The Monsanto Papers

Four Corners did a very interesting 40 minute report on all the scandals revolving around Monsanto, now owned by Bayer, and I thought it was worth discussing here. The report does quite a good job revealing the extent to which they've tried to downplay the health risks of Roundup and it's link to cancer.

My stance on this issue is not really a black and white one. It seems Roundup is a very effective pesticide and compared to many other pesticides the health risks are actually quite low. It's pretty clear there are risks associated with exposure to Roundup, but if farmers still want to use it after being properly informed about the risks that is fine, they can take necessary precautions to minimize their exposure.

My main concern is actually about the consumption of fruits and vegetables which are grown using these chemicals because they contain a high amount of water which is absorbed by the plant from the ground. Some may argue that consuming such small amounts of these chemicals has an extremely small chance of doing any harm, and that is completely true, however most people eat fruits and/or vegetables every day.

Yes, the health risks are still low but the odds of something going wrong are now compounding. If you take a micro-dose of rat poison it probably wont do anything, you could do it every day and most likely be fine but would you take that risk? Pesticides, bug sprays, and other chemicals made to kill living creatures will usually have some sort of toxic effect on humans even if it's to a much smaller degree.

Then instead of looking at how it effects a single person, if we expand that to a population of millions, those seemingly insignificant probabilities suddenly become something which has a tangible and measurable impact on the population in the form of rising cancer rates and other illnesses. I basically never eat vegetables, especially not any green vegetables because I hate the taste, but ironically I think it's healthier than constantly eating GMO crops bathed in chemicals.

My other main issue is that they make farmers reliant on their GMO seeds which are resistant to Roundup and so if you shop in a super market, pretty much all the fruit and vegetables are going to be GMO products, and everything which uses them as an ingredient has the same issue. Most people don't go out of their way to find an organic store, so the majority of what we eat contains trace amounts of these toxic chemicals.

Something I've learned as a programmer is that when you're dealing with a complex system it only takes one tiny little error for everything else to go wrong. One little mistake, just a single character mistyped, even just a single bit flip in memory caused by a random cosmic ray, and the system crashes. Human biology is quite the same, a random mutation in our DNA caused by a chemical or ultraviolet radiation, and it's game over.

Thanks for the watching material.
Monsanto is one of those companies that it’s almost too easy to hate.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder


I will watch that later, but just wanted to expand on the health issue, its not so much to humans that concerns me so much its the effect on the environment, for example how long it remains in the soils, that it kills the microorganisms and in turn the soil itself, and then (although there is no evidence to support it yet) I suspect the bee die offs among other insects have something to do with the glyphosate as well, and lastly how much ends up in our waterways and what damage is that causing...the mind boggles.

Monsanto itself isn't such a surprise, but it seems rather nasty to bring up these many problems to the public AFTER it was sold across oceans.. Bayer has known what kind of crapload they bought, but I guess they did not foresee the massive legal wars starting right now, correct?

a reply to: ManFromEurope

Bayer has known what kind of crapload they bought, but I guess they did not foresee the massive legal wars starting right now, correct?

Bayer couldn't care less... these are the same people that knowingly sold AIDS tainted blood to hemophiliacs.

originally posted by: ManFromEurope
Monsanto itself isn't such a surprise, but it seems rather nasty to bring up these many problems to the public AFTER it was sold across oceans.. Bayer has known what kind of crapload they bought, but I guess they did not foresee the massive legal wars starting right now, correct?

My thought was that it seemed illogical for Bayer to buy them, when it is quite obvious Monsanto has been in the crosshairs for awhile. But, perhaps this is the way the are doing pennance...a behind the scenes bargain to buy, dismantle, and absorb the costs of folding the company, in exchange for participating in whatever new world financial structure is emerging.

Maybe a form of bending the knee, to Trump et al?

I prefer total skepticism when Monsanto speaks. They may tell it straight in their minds but I am inclined to believe the farmers real life stories. Many farmers worldwide are being pushed to use their crops and sprays and that is like inbreeding. That is why some countries are banning Monsanto products.

My Native American in-laws have been showing their non Indian family members how to raise food lately without Monsanto because they see the situation as I do. So, I have been following their guidance on my own garden and such.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

That you for the information.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder
I think a lot of glyphosate fear is overblown. I live in a rural area where some farmers are getting up to 300 bushels per acre, and very farmer around here uses it. The vegetation in the drainage ditches is not affected by glyphosate runoff, and it has been running through there for decades. You can clearly see boundary where the glyphosate is sprayed vs not sprayed on the edge of the fields and how affective it is at killing vegetation. New weeds are filling the fields where corn has been harvested this year. Any residual glyphosate isn't strong enough to prevent them now. Now if I was a farmer I would be very concerned for having so much exposure but I don't think it's a problem in the food chain.