[THS] Monsanto, Big Brother of the New World Agricultural Order

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http://www.truth-out.org/monsanto-big-brother-new-world-agricultural-order-an-interview-with-marie-monique-robin60776


Monsanto, Big Brother of the New World Agricultural Order: 
An Interview With Marie-Monique Robin

Sunday 27 June 2010

by: Mickey Z., t r u t h o u t | Interview

photo
Journalist and filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin. (Photo: Razak / Ségolène Royal)

Award-winning French journalist and filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin is the author of
"The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption and the Control of Our Food
Supply" (The New Press) and the creator of the film by the same name.


In a review of these two projects, Leslie Thatcher writes: "What Marie-Monique Robin
most effectively documents are the perverse effects - the moral, social, technological,
economic and market failures - of Western society's economic organization, most
specifically with respect to science and the products of science and, ultimately, with
respect to the preservation of the public commons and human life on the planet."

My conversation with Marie-Monique Robin follows:

Mickey Z.: Was there an initial spark that led you to this project that took three years
and investigations on four continents to complete?

Marie-Monique Robin: My "story" with Monsanto began in 2003, when I made three
documentaries for the Franco-German channel ARTE (to which I pay a tribute for the
quality of its programs) about the reduction of biodiversity.

MZ: Please take us through those documentaries and their connection to Monsanto.

MMR: The first, "Biopirates," told how corporations like Monsanto were holding
abusive patents on living organisms which are contributing to a new drastic reduction
of biodiversity. At that I time, I heard about a company called Monsanto which
already held more than 600 patents on living organisms. The second documentary,
called "Wheat: Chronicle of a Death Foretold," told the story of cultivation of that
golden cereal, from the very beginning 10,000 years ago until today and explained
how the practices of industrial agriculture that brought the "green revolution," made
thousands of local landraces and varieties disappear, a dramatic evolution which will
be accelerated by GMOs [genetically modified organisms]. At the same time the so-
called green revolution provoked a huge contamination of the environment through
the massive use of chemical pesticides, "biocides," which "entered into living
organisms, passing one to another in a chain of poisoning and death," as Rachel
Carson wrote in "Silent Spring." Finally, I made a documentary, called "Argentina:
The Soybeans of Hunger," about the cultivation of Roundup Ready soybeans in
Argentina, where I depicted the environmental, social and health disasters which the
introduction of Monsanto's GMOs represent. Today, they cover 60% of the area
under cultivation in the country.

MZ: What was the process like, creating these three films?

MMR: I traveled around the world for a year: Europe, the United States, Canada,
Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Israel and India. The ghost of Monsanto lurked
everywhere, almost like the Big Brother of the new world agricultural order - the
source of much anxiety. Therefore, I proposed a new investigation to ARTE about
this powerful multinational, created in 1901 in St. Louis, Missouri, the world leader of
GM foods (90% of genetically modified crops) which presents itself on its website
home page as "an agricultural company" the purpose of which is to "help the world's
farmers to produce healthier food ... while reducing the impact of agriculture on the
environment." But what it doesn't say is that, before getting involved in agriculture, it
was first of the largest chemical companies of the twentieth century and one of the
biggest polluters in industrial history. My book, "The World According to Monsanto,"
tells how the firm became one of the major industrial empires on the planet and one
of the most controversial companies in the industrial history.

MZ: With so much background and research, how did you ever reach the conclusion
that you had gathered enough material to write this important book?

MMR: Once more, I traveled a lot - to the US, Canada, Mexico, Paraguay, India,
Vietnam, Europe - and met a lot of scientists, experts, whistleblowers (from the FDA,
EPA, Berkeley University), lawyers, farmers and Monsanto victims. I consulted
thousands of declassified documents from the EPA (on dioxin), FDA (GMOs), judiciary
affairs (PCBs), scientific studies, reports from independent organizations and then
decided it was enough!

MZ: Monsanto has given the planet "gifts" like Agent Orange  and Roundup Ready
crops, PCBs and GMOs, yet, for most humans, it has pretty much flown under the
radar. To what would you attribute the fact that the vast majority of us rail mostly at
governments, instead of the far more dangerous and powerful multinational
corporations?

MMR: The problem is that the corporations act behind the scene, manipulating
information, studies, press and the experts of the regulatory agencies. To speak quite
frankly, I had never imagined before that a company could resort to such
procedures, to sell its harmful products, in complete impunity, during decades:
concealing scientific data, lying, manipulating regulations, corruption, pressuring
scientists and journalists, threats. The problem is also that governments do not take
any legal action against companies which are repeatedly affecting the environment
and the health of consumers. If Monsanto were a private person, it would be
convicted as a great criminal, but current law protects the criminal companies, which
are never held accountable for the damage they cause.

MZ: What role does Monsanto play in the all-important areas of food safety and food
supply?

MMR: Nowadays Monsanto is the world leader in biotechnology and the first seed
company. Ninety percent of the GMOs grown in the world belong to it. During the
last decade, the firm bought dozens of seed companies all over the world, pushing its
transgenic seeds, which are patented. A patented seed means that the farmers who
grow it may not keep a part of their crops to re-sow it the next year, as farmers used
to do everywhere in the world. In the US and Canada, farmers who grow transgenic
crops must sign a "technology agreement" - the no-sowing requirement is clearly
expressed. If they don't respect the agreement and violate the patent, they are
harassed by the "gene police" and sued by Monsanto. Clearly, transgenic crops are
just a tool to control the seed supply, which is the first link in the food chain, by
forcing farmers to buy seeds each year.

MZ: How influential is Monsanto in the decision-making process at the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) and other so-called protection agencies?

MMR: It was quite amazing to discover how Monsanto is using the "revolving door,"
in order to control the decisions and policies that affect its products. Just one
example: To avoid tests on GMOs to assess their possible harm on the consumer
health and on the environment, the FDA invented the concept of "substantial
equivalence," which was based on no scientific data, as James Maryanski, the former
chief of the Biotechnology Department, recognized in front of my camera. And who
wrote the FDA's May 1992 policy? A former Monsanto attorney named Michael Taylor,
who was hired by the FDA as deputy commissioner for policy, and then became
Monsanto vice president! Interesting enough, Michael Taylor went back to the FDA
under the Obama administration.

MZ: What does it say about industrial civilization that Monsanto has become so rich
and powerful by creating and selling what you call "some of the most dangerous
products of modern times"?

MMR: Consumers and citizens played a role in this dramatic story. We all use the
hazardous products, which characterize "modern life." And the price we are paying is
very high. In my next documentary and book, "Toxic Lies," I explain how the
chemical industry is "poisoning our plate." I investigated the link between chemical
exposure (pesticides, food additives, plastics, etc.) and the epidemics of cancer,
neurodegenerative diseases, obesity, reproductive disorders and diabetes, which can
be observed in the so-called "developed countries," and especially in the US. And if
you investigate how all the chemicals are assessed and regulated, you finally
understand that consumers are not protected at all against these dangerous hazards.

MZ: What can be done? What can readers take away from this interview and your
book that will inspire immediate direct action? What steps would you recommend
being taken to challenge not only Monsanto. but also an industrial culture seemingly
hell bent on wiping out life on earth?

MMR: The key is held by consumers and farmers. That means that all of us should
promote organic farming by buying organic food, which is the best way to protect
our health and environment. That will be the end of Monsanto and similar companies
for sure. Another suggestion: order "The World According to Monsanto: Pollution,
Corruption and the Control of Our Food Supply."

Marie  Monique-Robin received the 1995 Albert-Londres Prize, awarded to
investigative journalists in France, and is the director and producer of over 30
documentaries and investigative reports filmed in Latin America, Africa, Europe and
Asia.

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Mickey Z. is probably the only person on the planet to have appeared in both a
karate flick with Billy "Tae Bo" Blanks and a political book with Howard Zinn. He is the
author of 9 books - most recently "Self Defense for Radicals" and his second novel,
"Dear Vito." He is a regular writer for Planet Green and can be found on the web at
www.mickeyz.net.