"So, it's Roundup herbicide that's specially formulated for big jobs." " That's the new one." "On this one it says:" ""Biodegradable"." " That's the old one." "It doesn't say biodegradable anymore, so it must no longer be biodegradable." "It's the same product." "I imagine that they don't have the right to say it anymore." "It must not really be biodegradable." " Careful not to spray it in my face!" "I'm not a murderer." "Well, I'm sure these Roundup Ready soybeans are ready to harvest today." "They're probably about..." "I'm gonna say about 11 and a half percent moisture, so they're perfect for harvest." "I first heard about Roundup Ready soybeans in a farm magazine about eight years ago and it seemed like a neat innovation." "The soybean has a protein genetically inserted into the plant and its resistance of Roundup." "The Roundup is sprayed on the plants." "There's some definite advantages." "If you look at our... my field here, you don't see weeds." ""When label directions" ""are carefully followed," ""Roundup is not harmful to humans," ""animals or their environment."" ""Copyright Monsanto, made in Belgium."" "If you see any snails, don't spray them because they'll be inedible." "Watch the strawberries!" "I'd encourage European farmers to take a look at the Roundup Ready technology." "Frankly, it's very good for the environment." "It's a sustainable system." "So... give it a try!" "Monsanto." "For twenty years I've traveled the globe and everywhere" "I've heard about this American multinational." "But what I've heard hasn't always been positive." "Wanting to know more, I surfed the Web for months to put the pieces of the puzzle together." "On its Web site," "Monsanto positions itself as an agricultural company that aims" ""to help farmers produce healthier food," ""while reducing agriculture's impact on our environment"." "Its leading product is Roundup, the world's best-selling herbicide for the last 30 years." "[ Advertisement ]:" ""One shot." "All it takes for weeds." "Roundup."" "Monsanto is also the world leader in biotechnology. 90% of the GMOs grown on the planet belong to them." "Most of them have been genetically modified to resist the application of Roundup." "Like Roundup Ready soybeans." "Monsanto's GMOs have invaded the planet, but no ag-industry product in history has ever incited as much controversy and passion." "Why?" "What's at stake with GMOs?" "And, could the company's past shed some light on what the company is, or claims to be today?" "Founded in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1901, it was not always an agricultural company." "It was one of the largest chemical companies of the 20th century." ""Chemistry is working for you." ""And very likely Monsanto is working for you." ""Monsanto," ""where creative chemistry works wonders for you."" "The "wonders" boasted about in this commercial made Monsanto one of the most controversial companies in the industrial era." "These chemically-created oils, used worldwide as coolants and lubricants in electrical equipment, were the jewels in Monsanto's crown for over 50 years." "They were called "Arochlor" in the United States," ""Pyralène" in France and "Clophen" in Germany, until they were banned in the early 1980s." ""Monsanto PCB"..." "A Washington Post article from 2002." "It happened in Anniston, Alabama." " Terry was my baby brother." "He died in 1971 from a cancer of the brains, tumour of the brains, cancer of the lungs, and arteries of the heart." "He was 16." "In the last three years," "I have lost most friends." "They died from illnesses:" "cancer, sugar diabetes, hepatitis." "All these different illnesses that comes with PCBs and have been related to PCBs." "This is Monsanto road." "This is all just a black area of minorities that live in this area." "But every one of these homes was like contaminated." "They just cleaned that yard up, over there, to the right, about six months ago." "These was all homes, these people lived here and now, they had to move." "I mean, the houses was torn down." "My brother fell dead right around the house." "This is the house I was raised in." "And see this grass right here?" "They buried PCBs over here." "Monsanto got permission to bury PCBs in Anniston." "This is Snow Creek right here, where they put the cement in here." "It comes from the plant, discharging PCBs, all the way down through here." "And it was poisoning..." "They never told anybody." "But they told the State." "The State didn't tell us." "'PCB Monsanto knew'..." "But what exactly did they know?" "An environmental organization in Washington D.C., headed by Ken Cook, has put internal Monsanto files online." "Most of them are classified "Confidential"" ""F.Y.I. and destroy"." "1937: "Exposure to PCBs" ""provokes systemic toxic effects"" "and "acne-form skin eruption"." "In 1961, two workers developed hepatitis symptoms after a pipe broke in a factory using PCBs." "In 1966 Monsanto scientists placed fish in Snow Creek's water:" ""All were dead in three and a half minutes."" "Pollution:" "A letter addressed to sales executives in 1970." " This is the one that really tells you the story." "They're saying:" ""We can't afford to lose one dollar of business"." "Their neighbours in Anniston were not told about the poisoning that they were inflicting upon them because they didn't want to lose one dollar." "It was only when lawyers went to court on behalf of people in Anniston and forced the company, through the legal system, to disclose these internal, secret documents, that we knew what they knew." "They knew the truth from the very beginning." "They lied about it." "They hid the truth from their neighbours, they hid the truth in many cases from the government authorities and when they did share information with government authorities, that should have been acted upon, the government authorities, instead of siding" "with the people who were being poisoned, sided with the company." "They sided with Monsanto." "It was outrageous." "Absolutely unforgivable!" "This is all your medicine?" " Yeah." "No, that ain't all of it." "I got some more here." "How much you have in you?" " 63.8." "In the blood." " In the blood." "If they took a fatty biopsy of him, now, he'd probably would top the scales at about 3,000 or 4,000 parts per billion, or more." " And which is the level acceptable, I mean...?" "Acceptable is two part per billion." "That's the standard all around the world." "But these people, we have more in our bloods and in our bodies than actually anywhere else in the world." " It's usual here to speak about his PCB level?" "We all talks about it because it became a household word, now." "Kids used to run up to me:" ""Mr. Baker, I" " I got tested," ""I had 3 point part per billion in my blood." "How long you think I got?"" "That's a horrible story." "But, what do scientists think about it?" "On the Web, you can find numerous articles concerning the effects of PCBs on human health." "David Carpenter is one of the most qualified specialists in the field." "He carried out the testing for the Anniston residents." " We all have PCBs in our bodies." "The polar bears and the penguins have PCBs." "And what has happened is, in the past, there were a few sites where PCBs were released." "But over time, they've gone into the air, they've gone into the water, they've transported, so the whole world is now contaminated with PCBs." "The issue is that many diseases are caused by PCB exposure." "The one everyone knows about is cancer." "My test results stated I've had 2-0-2." "Two hundred and two parts per billion in my system." " Women that get pregnant and have PCBs in their body will have a child with a reduced IQ." "Twenty-nine point six." "PCBs cause reduced thyroid function." "Over 1,800." "PCBs interfere with sex hormones." "Pass away, just let me pass away, pass away in peace." "He's gonna pay, I said then, he's gonna pay for the way that he have done to us." "In 2001, 20,000 Anniston residents filed two lawsuits against Monsanto." "Monsanto and its subsidiary, Solutia, settled by paying 700 million dollars, to compensate the victims, to clean up the site and to build a specialized hospital." "But no Monsanto executive was ever sued." "... to do justice." "Under American law, in most instances, it's very rare for executives or officials in these companies to be held criminally responsible." "So, we have the civil system, the civil courts." "We make them pay." "And the truth of the matter is, in most instances, the price these companies pay, decades later, is a fraction of their profits." "And this is why it pays to keep these problems secret." "And it makes you wonder what they might be keeping secret now." "I have to say we would never trust a company like Monsanto to tell the truth about a pollution problem or about a product." "We would never trust them." "Ken Cook says:" ""We would never trust a company like Monsanto."" "So, what about Roundup, the world's favourite herbicide used by gardeners and farmers alike?" "What is it exactly?" "It's the brand name" "Monsanto gave to glyphosate, a so-called "non-selective" or "total" herbicide because it destroys all plants." "First sold in 1974, it owes its great success to Monsanto's unwavering claims that it is "biodegradable"" "and "good for the environment"." ""Roundup biodegradable"..." "Ken Cook was right." "The company was found guilty of false advertising... twice!" "The first time was in New York in 1996, and the second was in France just last year!" "The judges found that the wording" ""biodegradable," "leaves the soil clean,"" "and "respects the environment" were "false advertising"." "Especially since," ""according to tests performed by Monsanto itself, only 2% of the product had broken down after 28 days"." "That's why Monsanto recently removed the word "biodegradable" from its containers." "But that's not all:" "many scientific studies have shown that Roundup is highly toxic." "For example:" ""Roundup Provokes Cell Division Dysfunction"." "A study by Professor Robert Bellé." "Professor Bellé works for the National Centre for Scientific Research and the Pierre and Marie Curie" "Institute in France." "He has studied the effects of Roundup on fertilized sea urchin eggs." " The big surprise was that Roundup had an effect on cell division." "We saw very quickly that Roundup affected a key process in cell division." "Not the cell division mechanisms themselves, but those which control cell division." "You have to understand how cells become cancerous." "In the beginning, all cells are benign and then, at a certain point modifications take place in the cells that make them unstable, from a genetic point of view." "This is the first malfunction that we observed with Roundup." "It is for that reason that we consider that Roundup provokes the first stages that lead to cancer." "We're careful not to say it "provokes cancer", because, we won't see the cancers develop for 30 or 40 years." "It was immediately clear how important these findings were for product users." "Especially since the tested doses were well below those which people normally use and we said to ourselves:" "Gosh, we really have to let the public know about the dangers as quickly as we can." "And I thought the best way to do that was to talk to my administration." "But there, I was shocked, very, very shocked, because I was told," " ordered rather - not to communicate our findings due to the GMO question lurking in the background." "What an incredible account:" "Roundup's toxicity was hidden to protect the development of GMOs." "So, let's go back to the creation of GMOs." "According to Monsanto's site, Roundup Ready Soybeans, introduced in 1996, were the first bioengineered crop to be approved in the United States." "Farmers using these seeds belong to the American Soybean Association whose address is on Monsanto's site." "John Hoffman is its Vice President and an ardent biotechnology advocate." " In the spring, I will go out and spray one pass of Roundup to burn down the weeds that are growing in the early spring." "And about six or seven weeks later," "I'll spray a second pass of Roundup, and that controls the weeds for the year." "Before we had Roundup technology, this field woulda had weeds." "We woulda had to walk through and pull the excess weeds by hand." "It was labour intensive." "So, the Roundup Ready system saves me time and it saves me money." "It seems Monsanto's new "wonder"" "has what it takes to entice farmers." "But how does it work?" "How can the soybean plants survive being sprayed with Roundup?" "This is a soybean cell." "The core of this cell contains its DNA in which the bean's genetic structure is encoded." "In order to create its GMOs," "Monsanto breaks the species barrier, using a Roundup resistant gene, harvested from a bacterium." "This gene is placed on microscopic particles of gold, which are fired into the soybean's cells with a gene gun." "The gene penetrates the DNA and creates a protein, making the plant resistant to Roundup." "When the herbicide is sprayed on the crop, it kills all the weeds, leaving the soybean plants intact." "One must admit that the process is an incredible technological feat." "But these soybeans engineered to withstand such a powerful herbicide are destined for our dinner plates." "They must have been thoroughly tested before being put on the market." "Who was the Secretary of Agriculture at the time?" "Dan Glickman, Bill Clinton's Ag Secretary from 1995 to 2000." " What I found in the early years" "I was involved in the regulation of biotechnology, that there was a general feeling in agro-business and inside our government in the US that if you weren't marching lock-step forward in favour of rapid approvals of biotech products," "rapid approvals of GMO crops, then somehow, you were anti-science and anti-progress." "Well, I think that, frankly, there were a lot of folks in industrial agriculture who didn't want as much analysis as probably we should have had, because they had made a huge amount of investments in the product." "And I mean, I think that..." "And certainly when I became Secretary, given the fact that I was in charge of the department regulating agriculture, I had a lot of pressure on me not to push the issue too far, so to speak." "But, I would say even when I opened my mouth in the Clinton Administration, I got slapped around a little bit by not only the industry, but also some of the people even in the administration." "In fact, I made a speech once where... saying that we needed to be..." "we needed to more thoughtfully think through the regulatory issues on GMOs." "And I had some people within the Clinton Administration, particularly in the US trade area, that were very upset with me." "They said: "How could you, in agriculture, be questioning our regulatory regime?"" "In a nutshell, in the United States, the Secretary of Agriculture doesn't stand a chance against the multinationals." "But, just how are GMOs regulated in the United States?" "The most crucial policy on the subject was published by the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, which is legally responsible for regulating the safety of food and medicine." "Title:" "Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties" "Date:" "May 29, 1992" "Principle 1: "Foods derived" ""from genetic modification are regulated" ""within the existing framework that applied to foods developed by traditional plant breeding."" "Obviously the FDA decided not to create a special category for GMOs." ""For further information, contact James Maryanski,"" "who headed the Biotechnology department at the time." "Basically, the government had taken a decision, that it would not create new laws, that it felt there were already sufficient laws in place that had enough authority for the agencies to deal with new technologies." " That means the White House asked the agency to write a policy where GMOs should not be submitted to a specific regulatory regime?" "But it's not based on scientific data." "It was a political decision?" "Yes, it was a political decision." "It was a very broad decision that didn't apply to just foods." "It applied to all products of biotechnology." "Unbelievable!" "James Maryanski admits that GMO regulation was based on politics rather than science." "How exactly did they justify their decision?" "Principle 2:" ""The components of food" ""as a result of genetic modification of a plant" ""will be the same as, or substantially similar to, substances commonly found in food."" "In other words, the FDA considers that a genetically modified plant is equivalent to its conventional counterpart." "What they call "the principle of substantial equivalence"" "has been adopted around the world and it's at the heart of the debate between biotech supporters and GMO foes." " How could the FDA decide that a GMO crop is the same as a conventional plant?" "What we do know, is that the genes that are being introduced, currently, to date, using biotechnology, produce proteins that are very similar to proteins that we've consumed for many centuries." "That's the FDA's official position on the matter, which was toppled by Jeffrey Smith, author of several books on GMOs," "Michael Hansen, scientific expert for the Consumer's Union of the United States, and writer Jeremy Rifkin who was the first to denounce the Principle of Substantial Equivalence." "The reason why GM crops are here is based on a deception that occurred in the FDA." "They said that these foods are not different." "They used the word "substantially equivalent", they used the word" ""not meaningfully or uniformly different"" "and what that turned into was a terminology called" ""Generally Recognized as Safe,"" "or "G.R.A.S."" "Typically, if something is to be considered" ""Generally Recognized as Safe,"" "it needs lots of peer-reviewed published studies and an overwhelming consensus among the scientific community." "With GM crops, they had neither." "What FDA was saying was:" "if you introduce a gene into a plant, that gene is DNA, and we've consumed DNA, we have a long history of consuming DNA, and we can establish that that is "G.R.A.S."" "We were trying to say that these things should be considered "food additives"." "When you want to put a new colouring agent in a food, the tiniest bit of colouring agent, or a preservative or some other tiny chemical, that's considered a food additive and you have to go through all these procedures" "to show that it meets the criterion of "reasonable certainty of no harm"." "But when you genetically engineer a food, which can cause untold differences in that plant, they don't require anything!" "Here in Washington, if you were to have an evening and go out and get a drink at one of the local haunts where all the lobbyists hang out, everybody would laugh about this." "They all know this was a joke, this "substantial equivalency"." "This was simply a way to paper over the need for these companies, especially Monsanto, to move their products into the environment quickly with the least amount of government interference." "And I should say they were very, very good at getting their interest expressed." "I remember meetings that we had where the Monsanto scientists met with the FDA scientists and they went through the kinds of modifications that they were making, and how those were being done." "And basically, what they were also saying to FDA is:" ""How will these products be regulated"?" "I have never seen a situation where one company could have so much overwhelming influence at the highest levels of regulatory decision making as the example of Monsanto with its GM food policy and the government." "Exceptional news footage actually shows" "George Bush Senior visiting Monsanto's research facility nine years before Roundup Ready Soybeans were first sold." "When George Bush Senior toured the company's headquarters, he was Ronald Reagan's Vice President and deregulation was this Republican administration's watchword." "The intention was to boost industry by eliminating what White House hardliners called "bureaucratic hurdles"" "like health and environmental safety testing, which were Monsanto's key problems." "In 1988, when George Bush Senior was elected President of the United States," "Dan Quayle became the new Vice President." "Four years later, he announced the American policy concerning GMOs, drafted just as Monsanto had wanted." "We are taking this step as part of the President's" "'Regulatory Relief Initiative', now in its second phase." "The United States is already the world leader in biotechnology and we want to keep it that way." "In 1991 alone, it was a four-billion-dollar industry." "It should reach at least 50 billion dollars by the year 2000, as long as we resist the spread of unnecessary regulation." " Do you think it was really a conspiracy?" "A "conspiracy" is a strong word." "From a corporate standpoint it was a brilliantly executed takeover." "Early on, a gentleman by the name of Michael Taylor became the Deputy Administrator of the Food and Drug Administration, right at the time that they were about to set out their policy." "Who is Michael Taylor?" "On the Internet only a single image remains of the man who once wielded his power so discreetly." "Today he heads a foundation called "Resources for the Future"." "Hello, Marie-Monique speaking." " Hello, it's Mike Taylor." "My question's are about your role," "I mean when you were working at the FDA." "Before being hired by the FDA, you worked as an attorney for Monsanto during seven years, didn't you?" "Well, I was a partner in a law firm of which Monsanto was a client and I worked on some Monsanto matters, yes..." " Uh huh." "And apparently, if I understood well what I read, the FDA created a new position for you:" "Deputy Commissioner for Policy?" " Well..." "Because there was a special need at that time at the FDA because of the new GMOs?" "It had nothing to do with GMOs, nothing at all to do with GMOs..." "I wasn't the author of these policies." "But, that's just, that's very..." "That's just false." " He moved over to the FDA in July of 1991." "Up until that time, he was at a law firm called King and Spalding." "His personal clients included not only Monsanto, but the International Food Biotechnology Council, and he had drafted for them a proposal for how they would like to see genetically engineered foods regulated." "And if you look at the proposal that was written for IFBC that was Michael Taylor's, with the final one that was published, it looks very, very similar." "So... if he didn't write it, then it looks like somebody took what he wrote and changed it slightly for the policy." "Mr. Taylor was the Deputy Commissioner at the time, and he provided the leadership for the project and served as the chief... the sort of the lead... policy person, in terms of making sure that the project got done." "So, Monsanto played that game very well." "Both the political game and the regulatory game." "They played a key role in Bovine Growth Hormone, in getting that thing approved, and also in how genetic engineering was dealt with." "Michael Hansen has just mentioned" "Bovine Growth Hormone." "What's that?" "It's a transgenic hormone that's injected into cows, increasing dairy production by 20%." "It would be an understatement to say that it had critics." ""The hormone threatens our health"..." ""deadly poison"..." ""manipulation"..." "Called rBGH for recombinant bovine growth hormone," "Monsanto began selling it to dairy farmers in 1994, under the brand name Posilac." "Posilac is the single most tested new product in history." "You'll soon see the dramatic results Posilac can offer you!" "In 1985, Monsanto submitted POSILAC to the FDA for market approval." "The experts at the FDA's Centre for Veterinary Medicine reviewed the studies that the company had carried out on experimental herds." "At the FDA, the veterinarian in charge of reviewing the data was Richard Burroughs." "In an interview, he stated that" ""agency officials had suppressed and manipulated data."" "The data that they came in with lacked a lot of insight into the dairy industry." "They didn't ask crucial questions about these diseases." "And that is mastitis, which is an infection of the mammary gland and reproductive problems." "So, when the first data came in and that was missing," "I said: "All right, guys, you need to go back and get information"." "So that set it back probably two or three years." " Did you warn the FDA about your concerns?" "They pretty much just sidetracked me." "They pulled in..." "my boss pulled in other people that were closer to him, and I saw less and less of the data." "Even the things I had asked for to be done, I didn't, like the mastitis studies, I never really got to see a lot of that." "Because, they figured:" ""Well, if you're in the way, we'll get you out of the way"." "So, they sidetracked me." "Eventually, I was fired." "One day," "I was escorted to the door and told that was it, I was done." " Have you been threatened?" "Yes, mainly by the lawyers from Monsanto, because when I was going for my appeal, they told my lawyer that if I went in and revealed any company secrets in my defence, that they would sue me." "In the end, the FDA was forced to reinstate this conscientious veterinarian." "He eventually resigned, disheartened." "On the Internet, there is also talk about" ""files that were stolen from the FDA and sent to Dr. Samuel Epstein"" "who heads the Cancer Prevention Coalition." "In 1990, Samuel Epstein published an article in The Milkweed, the standard for dairy reporting, edited by Pete Hardin." "The scoop was based on the secret documents that the two men scrutinized." "One morning, I came, I think in October of that year," "I came into my office and found a great big box of documents and..." "It came from Washington, but no indication as to who sent it." "This was a box of files of all Monsanto records, which had been submitted to the FDA on the veterinary tests in the preceding six years or so." "Well, this was great fun!" "Many of these documents are original documents." "And, as it says here:" ""Company confidential." ""It contains confidential information" ""which may not be reproduced," ""revealed to unauthorized persons or sent outside the company without proper authorization."" "As an investigative journalist, that's the kind of stuff I like to report." "Revealing this information made Monsanto and FDA very, very angry, because what we were able to establish is that there were dramatic physiological changes in the animals that received the shots, the hormone shots, compared to their control group peers." "For example, we see the ovaries of the cows receiving the synthetic hormone in the different treatment groups were, for the right ovaries," "34% larger, 42% larger and 44% larger." "Elsewhere in the stolen files, it shows how there were severe problems with the reproduction of these treated animals." "The data is conclusive, we provided the data, the raw data and summary datas, peer-reviewed data, not done by us, to support the submission." "Every health authority who has looked at Bovine Somatotropin has found that it is completely safe for consumers." "For Monsanto, the hormone is not only safe, it is actually beneficial for consumers." ""Because the chemical composition of the milk" ""is not altered as a result of Posilac, the manufacturing and taste properties do not change."" "It's untrue, a lie, whatever the adjective you want to use..." "Um, it's a very different product, it's a very, very different product in many, many ways." "First of all, as there is a high incidence of mastitis, in the cows, there will be pus in the milk..." "And then you'd find antibiotics, given to the cows to treat the mastitis." "So, a wide range of antibiotics would be in the milk." "Apart from that, and very, very importantly, very substantial increases in levels of IGF-1, of Insulin-like Growth Factor 1." "There have been a series of studies, somewhere in the region of 60, relating increased levels of IGF-1 and breast, colon and prostate cancers." "Absolutely incredible." "Are there other countries that have approved rBGH?" "Apparently, the hormone was banned in Europe and Canada." "Canada?" "That's strange because Health Canada usually models its decisions on the FDA's." ""rBGH:" "Scandal at Health Canada."" ""Monsanto Accused of Attempt to Bribe Health Canada for rBGH."" "In October 1998, three scientists from Health Canada testified before a senate commission in order to stop the approval of the transgenic hormone." "The scandal was made public by whistleblower Dr. Shiv Chopra." "... shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." "So help me God." "My question to myself was:" "what truth am I going to tell?" "The one I know or the one the Ministry is telling me to tell?" "And that was my conflict..." " I would ask each one of you, have any one of you been lobbied by Monsanto?" "Any one of you?" " Dr. Haydon?" "I did attend a meeting back approximately about," "I believe, 1989, 1990 and Monsanto representatives had met with myself and my supervisor, Dr. Grenon and my director Dr. Messier." "And, at that meeting, an offer of one to two million dollars was made by the company." "And, I don't know anymore about what became of that, but my director indicated after the meeting that he was going to report it to his superiors." " How did Monsanto react?" "Well, Monsanto did not deny that they made the offer of one to two million dollars at this meeting." "They later on tried to say:" ""Oh, this was an offer of research" ""in Canada to do some more studies on cows in Canada or whatever..."" "So anyway, that's what happened in Canada, the drug was not approved." "So, the European Parliament, based on revelations in Canada, banned it forever." "And then, all of a sudden, we three:" "Margaret Haydon, Gérard Lambert and I were dismissed for "disobedience"." " You mean "fired"?" "All three of us were fired." "And those fights are now in courts." "Bovine Growth Hormone..." "The United States Congress also opened an investigation at the request of rBGH opponents who opposed the ban on labeling milk as "rBGH free"." "Interestingly enough, the investigation was never completed." " Bovine Growth Hormone," "BGH, is a test of consumer acceptance of genetic engineering." " In the garbage, in the garbage!" " In the garbage, in the garbage!" "[ Hollering ]" "The cow hormone drug was simply the first major application of biotechnology to food production." "And Monsanto is a very powerful corporation with many, many linkages to top level persons in government." "I think the prevailing ethic at the federal government was" ""biotechnology is so important" ""that we can't let a few little questions about cow safety or human safety get in the way."" "The reason the FDA approved it is it appeared to be that there was a lot of people that used to work at and had key positions, that had worked for Monsanto, came over to the FDA and managed to get the FDA to approve it." "It's revolving doors that move up, it's kind of like a double helix, it's a spiral." "Revolving door." " Yes, revolving door." "The revolving door is not just in agriculture." "It tends to be in many, many areas." " Donald Rumsfeld was the CEO of Searle, which was a Monsanto subsidiary." "The former US Trade ambassador, Mickey Kantor, ended up on Monsanto's board." "Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas used to work for Monsanto." ""Monsanto, revolving doors."" "The state of affairs in 1999 includes:" "Linda Fisher moves from the Environmental Protection Agency to Monsanto." "Michael Friedman from the FDA to Monsanto." "Marcia Hale and Josh King from the White House to Monsanto." "Margaret Miller from Monsanto to the FDA." "William Ruckelhaus, from the EPA to Monsanto" "And let's not forget Michael Taylor, who went back and forth several times." " Once your mission was carried out by the FDA, you became Monsanto's Vice President for Public Policy?" " Right..." "So, there is no conflict of interest for you?" " No..." "The..." "No!" "And, and again, the rules are the rules and I played within the rules." "I think in terms of public acceptance, it's been one blunder after another." "If you're trying to have a strategy for having the public understand and accept a new technology, having the first application of it be, uh, have it be related to milk, which we already have more than we need, it created, you know," "it helped create a climate of, of..." "Suspicion?" " Suspicion." "I think that the idea that..." "that companies are not required in every case of a GMO to submit the product to FDA, such as is required in Europe, I think that, from a public confidence, public acceptance standpoint, that's not a sufficient system." "I personally have said that Congress should change the law." "Congress should create a mandatory notification system that insures that every product is looked at by FDA and that FDA make a safety judgment about every product." "That's some very compelling testimony." "It seems that Michael Taylor has qualms about the policy he signed in 1992." "What about the FDA's own scientists?" "Was there a consensus on the GMO regulations?" ""FDA Documents Show They Ignored GMO" "Safety Warnings from Their Own Scientists"" "written by Steve Druker." "Lawyer Steven Druker represents a coalition of non-profit associations." "He sued the FDA, forcing it to declassify its internal files on GMOs." "We received over 44,000 pages from the FDA's own files." "And they revealed that the FDA has been lying to the world since 1992, if not before." "But they continue to lie." "They are still lying." "They claim that there's an overwhelming consensus in the scientific community, that genetically engineered foods are as safe as their conventionally produced counterparts." "And, they claim that there has been sufficient data to back up this consensus." "Both of those claims are blatant lies." "There are several examples, for instance," "Dr. Louis Pribyl of the FDA's microbiology group wrote, quote:" ""There's a profound difference between the types" ""of unexpected effects from traditional breeding and genetic engineering," unquote." "Then, Dr Pribyl added in his memo that" ""some of the aspects of genetic engineering may be more hazardous"." "The concern expressed by the FDA's various scientific experts was so clear and unmistakable that the FDA official whose job it was to track and summarize the scientists' input," "Dr. Linda Kahl, wrote a memo to the FDA biotechnology coordinator, Dr James Maryanski." " According to the internal FDA's files, which have been declassified now, there were many in-house critics," "I mean, among the scientists of the FDA, about the proposed policy..." "I have for instance, a memorandum sent to you by Linda Kahl..." " Right..." "She stated:" ""The processes of genetic engineering" ""and traditional breeding are different..." " "...traditional breeding are different," ""and according to the technical experts in the agency..." " ...they lead to different risks."" " ...different risks."" "The point was that we had many people with many different views." "Linda Kahl of course, wrote that in her memo, but in fact, when we finished the policy, all the scientists agreed with the policy." "Now, FDA has, of course, looked at the use of genetic engineering and has no information that simply the use of the techniques creates products that differ in safety or quality..." "Even before the consistent warnings in the memos from the FDA's own scientists, the FDA had very clear warning." "Because the very first genetically engineered food supplement that came to market in the United States caused a major epidemic." " Do you remember what happened in '89 with L-tryptophan?" "Do you remember?" "Yes." " It was a bioengineered amino acid..." "You know very well what's amino acid and..." "Right..." " ...that killed dozens of people and made hundreds and hundreds sick." " It caused an epidemic of an unusual disease called EMS." "Right." " And how many people died?" "Right." "But we have many..." " Thirty-seven." "And more than a thousand people disabled, do you remember?" "I do remember." " And you said... according to FDA administrative record:" ""We do not yet know the cause of EMS nor can we rule out the engineering of the organism."" "Did you say that?" "What I read." " Yes." "Amazing!" "James Maryanski can't rule out the possibility that it's the genetic manipulation itself that triggers unexpected side effects." "But, he did nothing." "Have any independent scientists investigated this question which is crucial for consumers?" "Arpad Pusztai." ""World renowned scientist lost his job when he warned about GE foods." 1998." "Arpad Pusztai worked for the Rowett Institute in Scotland." "At the Ministry of Agriculture's request, he led a study on genetically modified potatoes, with a budget of over two million euros and a staff of 30 researchers to prepare the arrival of GMOs in Great Britain." " We were all enthusiastic about it," "I was enthusiastic about it." "The Ministry thought that if we did this study, looking at all aspects, then it would be an endorsement of GM, and when they introduce it, they will say that the foremost laboratory in Europe, nutritional laboratory, had looked at them" "and they'd found them alright." "Arpad Pusztai specializes in lectins." "These proteins function as an insecticide protecting plants against aphids." "Rowett scientists had created potatoes that were resistant to aphids and into which they introduced a Snowdrop gene, which produces the lectin in question." "Beforehand, they verified that in their naturally occurring state, lectins themselves do not pose a health risk." "The genetically modified potatoes were tested on rats." " It had a twofold effect." "First it started to increase a proliferative response in the gut, and that you don't like, because this is possibly..." "I'm not saying that it is cancerous, but what it does-- it does-- it can have an adjuvant effect on any chemical, chemically induced tumour." "The other thing is, the immune system was certainly in-- got into high gear, and that was..." "We don't know whether it's good or bad or..." "But it certainly did recognize the GM potatoes as "alien"." "We were convinced that this insertion is causing the problem and not the transgene." "As I said, the transgene, when we did it in isolation, even at 800-fold concentration, didn't do any harm." "It was a very important point, because the American FDA is going on by a... about a neutral technology." "And what we did say and what we did publish was, actually corroborated, confirmed... that it was NOT the transgene, which was the problem but it was the technology." "While the first shipments of genetically modified soybeans were arriving in Great Britain, Arpad Pusztai's superiors authorized him to be interviewed by the BBC." "As a scientist actively working on the field," "I find that it's very, very unfair to use our fellow citizens as guinea pigs." "They will never forgive me for that." "Monsanto did see the importance of our findings, don't worry about it." "Even before the broadcast went out, they already knew, because the Scottish Crop Research Institute did get a lot of money from Monsanto and they were not slow to understand the implications." "The day after the interview's broadcast," "Arpad Pusztai was fired and the research team dismantled." "Dr. Stanley Ewen was in charge of evaluating the impact of GM potatoes on the rats' internal organs." "He no longer has any illusions about scientific independence." " I was extremely, well, angry and very, very concerned," "I just..." "It's like your whole world is disappearing under your feet." "What's going on?" " They start to discredit Stanley as well, it's not just Arpad and me." "Stanley was made to retire and he was discredited at the University." " As well?" " Yes, oh, yes..." "It was very hard, indeed..." "Monday, it was wonderful work." "Tuesday, it was rubbished." "I had one or two ideas of what was happening, but a very imprecise idea, until eight years ago, almost exactly," "I was at a dinner dance." "And, next to me, at the top table, was someone from the Rowett called Dr. Roy, who happened to say, when I said:" ""Isn't it awful what's happening to Arpad."" ""Yes," he said, "and did you not know" ""that there were not one but two phone calls from Downing Street to the director?"" "And then, of course, I saw clearly what was happening, that this was something sort of "supranational," if you like, some pressure being put on Tony Blair's office to stop this work," "because it was perceived by the Americans to be harming their industrial base, the biotech industry in other words." "The Arpad Pusztai scandal triggered a massive rejection of GMOs in Great Britain, led by Greenpeace." "A year later, Robert Shapiro, Monsanto's CEO at the time, agreed to participate in a teleconference organized by the environmental organization." "This is the only existing video footage of the former CEO." "He was responsible for moving the company into the biotechnology era with its new slogan:" ""food, health and hope"." "Monsanto made huge efforts to push its products in every direction with the full support of multi-national food manufacturers, retailers, communications firms, regulators, even governments." "You behave not as a company offering life and hope, but as bullies trying to force your products on us." " Um, I, if I'm a bully I don't feel that" "I'm a very successful bully." "[ Laughter ]" "I want to start by emphasizing that biotechnology is a tool." "Biotechnology in itself is neither good nor bad," "It can be used well or it can be used badly." "The products that are on the market have been reviewed through the regulatory processes that society has established in order to assure not only safety, but the environmental safety of the products themselves." "After ten years on the market," "Roundup Ready Soybeans account for 90% of all of the soybeans grown in the US." "In fact, 70% of the food in American stores contains bioengineered elements." "Unlike Europe, consumers cannot make an informed decision, because GM labelling is forbidden, a direct consequence of" ""the principle of substantial equivalence"." "And I've got a soybean in my hand, here and I can eat this soybean." "It's very safe, very safe." "I think the FDA is confident that the soybean, in terms of food safety, is as safe as other varieties of soybean." " How is it the FDA confident about that?" "It's based on all the data that the company provided to FDA, that was reviewed by FDA scientists." "And so, it's, it's not in a company's interest to try to design a study in some way that would mask results." "How can James Maryanski be so sure?" "If I type in:" ""Monsanto falsified scientific studies,"" "I get 174,000 hits!" "Among them:" ""A report from the EPA, of the United States." ""Monsanto accused of falsifying studies concerning the carcinogenicity of dioxin."" "The story began in Nitro, in a Monsanto factory that produced a powerful herbicide called 2-4-5 T." "In 1949, an explosion in the factory provoked unexpected side effects:" "228 workers developed an extremely disfiguring illness called chloracne." "It's caused by dioxin, which is a highly toxic byproduct of 2-4-5-T." "2-4-5 T was the main ingredient in Agent Orange, the defoliant used by the US army during the Vietnam War." "During the war, 40 million litres of Agent Orange containing 400 kilograms of pure dioxin were sprayed on trees in southern Vietnam." "Three million people were contaminated including thousands of American soldiers." "Even some 40 years after the end of the war, dioxin continues to claim more victims:" "we know today that this poison provokes cancer and serious genetic malfunctions." "[ Protestation Chants ]" "In 1978, while American Vietnam veterans were suing the makers of Agent Orange," "Monsanto sponsored studies on the long-term effects of dioxin." "♪ We're the ones that are paying now ♪" "The company paid scientists to compare the health of workers who had been exposed during the Nitro plant's accident" "30 years prior, to the health of non-exposed workers." "There are two experts on the subject:" "William Sanjour, who led the Toxic Waste Division of the Environmental Protection Agency and Gerson Smoger, a lawyer who represents Vietnam Veterans." "In 1990, Dr. Cate Jenkins, a colleague of mine at EPA wrote a memorandum pointing out that allegations had been made that those studies, some of those studies that Monsanto had conducted were flawed and if they were done correctly," "would have reached just the opposite result that Monsanto had." "The Monsanto studies showed that dioxin was not a human carcinogen." "That means they had the data first and then they manipulated how they were gonna look at that data to come up with the conclusion they want." "It's absolutely..." "You never do a study that way!" "Never!" "And they did it absolutely wrong!" "And they achieved what they wanted." "And it came out later that there were people that had cancer, that in one of these two studies, were listed as being exposed to dioxin, and the same five people in another study were listed as not being exposed." "And when you put all these cancers into the unexposed, then it looked like the unexposed people were getting as much cancer as the exposed, and they said:" ""There's no difference." "See, they're the same."" "So then thousands and thousands of veterans were disallowed benefits because of exposure to Agent Orange." "So, all policy was affected by those studies for seven to nine years in this country." "Being a good scientist and a good EPA employee, and someone, by the way, who's quite fearless," "Cate Jenkins wrote a memorandum to the EPA Science Advisory Board asking them to review these two studies to see if they were correctly done." "The fact is there was no investigation of Monsanto." "It didn't exist." "Nobody investigated those, those studies." "Nobody, period!" "What they investigated was Cate Jenkins, the whistleblower!" "They made her life a hell." "They harassed her, they changed her jobs, they persecuted the poor woman." " If you think of Monsanto today, they are telling that their GMOs, for instance, are sound and safe?" "Do you trust the company?" " I wouldn't believe a word that company says, nothing." "I might trust some independent source who investigated their claims, depending on who that independent source was, and how good they are and how independent they are." "Precisely." "In order to prove the safety of Roundup Ready Soybeans," "Monsanto carried out a study, which was published in 1996 in a well-respected scientific journal." "The study was supposed to assess the effects of GM soybeans on animal health, specifically on rats." "This study was thoroughly reviewed by both a Danish scientist, now deceased, and the Norwegian specialist" "Ian Pryme." " I'm afraid to say, I value this study very poorly indeed." "It's very disappointing, very disappointing." "Especially because this paper sort of served as a basis for the whole principle of "substantial equivalence"." "I can just cite, which is again a bit surprising:" ""Although the animal feeding studies provide some reassurance that no major changes occurred"." "Now...."some reassurance," now, that's not good enough." "I want 100% reassurance, not just "some"," ""some reassurance"." "They talk, for example about the... on page 723." ""Except for the darker brown colour, livers appeared normal at necropsy." I mean... you can't do that without looking inside, you have to look at the content inside the liver, taking sections, showing under the microscope" "that there is no difference." "They've used, for example, older... older rats." "Obviously, again, if you want to avoid any problems, okay, use an adult." "But if you want to see if any changes are evident, then you should use younger individuals, of course." "In some ways you could say it's bad science because a lot of the data that they should have shown isn't shown." " Did you try, for instance, to get access to the raw data?" "I didn't, a colleague of mine did, and spent quite a frustrating length of time going through different offices and so on, but finally, the answer was..." "the answer was: "no"." "If there was nothing to hide, then there should be no problem." "You should be willing to distribute your material for anybody to do work on." "And when it's... when you keep it, keep it tight, then you suspect that it's... why, why is this the case?" "One thing is sure:" "thanks to this limited study," "Monsanto's GMOs have inundated the world, principally in North and South America," "Asia and Australia." "After only 10 years, transgenic crops now cover 250 million acres." "70% are Roundup resistant and 30% have been genetically modified to produce an insecticide called "BT"." "Since 2001 the company has published a yearly document titled "The Pledge Report," a kind of ethics statement in which Monsanto tries to justify its business practices." "At the heart of the opposition to GMOs is the subject of patents." "This is what Monsanto calls "their intellectual property,"" "which are supposed to protect their investment." "In North America every farmer who buys bioengineered seeds must sign a "Technology Agreement"" "in which the farmer promises to respect the company's patent on the modified gene." "Biotech crops are protected by US patent law." "And so I may not in any way save seed to replant the following year." "It's something that is a protection for the, for Monsanto... for biotech companies." "Because they literally invest millions and millions of dollars to produce this new technology." " And how can Monsanto know that someone, for instance, replants harvested seeds?" "I'm not sure how, how to answer that, no..." "How they would, how they would know if someone replanted seed..." "That's a good question for Monsanto." "The question is so touchy that Monsanto prefers to circumvent it by making glorious promises." ""In cases of unintended appearance" ""of our proprietary varieties on a farmer's field," ""we will surely work to resolve the matter to the satisfaction of both the farmer and Monsanto."" "The reality seems much less idyllic." "The Centre for Food Safety in Washington D.C." "published a study on farmers sued by Monsanto for having not respected its seed patents." "It found "at least 100 lawsuits and many bankruptcies"." "Among the victims:" "Troy Roush, an Indiana farmer." " Our story starts back in 1999." "A gentleman, and I use that term loosely, showed up at my mother and father's farm, and he claimed to be a private investigator hired by Monsanto." "And he was out investigating farmers saving their own seed." "And asked us, come out right and asked us if we'd saved their seed, and we told him no, we had not, and offered up our herbicide purchases and seed purchases, all the receipts and everything," "told him where everything was purchased so he could go check it out for himself." "He declined that, that offer." "And what occurred is, then, they, they sued us." "Monsanto filed a lawsuit against myself, my father, and my two brothers." "And Monsanto presented us with documents that they claimed were samples taken from our farms." "To obtain those samples," "Monsanto had to have trespassed upon our land without our permission and stole those samples." "That year, I recall, we had 492 acres of Roundup Ready Soybeans." "And they were, they were grown under contract for a company for seed." "And the contract was very specific." "It spelled out the specific field, so..." "It wasn't a problem in isolating those fields." "Everybody knew it." " And why did you settle out of court with Monsanto?" "Well, after two and a half years of this, the family was just destroyed." "The stress involved in this, I mean..." "They're, in essence, threatening five generations of work." "And, if they were to prevail on something like this, it's all gone." "They take it all away, they take it all away." "Good morning." " 'Morning, sir." "How are you this morning, Troy?" "I'm well." "How are you, David?" " Still surviving." "Good." "Troy Roush and David Runyon grow conventional soybeans." "They have been victims of the so-called "gene police."" "Created by Monsanto to enforce its law in the fields, the gene police sow fear in rural America, where farmers denounce the totalitarian methods used in a GMO-dominated world." " I have some pictures here for you, Troy," "I'd like for you to look at." "Here's what I have done, Troy, to help prevent re-entry on my farm..." "Anyone coming onto my farm..." "Summer, it was in July of 2003." "And they came, it was the latter part of July, they came to my house, it was like 7 p.m." " Who came?" "Um," "Monsanto employees and they presented me a business card." "And they asked me a few questions about the kind of soybeans I plant, the kind of corn I plant, where I market my crops." "And so, I said:" ""Okay, that's the end of the conversation."" "Yeah." "Patents have changed, they've changed everything." "It revolves with a, with a relationship of trust with neighbours, that is gone." "By myself, I probably only have two farmers that I talk to, that are close to me." " Are they really afraid, the farmers?" "Of course, they're afraid." "You can't defend yourself against these people." "They've created a little industry that, that serves no other purpose than to wreck farmers' lives." "Of course they're afraid." " You're afraid, for instance, that a neighbour can snitch on you?" " Yes." " Yes?" "Yes, all's you have to do is, is..." " Dial 1-800..." "Dial 1-800 MONSANTO," "Or no I'm sorry, 1-800 ROUNDUP." "I remember 'em encouraging farmers to call this, this toll-free number and turn their neighbour in." " And why does Monsanto do that?" "Well, the reason they do it is control." " Seeds?" "Yeah." "They wanna control the seed." "They wanna own life." "I mean, this is the building blocks of food we're talking about." "They are in the process of owning food, all food." "Between 1995 and 2005, Monsanto acquired over fifty seed companies throughout the world." "These companies produce corn, cotton, wheat and soybean and also seeds for tomatoes, potatoes and sorghum." "Everywhere people worry about Monsanto's monopoly, which, in the long-term, threatens to wipe out all non-transgenic varieties." "Monsanto doesn't agree and speaks only about the benefits of biotechnology especially in developing countries like India." ""Our products provide significant economic benefits" ""to both large and small growers." "In many cases," ""farmers are able to grow higher-quality and better-yielding crops."" "India is the world's third largest cotton producer." "In 1999, Monsanto acquired Mahyco, the country's leading seed company." "Two years later, the Indian government authorized the sale of BT Cotton under the brand name Bollgard." "It is genetically modified to produce an insecticide, which repels bollworms, a cotton parasite." "Since 2001, Kiran Sakhari and Abdul Gayum have been closely following the transgenic cotton grown by small farmers in the Warangal district." "Every year, the two agronomists publish a report comparing bioengineered cotton with conventional cotton in terms of yields and production costs." "In 2006, the harvest was ravaged by a disease that affects transgenic cotton." "This is a Bollgard field." "We can see some of the Rhizoctonia affecting the plants." "You see, if you remove the bark of a healthy plant it won't be like this, like threads." "See, it's a classic example of Rhizoctonia infestation." " The farmers all said they have never seen that." "When we were doing our study from 2001, we noted the disease in very few samples in the BT cotton only and, as the time passed, the spread was seen more and more in the BT fields as well as some non-BT fields also." "What I personally feel is that there may be some interaction, undesirable interaction, between the host plant where the gene was introduced and the gene which is carrying the BT." "And that has introduced a weakness in the plant to... not to resist this Rhizoctonia." " I have seen on the Web site of Mahyco Monsanto," ""BT Cotton reduces 78% of pesticide application-- pesticide consumption-- and it gives 30% better yields."" "But it's an utter flop." "After 70-90 days invariably you have to spray for the bollworm even on BT cotton." " How do you explain that so many farmers are buying BT seeds?" "You see presently, the option is very, very narrow... is getting narrower and narrower for the farmer." "During the current season, if even the farmer wanted to go for non-BT there is no non-BT hybrid seed available in the market." "Today in India, Monsanto controls nearly all of the cottonseed market." "Forcing the locals to buy its seeds, at prices four times higher than conventional varieties." "Small farmers must turn to moneylenders who charge high interest rates." "If the harvest is poor, it means bankruptcy." "A vicious circle, which is decimating Indian villages." "Tragedies like the one we've just witnessed occur three times a day in the Vidharba region where BT Cotton was introduced in 2005." "Of course, cotton farmers committing suicide is not new in India, but the GM crops are causing it to skyrocket." "However, in this battle that pits David against Goliath, few dare to publicly denounce this international scandal." " This is Vidarbha's rice growing belt." "If you see, the minimum suicides are there." "But this is the cotton growing area." "The result of the BT Cotton is:" "the first year: 600 suicides, from June 2005 to June 2006." "Second year, till today, within six months: 680 suicides." "So, it's a disaster." "It's a complete disaster yes." "All these technologies, either if it is GM or biotechnology, they are actually making the farmers completely dependent on the market." "Because not only that you have to pay more for the seed procurement, but you have to fertilize, and this very claim that no spraying is required, no pesticide is required is also false." " When Monsanto claims in advertising that GM crops are adapted for small farmers, what do you think?" "It's..." "Our experience shows that it is completely false." "It's completely false, it's a lie!" "On this day in December of 2006, a revolt was brewing in the largest cotton market in the state of Maharastra." "Three days later riots broke out and dozens of small farmers, including Kishor Tiwari, were arrested." " 60,000 rupees of debt..." "50,000 rupees of debt... 20,000 rupees of debt... 50,000 rupees of debt... 15,000 rupees of debt..." "They don't want to go for the BT." ""Seeds of Suicide"" "is the title of a book by physicist Vandana Shiva." "She won the Alternative Nobel Prize and heads the Navdanya organization, which aims to conserve traditional seeds." "In the beginning, Vandana Shiva's battle was against the first green revolution, which brought industrial agriculture to India in the 1960s." "Today, she denounces what she calls the second green revolution, that of GMOs protected by patents." "The difference is that the first green revolution was public sector driven." "It was driven by government agencies." "The government agencies controlled the research." "In the case of the second green revolution, it is driven by Monsanto." "It is a Monsanto-driven revolution." "The second big difference is that the first green revolution did have a hidden objective of selling more chemicals, but its first objective was providing food." "It was food security." "And yes, they grew less pulses, they grew less oil seed but they did grow more rice and wheat and fed people." "The second green revolution has nothing to do with food security." "It is not about food security." "It is about returns to Monsanto's profits." "That's all it is about." "They've always said genetic engineering is the way to get to patenting." "But patenting is the real aim." "If you look at Monsanto's research agenda, they are testing at this point something like 20 crops with BT genes in them." "There is nothing they are leaving untouched, the mustard, the ochra, the brinjal, the rice, the cauliflower." "Once they have established the norm that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected, we will depend on them for every seed we grow, of every crop we grow." "If they control seed, they control food, they know it, it's strategic." "It's more powerful than bombs, it's more powerful than guns." "This is the best way to control the populations of the world." "Monsanto responds to Ms. Shiva's persuasive argument by brandishing its pledge:" ""integrity, dialogue, transparency and sharing."" "We want to participate constructively in the process by which societies around the world try to develop good answers to those questions:" "Are the products gonna be safe for the environment?" "How are they gonna affect biodiversity?" "How are they gonna affect other plants and insects and birds?" "What about outcrossing of genes?" "What happens if genes do outcross into wild species?" "To me that means, among other things, listening carefully and respectfully to all points of view." "Despite Robert Shapiro's placid demeanour, he has just touched on a subject that greatly troubles GMO opponents:" "transgenic contamination, which Monsanto prefers to call an "adventitious presence,"" "that is part of the "natural order"." "According to a study led by Berkeley professor" "Dr. Ignacio Chapela, GMOs have already contaminated Mexican corn." "But when the scientific journal Nature published the study's findings, it triggered a violent controversy." "I had been working for 15 years with indigenous communities in Oaxaca, in Mexico, and they had been developing the capacity to analyze their environment themselves." "One of my students went to try and train people to detect transgenics." "We brought with ourselves a positive control, that was a can of corn from the US that we knew was transgenic and we were looking for a negative control and we thought the best negative control is going to be corn from the local places," "because we all believed that it was the cleanest, the most well-preserved source of corn in the world." "So, the surprise came when we looked at these samples and we discovered that the samples that we all believed would be non-transgenic had already transgenic DNA within them." "It was a very big surprise for us to discover that these land races of corn that were kept by people locally and supposedly maintained over 10,000 years had already been reached by transgenic contamination, mostly from the US." "Mexico is the centre of origin for corn." "More that 150 local corn varieties can be found in just the southern region of Oaxaca." "This extensive biodiversity is a treasure-- the world's genetic reservoir of corn." "Millions of Mexican farmers had maintained it for thousands of years." " This corn is for the family?" "Yes, only for the family." "We use it to make tortillas." "This ear is a good size so we'll save it as seed for next year's planting." " You don't buy your seeds?" "No." " You exchange them?" "Yes." "It's our ancient barter system." "To preserve its corn's diversity" "Mexico has banned genetically modified crops." "However, due to the NAFTA free-trade agreement it signed with the United States and Canada," "Mexico cannot stop the massive importation of American corn," "40% of which is genetically modified." "This "industrial corn," as it's called in Mexico, is highly subsidized by the US government." "So on local markets it costs half as much as traditional Mexican corn." " Do you always make your tortillas with local corn?" "Yes." "It's natural and has a better yield." "Also it's more nourishing because it comes from pure soil." "That's blue corn." "In the past, my ancestors only planted this kind of corn." "Today, we maintain it as well." " It existed before the Spanish conquest?" "Yes." "There is another kind of conquest." " What is the new conquest?" "It's the transgenic conquest that wants to destroy everything by making local corn disappear so that their "industrial corn" can dominate." "If they succeed, we'll be dependant on multinationals, we'll be forced to buy the fertilizer and insecticides they sell because without them their corn won't grow." "Whereas, the local corn grows very well without fertilizer or herbicide." "Look at it, it's very beautiful." "Ignacio Chapela's article provoked a violent reaction in Mexico." "Since then, The National Ecology Institute has confirmed the contamination of Mexican corn." "Roundup Ready and BT genes have been found in corn from five regions of the country." "What would happen if bioengineered corn crossed with traditional land races?" "Dr. Alvarez Buylla led a study using a local flower." "She inserted the same gene in several specimens and then observed their growth." "We observed that two plants, strictly identical from a genetic point of view-- in other words, they both have the same genome, the same chromosomes and the same transgene, the only difference is that the transgene" "is located in different places." "And well, once they grew, these plants presented a phenotype, that it to say flower shapes, that were very different: some have flowers that are identical to their natural counterparts, like here, four petals with four sepals," "but others have abnormal flowers with abnormal hair or strange petals." "In addition, some are completely monstrous." "The only difference in all of these plants, is the location of the transgene, which was inserted randomly." " Why is that worrisome?" "In Mexico, once the transgenic corn seeds have been released into the environment, it's very likely that the transgenes will insert themselves into the genomes of the local Mexican varieties." "It's an unavoidable phenomenon, because corn plants cross naturally by wind-blown pollen." "Given that, we fear that the genetic resources of traditional corn will be uncontrollably affected." "Good morning!" "We invite you to attend a meeting about the new diseases which are infecting our corn because of transgenic contamination." "Aldo heads an organization of indigenous people." "For two years, he's been leading an information campaign in Oaxaca communities where Elena Alvarez's fears have already been confirmed in the fields." "I'm going to show you some photos of some corn plants that we took in our region of Sierra Juárez." "We'd like to know if you have already seen this type of plant in your community." "You can see that some very strange things are going on:" "this plant, for example, has a branch here and another one there." "Normally, a corn plant is not like that." "There is always only one ear per leaf, but look, here, there are three ears coming out of the same leaf." "They are really monsters!" "We sent a plant sample to a biotech lab to see if maybe it contained genetically modified genes." "Unfortunately, the test came out positive." "Usually, we see these types of plants along the roadside or in people's yards." "It's possible that people buy corn in a shop and they drop some kernels while walking." "Some kernels germinate." "This is how traditional corn became contaminated." "From what you've said, if we don't manage to stop their spread in our fields, soon we'll be forced to buy our corn seed because our own won't work anymore?" "That's very troubling." "What should we do?" "First of all, if you find a strange plant, you should immediately remove its stamen, because that's where the pollen comes from." "In any case, you must be very vigilant in monitoring your plants." " Don't you think it's Monsanto's strategy?" "What they couldn't achieve legally, they're trying to force through contamination?" "Yes, we end up wondering if the contamination wasn't intentional." "If the centre of origin of corn becomes contaminated, the rest of the planet could follow." "Contamination only benefits multinationals like Monsanto." "How did Monsanto react to Ignacio Chapela's study on Mexican corn contamination?" ""Monsanto's dirty tricks campaign against fired Berkeley Professor Ignacio Chapela."" "An article by Jonathan Matthews who heads GM Watch, a GMO information service based in southern England." "According to Jonathan Matthews," "Ignacio Chapela was a victim of a campaign launched on AgBioWorld, a pro-GMO Internet site." "On the eve of the article's publication in Nature, a certain "Mary Murphy"" "posted an e-mail that AgBioWorld distributed to thousands of scientists around the world." "She wrote:" ""Activists will certainly run wild" ""with news that Mexican corn has been 'contaminated' by genes from GM corn."" "The very next day, a certain Andura Smetacek posted a second e-mail:" ""Activists FIRST, scientist second."" "It's totally a smear campaign." "And this is what happens over the first couple of days;" "you get Murphy and Smetacek coming in." "Then others come in and they say:" ""We have to campaign on this." ""We have to inundate Nature." ""We have to go to the editor of the journal and we have to say this research isn't valid."" "Smetacek and Murphy..." "We'd been tracking them for some time, and trying to work out who they were." "In the case of Smetacek, we could look at the technical headers on the e-mail." "It says "received from"" "and then we've got an Internet Protocol Address." "If we go off to a Web site registration site, now all we have to do is just to copy that IP address." ""Organization Name:" "Monsanto Company and based in St. Louis."" "Then Mary Murphy left behind details that enabled us to track who she was so..." "If we look here, the information that appeared, posted by Mary Murphy, and then we get the IP Address: and we found that that was the original name of a P.R. agency called The Bivings Group." "We quickly found out that on their client list was Monsanto." "That this was an Internet P.R. firm for Monsanto." " That means fake scientists!" "What a dirty trick." "Yeah, no, no, we're talking very dirty tricks here, yeah." "I mean, there, there, there's no ethics at all in, in what's going on here." "It shows an organization that is determined to push its products into countries around the world and it's determined to destroy the reputation of anybody who stands in their way." "Jonathan Matthew's accusations were covered in the British press, but Monsanto chose to ignore them." "As it continues its unrelenting rise, the company defends its vision of a transgenic world" ""that will resolve the problems of famine and the environment in perfect harmony."" ""Practical experience clearly demonstrates" ""that the coexistence of biotech," ""conventional and organic systems is not only possible, but is peacefully occurring around the world."" "[ ♫ What a Wonderful World ♫ ]" "A transgenic world already exists in South America where 100 million acres of Roundup Ready Soybeans were planted in 2007." "Their conquest started 10 years ago in Argentina, the only country to have officially authorized transgenic crops." "Since then, GMOs have mysteriously spread to neighbouring countries, like Brazil and Paraguay seen here." "In 2005, Paraguay finally legalized these smuggled crops to save their soybean exports to Europe where labelling GMOs is obligatory." "In reality, for the Ministry of Agriculture, the deed had already been done." "We had to authorize GMO seeds because they had already entered our country in a, let's say, unorthodox way." " Do we know how transgenic seeds entered the country?" "Through the black market or smuggling?" "We don't speak about the black market but about "the blank sack,"" "because these are the seed sacks that have no official markings." " Did Monsanto play a role in this seed contraband?" "It is possible that the company, let's say, promoted its varieties and its seeds and, as I told you, the government had to react after the fact to authorize what was already a reality." "Whatever the origin, contraband has been profitable for Monsanto:" "as soon as the crops were legalized, the company obtained the right to collect royalties on each ton of soybeans the country produced." "Just like in Brazil." "Since then, there has been no let up in Paraguay's deforestation and the expulsion of many small farmers who refuse to relinquish their small plots of land." "Jorge Galeano leads a small farmers' organization, which is fighting against the progression of what he calls the "green desert"." "What we have here is an example of a GM extension of soybeans." "In fact, it's a monocrop that destroys everything in its path." "Before, here, there were fields containing everything that a family needed to live:" "plants, trees, manioc, corn." " Do you think that the GM crop can coexist with the crops of the small farmers?" "No, we are sure it can't." "They are two incompatible models that can't co-exist." "It's a silent war that eliminates communities and families of small farmers." "In addition, it destroys the biodiversity of the countryside." "It brings death, poverty and illness as well as the destruction of the natural resources that help us live." "Today, Roundup is sprayed, all over Paraguay by plane or mechanical spreaders driven by unprotected farm workers." "The herbicide is sprayed right up to people's front doors or near the subsistence crops of small farmers." "Every year, crops are destroyed and thousands of people contaminated." "Like this family, which is surrounded by Monsanto's GMOs." "The parents are worried about their son Pedro, because everyday he has to cross the soybean fields to sell his mother's homemade corn tortillas." "How long has he had that?" " It started 15 days ago." "It started on his foot and then it spread." "That's how it starts." " Does he have a headache?" " Is he eating?" "Very little..." "Today he didn't want to eat what I had prepared for him." "He only drank a little fruit juice." " And his brother?" "He eats better, but it's difficult." "That's the way we live." "Recently we lost 60 ducks and geese." "They took a few steps and then they fell down, dead as doornails." "They spray deadly herbicide over there." "When it rains, the water streams down here and since ducks live in water, that's the result." "In Paraguay, 70% of the farmland is owned by only 2% of the population." "With GMOs, the concentration is increasing." "Three quarters of the soybean producers are foreigners staking claims for this new green gold." "The ban on animal-based feed after the Mad Cow epidemic and the recent bio-fuel craze have caused soy prices to soar, triggering a rush to Roundup Ready crops." "According to the last census in Paraguay, each year 100,000 people leave rural areas to live in urban slums." "An estimated 70% flee Monsanto's genetically modified soybeans, which are destined to feed Europe's chickens, cows and pigs." "We are going to talk about the production model of GM soybeans promoted by Monsanto." "It's a true multinational company, it's everywhere in the world." "Its objective is to control all of the world's food production through farmerless farming." "The result is that Monsanto is depriving us of our food sovereignty, of our ability to feed ourselves, without depending on anyone else." "That is why we say that we must fight for our independence, for our land, we must defend our communities, our families and our country." "In my case, my family lives in the city but I don't want to go there." "In the city you have to buy everything, even food." "Here, whatever we grow is ours." "We can eat whatever we want, but in the city you can't." "If you don't have money, you have to search for food in garbage cans." "I'd like to add that these families' struggle to survive touches all of us." "In 2007," "Monsanto employed 18,000 workers in 50 countries." "In 2007, its stock prices continue to rise and its profits have reached a billion dollars." "Its shareholders include not only pension funds and banks but also hundreds of thousands of small investors." "[ Dialing ]" "[ Phone Ringing ]" " Chris Horner." "Hello, Christopher Horner." "I'm Marie-Monique Robin from France." " Yeah, we appreciate your persistence in... in asking, but uh, you know we've had several conversations internally about this and uh, have not changed our position." "So, there's no reason for us to participate." "Our suspicion is that it would not be positive." "Um, so, you know..." "Subs = PhilSpace"