the more likely that bacteria will become resistant to them. Another potential problem to humans from rBGH is related to the growth factor, IGF-1, which has been linked with being a powerful tumour growth promoter. Monsanto denies that IGF-1 levels in rBGH-treated milk could be high enough to pose a threat.

There is a moratorium in Europe on rBGH's use, but to win over the American public Monsanto undertook a massive public relations exercise, hiring PR giants Hill & Knowlton and Burson-Marsteller. People working for B-M attended anti-rBGH meetings, trying to find out information on activists.

In the US, Monsanto threatened to sue dairy companies advertising their milk as being rBGH-free. In addition, according to the Pure Food Campaign, Monsanto and allied trade associations "lobbied against rBGH labelling bills in Congress and states and threatened states with lawsuits if they pass rBGH labelling laws".

In December last year, two award-winning reporters, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson, were fired from the Florida TV Station WTVT after alleging that rBGH had not properly been tested by the US FDA, that dairy herds in Florida had become sick after being injected with the drug, and that rBGH milk was not tested for excessive antibiotics.

In the last three years, Monsanto has bought up at least ten independent companies - including the Delta and Pine Land Seed Company, whose recent patent is called the Technology Protection System or the TPS. The TPS, dubbed by critics "the Terminator Technology" self-destructs after a period of time, stopping the 12,000 year tradition of farmers keeping seeds for their own use. Around 100 farmers are reportedly being sued by Monsanto for keeping back seed.

We stand at a cross-roads. Either genetically engineered food will become accepted by consumers or it will be rejected as unsafe and unnecessary. If people become aware of the strong arm tactics the industry has used to steam-roll its products on to the market, it may make GMOs that much harder to swallow.



Andrew Rowell is Author of Green Backlash - Global Subversion of the Environment Movement





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