Throughout its history, Monsanto has been government officials
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to repeal a measure dubbed the “Monsanto Protec tion Act,” which allows the Secretary of Agriculture to overrule any court injunction against planting seeds that had been deemed unsafe. Groups pressing for food protection have gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures on petitions against the measure.
In her new book, “Foodopoly,” Food & Water Watch director Wenonah Hauter comments: “It is not a sur prise that the biotech industry is able to dictate policy to sitting presidents, members of Congress, and the regulatory agencies. Since 1999, the fifty largest agri cultural and food patent-holding companies and two of the largest biotechnology and agrochemical trade associations have spent more than $572 million in campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures.”
Monsanto was founded in 1901, and operated throughout much of the 20th century as a major manu facturer of drugs, plastics, and chemicals—gaining wealth through military contracts in wartime. It was one of the main producers of PCBs until the 1970s, DDT during the Second World War, Agent Orange dur ing the Vietnam War, genetically modified plants in the 1980s, and recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone in the 1990s. In recent years, it has spun off most of its chemical and drug business, while acquiring a much larger stake in the distribution of agricultural seeds.
In the 1970s, Monsanto created glyphosate (Round up)—the most widely used chemical weed-killer in the United States—which is still responsible for some 10 percent of the company’s profits. In more recent years, the corporation developed seeds that enable food crops to withstand Roundup. Many major U.S. crops are now grown from genetic modified seeds— engineered mainly for the purpose of being “Roundup Ready.” These crops include corn (88 percent was ge netically modified in 2011), soybeans (94 percent), cotton (94 percent), canola (90 percent), and sugar beets (90 percent).
Monsanto and the FDA declare that Roundup is safe,