An excellent book that deserves to be made even better. | The World According to Monsanto

A "Must Read" for all consumers | The World According to Monsanto | Marie-Monique Robin

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	• The World According to Monsanto Marie-Monique Robin New Press, 2010 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

What An Evil Company!

That people could be that power hungry and greedy is almost unbelievable, but as the author backs up with hard facts, chilling as they are, some people truly could care less about the health and survival of the planet earth and it's people. Monsanto has a long history of harming people in it's dedication to it's bottom line, which is profit. From DDT to Agent Orange, which destroyed large swaths of the Vietnam' jungles virgin equatorial forests and caused serious illness to many Vietnam vets, to bovine growth hormone (BGH), to aspartame, which is a causal factor in brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, (for further information read, "Excitotoxins The Taste That Kills," by Russell Blaylock), Monsanto employees have lied, cheated, and spent large sums of money to keep the money rolling in. Now they want to control the world's food supply with their genetically modified organisms (GMO's), such as round-up ready corn, canola, and soy, which quality studies have been shown to be toxic to humans and animals, plus their pesticides and herbicides, which are extremely toxic to humans and the environment. Also, mono crops of soy beans, corn or any other product, robs the soil of nutrients and makes the plants less resistant to pests over time. Also, after a few years pests become resistant to round-up and much more potent pesticides have to be used along with or instead of round-up. The synergistic effect of combining toxic chemicals makes them that much more poisonous. The spraying of these pesticides has killed many people in third world southern countries. Also, GMO corn, soy or any other seed has a number of ways that it travels and cross pollinates with non GMO seed, contaminating the later seed and making it worthless. According to the author, the environmental damage caused by these franken foods can not be reversed.

The author took several years to research a video she did on Monsanto and traveled extensively to do live interviews and get the first hand facts. She begins the book by detailing Monsanto's sordid history. She then takes you on a tour of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil and India and details the havoc Monsanto products have done and continue to do in each of these places. In every country they have lied, cheated and stolen to obtain their desired objectives. Sad to say, it is most often the poor farm families that are hurt the most. Either unable to pay their seed and pesticide bills or poisoned out of their homes, they ending up living in big city slums, with many men committing suicide and leaving destitute, grief stricken loved ones behind, with numerous individuals and even whole families poisoned by pesticide spraying. What this book, "The World According to Monsanto," details concerning the multi national companies destruction of seed crops, ""Righteous Porkchop" does with the same lengthy research on the way the majority of our meat animals are now raised in Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFo's). Sounds a lot like the greedy, power hungry way that BP is operating in it's handling of the Gulf crisis.

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An excellent book that deserves to be made even better.

If you want to follow up on what you decided to do about GMOs after watching The World According to Monsanto (US NTSC Format), then this book will be a valuable resource.

It should be especially useful for convincing people who are skeptical about the dangers of GMOs. I speak from experience: I used to be a skeptic, and this book makes the sort of case that woke me up. Especially convincing was the extensive, painstaking documentation of how Monsanto has corrupted the scientific peer-review process, as well as government agencies responsible for assessing the safety of Monsanto's products. I can vouch for the author's accuracy in describing the mechanisms used to retaliate against scientists who won't play ball with Monsanto, because I used to collaborate with the Government Accountability Project. The author is also on-target in identifying the scientific organizations that help destroy the careers of honest scientists.

One of the most important questions this book answered for me was, "No matter how evil Monsanto is, how can it possibly collect royalties from farmers all around the world who might plant its GMO soybeans on the sly?" Page 272 gives a convincing answer.

So, I strongly recommend this book. However, I do have a few suggestions for improving it.

Suggestion #1:
Given the sheer number of cases the author covers, and the consistent, calculatedly evil behavior Monsanto showed in every one of them, the author is to be commended for how little emotionalism and editorializing crept into her book. Honestly, I don't know how she managed to restrain herself. But that having been said, the odd bits of emotionalism are indeed there, and the book would be better without them. I hope the author will re-issue it after submitting it to some "friendly enemies" or "argumentative friends" who will point out the offending passages. (I've done this in my own copy, and would be happy to make my notes available to the author free of charge.)

Suggestion #2:
An unnecessary weak point in the case against Monsanto is the farmers who complain about Monsanto enforcing the contracts they signed. Similarly, the author weakened her book by allowing those farmers to tap-dance around the question that an investigative reporter of her caliber should have asked: "Did you, or did you not, violate the contract by using some of your crop as seed for the next year?"

This weak point is more serious than most activists like to think, but there are good ways to address it. One would be to interview someone not directly involved in the lawsuits, and ask that person, "Why do I get the feeling that it might have been awkward, had I asked the farmers if they'd used their crop as seed the next year?"

That person could answer by describing Monsanto's long history of criminality, etc., and the possible implications of the Kelo vs. City of London case for farmers who might use a variety of corn or soybeans that's less productive than Monsanto's. He could conclude by saying, "Monsanto has successfully created a rigged game where it can break the law with impunity, while siccing the government on the little guy. It's unrealistic to expect the common citizen to respect laws made by people who act lawlessly."

That message would have resonated with me.

SUMMARY
This is an excellent book that deserves to be made even better. Highly recommended.

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A "Must Read" for all consumers

Wow, what an amazing investigative job Ms. Robin has done! I, like many people, had already heard rumors about Monsanto, especially as regards GMOs, but learned through reading her book that I basically knew nothing. Her research and documentation will take away any doubt consumers might have as to whom to believe in the debates surrounding GMOs, PCBs, bovine growth hormones, dioxins. It implicitly underscores how complacent, through innocent ignorance, we consumers have been and how we need to wake up to protect our environment, our food sources, and ultimately our health. If nothing else, individuals can vote with their dollar. This book is very much a worthwhile and necessary read but, that said, it is also a time-consuming one. Just about every page is jam-packed with important information and can at times be tedious -- but bear with it, it is most decidedly worth it. I don't see any way Ms. Robin could have improved on this monumental task. I am very grateful to her for her work. The information therein would make for a wonderful text for a college course on the dangers of companies like Monsanto.

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The truth behind the industry promises about GMO and more

The biotech industry has always claimed that GMO crops reduce the burden of the application of pesticides in agriculture.

This book demystifies this claim and exposes Monsanto as a key player which tries to impose its technology on all farmers across the globe. It does so by showing the manipulation that goes on both overtly (by, amongst other techniques, suing/ruining farmers) or behind the screens (by manipulating government and agencies).

It's time for all of us citizens to wake up and take action. To start, read this excellent and sublimely researched book!

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Amazing, disturbing

I have read this book in French, and while it took me weeks to finish, it was an amazing experience. I felt compelled to send copies to many family members so that they scrutinize what they eat in a better manner. The depth of information and research in the book is amazingly profound. The proofs are gathered with a thorough methodology, page after page denouncing Monsanto and their allies as the biggest threat to our health and environment for years to come.

I live in Costa Rica, and have been investigating the use of pesticides and chemicals involved in the production and importation of the food that I used to consume. Transgenic soy, growth hormones, etc, are flooding our market, thanks to the Free Trace Agreement with the US (TLC) voted last year. I was in favour at the time because I did not have enough information to make up my mind. I now understand a painful reality of this treaty, which made transgenic foods available to us country-wide. An increasing number of children in Costa Rica are suffering from Asthma and allergies, I now understand why.

This book is a must read.

NB: Amazon lists this book as being "out of print" (wondering on what grounds). This is not correct. It will be released in late September, so, do not dispair, it is on its way.

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Sends chills down the spine. . . . After reading this, we can no longer afford to turn a blind eye.
--Le Point

The result of a remarkable three-year-long investigation that took award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin across four continents (North and South America, Europe, and Asia), The World According to Monsanto tells the little-known yet shocking story of this agribusiness giant--the world's leading producer of GMOs (genetically modified organisms)--and how its new "green" face is no less malign than its PCB- and Agent Orange-soaked past.

Robin reports that, following its long history of manufacturing hazardous chemicals and lethal herbicides, Monsanto is now marketing itself as a "life sciences" company, seemingly convinced about the virtues of sustainable development. However, Monsanto now controls the majority of the yield of the world's genetically modified corn and soy--ingredients found in more than 95 percent of American households--and its alarming legal and political tactics to maintain this monopoly are the subject of worldwide concern.

Released to great acclaim and controversy in France, throughout Europe, and in Latin America alongside the documentary film of the same name, The World According to Monsanto is sure to change the way we think about food safety and the corporate control of our food supply.

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