Harvest of Fear: Monsanto Corp.

HidingFromGoro.

Posted to SciTech on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 07:39:02 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

I first heard of the Monsanto Corporation when I watched the documentary The Future of Food (Google Video link), which talked about its deplorable business practices, including RIAA-like copyright lawsuits over seeds that sometimes result in prison terms (even if pollen from your neighbor's farm spreads genetic material to your plants, you're still liable!) and powerful lobbying efforts to prevent labeling of genetically modified food- which have resulted in serious health problems for people who've inadvertently developed antibiotic resistance as a result of eating such food.  

The Monsanto fun doesn't end there, however.  They've been also been linked to everything from a cancer-accelerating bovine growth hormone controversy, to the Terminator Gene controversy, bribery scandals, a $700 million judgment for poisoning an Alabama town, Agent Orange poisoning of Vietnam vets, and even child labor violations.

Now there's a Vanity Fair piece on the company, which has turned its sights on milk production.  Frontline piece on Monsanto.

Like many others in rural America, Rinehart knew of Monsanto's fierce reputation for enforcing its patents and suing anyone who allegedly violated them. But Rinehart wasn't a farmer. He wasn't a seed dealer. He hadn't planted any seeds or sold any seeds. He owned a small--a really small--country store in a town of 350 people. He was angry that somebody could just barge into the store and embarrass him in front of everyone. "It made me and my business look bad," he says. Rinehart says he told the intruder, "You got the wrong guy."

When the stranger persisted, Rinehart showed him the door. On the way out the man kept making threats. Rinehart says he can't remember the exact words, but they were to the effect of: "Monsanto is big. You can't win. We will get you. You will pay."

Scenes like this are playing out in many parts of rural America these days as Monsanto goes after farmers, farmers' co-ops, seed dealers--anyone it suspects may have infringed its patents of genetically modified seeds. As interviews and reams of court documents reveal, Monsanto relies on a shadowy army of private investigators and agents in the American heartland to strike fear into farm country. They fan out into fields and farm towns, where they secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops; infiltrate community meetings; and gather information from informants about farming activities. Farmers say that some Monsanto agents pretend to be surveyors. Others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them to sign papers giving Monsanto access to their private records. Farmers call them the "seed police" and use words such as "Gestapo" and "Mafia" to describe their tactics.