Friday, August 01, 2008
Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear
French journalist Marie-Monique Robin takes a scattershot approach in her exposé of Monsanto, an American multinational chemical and biotechnology company responsible for some of the most toxic and environmentally damaging products ever sold.
Monsanto's list of accomplishments includes production of Agent Orange, PCBs, recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone and genetically modified crops such as Roundup Ready soybeans that, far from being a boon to farmers around the world, threaten their livelihood and undermine biodiversity.
Robin might have taken on any one of Monsanto's monstrous activities and made a compelling documentary, but instead she attacks on all fronts, opening one avenue of investigation after another, but never thoroughly exploring any one of them.
Her investigating tool is Google, and watching her scroll through highlighted entries and documents hardly makes for fascinating footage.
Monsanto was founded in St. Louis, Mo., in 1901 and became the largest chemical company of the 20th century. Among its most disastrous products were PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), used as insulating fluids and fire retardants.
Production of PCBs were banned in the 1970s, but in the little town of Anniston, Ala. where, unbeknownst to its inhabitants, Monsanto was permitted to dump the chemicals, their deadly effects are still felt.
Robin interviews a local man whose brother died of PCB-related cancer and shoots a poisonous-looking run-off before moving on to the next topic.
Robin traces the history of Monsanto's political influence in establishing the principle of "substantial equivalent" that allowed the company to market genetically modified agricultural products without approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
One of her interviewees, author and activist Jeremy Rifkin, talks about how "we were trying to say these things should be considered food additives." They weren't. In a 1987 film clip, then vice-president George Bush is seen touring a Monsanto bioengineering lab. Should Monsanto encounter any difficulties in winning approvals for its products, he tells his hosts, they can "call me. We're in the de-reg business."
Nothing was to get in the way of the United States becoming a world leader in biotechnology. Against the lame imagery of a revolving door, the film documents the passage of numerous Monsanto executives back and forth between the corporation and U.S. regulating agencies.
The documentary visits scientists in Britain and Canada who mysteriously lose their jobs after making findings injurious to Monsanto. The company is shown to have falsified scientific findings.
A trip back in time takes us to Agent Orange, used in the Vietnam War, and said to have contaminated three million people: Monsanto studies showed that its principal ingredient, dioxin, was not a human carcinogen.
On a global tour to reveal Monsanto's takeover of agriculture in countries such as Mexico, Paraguay and India, Robin shows how the company can bankrupt farmers with their patented seeds and accuse them of stealing when transgenic crops show up in their fields.
A food activist in India says of the company, "They want to own life." In Paraguay, the Roundup Ready soybeans are taking over the fields and herbicide is sprayed everywhere, killing ducks and harming children.
In 2007, Monsanto employed 18,000 workers in 50 countries. This film is not the first time the company has been accused of destroying ecosystems, causing disease and doing end-runs around scientists and governments. A Monsanto spokesperson is heard on a recording denying Robin an interview.
Now that The World According to Monsanto, which aired on European television this year, is available in English, it might reach the American public. But the likelihood is that this company will continue to do what it has always done: exactly what it wants.
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