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- Main Feature:
Engineering an Environmental Disaster - Audio Interview:
Attorney Paul Achitoff on Genetically Engineered Crops - Audio Interview:
Q&A with Pesticide Policy Expert Charles Benbrook - Audio Interview:
Q&A with Organic Farmer Frank Morton - Audio Interview:
Q&A with Center for Food Safety Staff Attorney George Kimbrell - Timeline: Monsanto's Chemical Romance
- Interactive Map:
Alien Invasion: Glyphosate Resistant Weeds - Informational Graphic: Attack of the Superweeds
- Case: Genetically Engineered Sugar Beets
- Case: Genetically Engineered Alfalfa
- Regional Office:
Mid-Pacific
Timeline: Monsanto's Chemical Romance
Roundup herbicide is mixed prior to application.
(Photo: NRCS)
At A Glance
Over the past decade, biotech companies like Monsanto have dominated dinner tables with crops like corn, soybeans and canola.
The crops have been modified to survive lethal doses of herbicides, resulting in increased herbicide use, a surge in herbicide-resistant weeds, and the contamination of organic and conventional crops.
Virtually all soybeans, corn, canola, and sugar beets grown in the United States today are patented by Monsanto or other large corporations.
70–80% of all packaged foods found in supermarkets contain one or more genetically modified ingredients. There is no requirement that genetically modified ingredients be labeled.
In 2009, Monsanto finally acknowledged that the emergence of resistant weeds is a serious problem with the Roundup Ready system. Their solution was to spray more herbicides.
Memorable Quote
Earthjustice Managing Attorney
Paul Achitoff: "Essentially what you’re finding is that Monsanto and a few other companies are, to a very significant extent, controlling what people are eating to a degree that I think many consumers don’t realize because they don’t realize how much of the food they eat contains genetically engineered corn, or canola, or soy."
(Listen to an interview with Paul.)
Memorable Quote
Pesticide Policy Expert Charles Benbrook: "[Monsanto's] proposed solution
[to the emergence of glyphosate-resistant superweeds] is to produce genetically engineered crops resistant to multiple herbicides, so that farmers can spray three or four different herbicides at the same time in the hope that at least one of the modes of action will still work. It’s a strategy that’s comparable to pouring gasoline on a fire to put it out." (Listen to an interview with Charles.)
Memorable Quote
Center for Food Safety
Staff Attorney George Kimbrell:
"The companies that make them [GE crops], which by the way are chemical companies that make pesticides, Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, DuPont and Dow, they’re the same companies, so those companies can sell more of their flagship products, more pesticides."
(Listen to an interview with George.)
Memorable Quote
Organic farmer Frank Morton:
"What’s bad about biotechnology is that there's so much money to be made because everything related to biotech can be patented and can have intellectual property protection, which actually prevents others from giving that thing a hard critical look."
(Listen to an interview with Frank.)
Monsanto, whose roots began in creating toxic chemical concoctions like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and DDT, is the world leader in genetically engineered seed production. It has benefited tremendously from biotechnology by packaging its Roundup Ready line of GE seeds with its Roundup herbicide. But what’s good for Monsanto’s business isn’t so great for people or the environment. Take a walk through Monsanto's seedy past:
Graphic by Wes Holing.
Source: Center for Food Safety