Monsanto Glyphosate formulations and their use for the inhibition 

of 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthaseUS 7771736 B2

Indoctrinating the Next Generation

Planting the Seeds of Deception

“The powers that be” are clever  – no doubt about that.  It is a master plan carried on from generation to generation by the ruling elite.  With age comes wisdom and by the time people wake up and see reality for what it is, they will soon move on (death).  Some people stay drunk on the Kool-aid and never wake up.  The “awakened” only represent a minority percentage of the earth’s population and so change, if any, takes generations.

Explaining the millions of ways our perceptions are shaped and controlled can fill libraries.   Here’s how Monsanto does it via monies in their Monsanto Fund, EIN 43-6044736.  Their tentacles of propaganda spread far and wide.

Numerous donations to public schools for such things as aquaculture and hydroponics, commercial greenhouse learning lab, iPads to enhance math and Science, agriculture in the classroom, Teach for America, the James Hutton Institute/Scottish Crop Research Institute, Garden of Hope, photovoltaic technology, genomic studies on cash crops, the science of farm to school, enhancing school forest utilization, improving water quality, school managed nutrition, Going Green with Green and so many more – a total of 46 pages worth of donations from 2012 alone - worth over $18 million dollars of undue influence.  Find the 990s and take a look at them.

The following is from the Monsanto Fund’s “America’s Farmers Grow” website:

America’s Farmers Grow Communities, America’s Farmers Grow AG Leaders, America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education and even an America’s Farmers Mom of the Year

Subsections include Meet the Families, Learn about Farming, Recognition Programs and the Farm Blog

According to Monsanto;  “Since 1964, the Monsanto Fund has worked to substantially and meaningfully improve people’s lives.”

This is blatant self-promotion in the smarmiest way possible. This corporate propaganda machine boggles the mind.  Are they so deluded to really believe what they write?  It is said a good con artist repeats a lie so often they almost believe it themselves.  

The website is a carefully crafted shop front window that showcases the image that Monsanto wants us to see and believe.  Look behind the store – in the dirty allies where the trash is kept if you want to see the entire picture.

It is no wonder that school age children parrot back what they have been taught in public schools – that Monsanto means “less bugs and more crops.” 

In reality, Monsanto means less bees and other insect pollinators, soil rendered infertile by too many chemicals, crops that have been genetically engineered in such a way that they impact our own health and spies that infiltrate the farm communities and use pressure to keep farmers marching with the party line.

Monsanto means big business, big money and big power.  Monsanto means doing everything and anything to further that agenda, i.e. more money and more power.  Monsanto means wanting to control all the seeds on earth and all the food that is produced from them.  They are megalomaniacs.

According to  their Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and Roots and Shoots blog:

"Our Mission: Improve the Human Condition through Plant Science

Feed the hungry and improve human health

Preserve and renew our environment

Enhance the St. Louis region as a world center for plant science”

How are they improving the human condition!?!  How are they preserving and renewing our environment?!?  By driving farmers to commit suicide because they’ve gone deeply in debt buying Monsanto seeds and pesticides with the idea of creating better yields?  By spraying fields in South America even if people are in them?  By suing farmers whose crops were accidentally cross-pollinated with their GE seed? By polluting the planet and destroying the health of people for generations to come?

Here’s another Monsanto Slogan:

"Food, Health and Hope"

I say, “Let’s hope that we can return to non-Roundup Ready food and regain our health!!!”

It is shameful for Monsanto to dole out their Kool-aid to school children and the people who sleep among us.  The harsh truth of what they do is hard to swallow – even for world-weary adults.  Start by reading this blog. Read through the legal cases on the link at the top of this page.  Read about Roundup and GMO research.

Search amazon.com for all the books written about Monsanto, GMO/GE crops and Big Farma and processed food production.  The internet has vast information about these topics as well.  There is science to back up the problems with GE food.  There are health statistics that tell us something is very wrong.

We have the information available and we must take the education of our children and that of future generations back into our own hands.

Knowledge is power.  Never stop learning. Wake up!!!

Further Reading

GM Genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers committing suicide after using GMO crops

GMOs are killing bees, butterflies, birds and ???? 

Consequences of widespread glyphosate use

GM Crops and Water: A Recipe for Disaster

Murky Waters: WWF Sustainable Salmon Certification

Marine Harvest Salmon Farms

John Fredriksen  is the principal owner of Marine Harvest and also a financial investor.  A third of all commercial salmon production worldwide is in the hands of Fredriksen. With an estimated private fortune of 13.5 billion dollars, the “salmon king” is one of the richest men on the planet. Marine Harvest dumps 100 million salmon a year onto the global market.

The WWF entered into a partnership deal with Marine Harvest in order to promote aquaculture as a sustainable food resource that can increase the world’s food supply.  It sounds like a wonderful idea and aquaculture, properly managed, can indeed be a clean method of producing fish in large quantities.  However, when they are not properly managed, problems ensue.

Be aware that there is a big difference in Marine Harvest’s Norwegian aquafarms and their fish farms in other parts of the world like Chile and India.  The water in their Norwegian aquafarms is much cleaner; hygiene regulations are adhered to and state supervision is strict. Violators of environmental laws lose their licensing and Norway operators must reapply annually for each and every individual farm in a production area. However, Marine Harvest gets its Chilean licenses at a rock bottom price -- 150 dollars a year for one hectare of sea area. And then there are the low wages in Chile: about ten percent of the labor costs of Norway.  This makes Chile ripe for exploitation and Marine Harvest picked it for just that reason.

When the individual farms are too close together and too many salmon are crammed into each cage (200,000+), infectious disease, namely ISA – Infectious Salmon Anemia, can spread throughout the entire fish farm.  In poorly regulated and managed farms, these dead fish are used in fish meal production that will be used to feed living fish.  Since the salmon are heavily insured – MH reaps profit on fish that die as well as the fish meal that is produced.

Farm-bred salmon are often referred to as “swimming pharmacies.”  Outside of Europe, where there are laws about aquaculture management, 800 times the amount of antibiotics are often used.  These are the same antibiotics used to treat humans.  Marine Harvest can add as much antibiotic to a single feed farm as used by the entire Norwegian salmon industry in a year!  Even eggs are treated with carcinogenic containing substances like crystal violet and malachite green.  Feeding cages are routinely painted with “protective” agents that contain heavy metals.

Salmon need large amounts of animal protein. Feed concentrate is dumped into the cages by the ton and is made mainly of fishmeal and fish oil.  4-6 kilos of wild fish are killed to make meal that produces one kilo of salmon.  More than half of the world’s fish catch goes to making feed concentrate for salmon and other animals.  Since the farm bred salmon eat more animal protein than they produce, how can that be sustainable?  Since they eat diseased fish and are doused in antibiotics, how can that be healthy?

Nelson Estrada, president of a Chilean fishing union tells reporters: 

“The industry has bought up most of the fishing licenses. Our entire catch goes to the feed industry – although anchovies are very healthy and high in protein. It’s criminal. This industry disgusts me, but I have to support my family, that’s why I work for them.”

“We’re nothing but slaves of the transnational industry; there are no independent fishermen left in Chile.”

Holds on board ships contain multi-ton mountains of glistening little anchovy bodies. “I’m ashamed of this here: these fish are tiny; they haven’t even reached sexual maturity. We’re plundering the stocks before they can even reproduce. There’ll be nothing left for future generations.”  As small salmon farms in Chile are unable to compete with the Marine Harvest giant, they go broke – and Marine Harvest buys them all. 

 Experiments are being made to increase the vegetable protein in feeds – using soy -- genetically engineered, roundup ready soy that is the product of Monsanto.  This would provide cheaper feed for the salmon producers looking to cut even more costs.  Thus, quality is sacrificed for profit at the expense of people’s lives, a healthy planet and eco-diversity.

Salmon, including genetically engineered salmon, often escape their cages and since they are predators, they eat everything in the local waters.  Diseased salmon spread ISA to wild populations. The escapees also breed with the wild salmon and this wreaks havoc on wild fish populations while genetic diversity is lost in the process.

The seabeds beneath the salmon cages are polluted with junk, rotten feed, salmon feces and dead marine life floating in the murky water.  The industry uses the see as a garbage dump and nothing can live in it.  The WWF does nothing to stop it either.

The salmon industry has also begun to deplete the ocean of its mainstay – krill.  These tiny crabs are food for countless marine animals.  Damn the consequences to the ocean’s wildlife – selling $almon is all that matters to them. 

Marine Harvest and the Human Factor

Chile had an abundant resource of fish and shellfish.  If people were employed in the traditional fishing industry rather than in salmon farming, they would live with much more dignity and produce a higher quality product.  People and the natural environment would thrive under proper stewardship.  However, corporate growth and greed in the food industry is destroying our planet.   Marine Harvest and other giant food industries focus on one part of the ecosystem – salmon, or soybeans or whatever rakes in the big money – all at the expense of people, the earth and its flora and fauna.

WWF admits to taking money from Marine Harvest.  They claim that the salmon industry will benefit Chile’s coastal inhabitants by creating paying jobs.  The salmon industry has not benefited the coastal inhabitants one iota.

Imagine working in the stench of dead and rotting salmon without protective clothing or face masks.  The dead salmon are packed in sacks in left until a ship can collect them so this working environment is common.

Silos surround the fish farms.  They act as oxygen compressors to give artificial respiration to the sea and salmon. The overcrowded salmon suffocate without enough oxygen. About 6,000 Chilean salmon divers must chase away sea lions looking for a meal.  Those sea lions can be very territorial over a possible meal. 

The divers use a garden hose type apparatus (not real scuba diving equipment) to perform this work.  The tubes are often damaged and torn.  Divers can get tangled up in nets and are unable to resurface.  Regulations state they can only dive to 20 feet, but the company forces them to dive to 40 feet. Each salmon farm must have a decompression chamber within a radius of 500 meters but usually they don’t exist or are defective.  Dead divers cost the company little and they do die on the job on a regular basis. 

No matter what Marine Harvest does, the justice system protects perpetrators, not victims.  And so does the WWF.

WWF Sustainability Certification

The global “Aquaculture Dialogue” program  was another project of the WWF.  The certification would greenwash the ugly truth of poorly run $almon farms.  Companies must pay for this certification so there is money to be made by those who issue the certificates.

Certification Standards of the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) and ASC (Aquaculture Stewardship Council) exclude genetically modified salmon and requires disclosure of the use of any transgenic GMO material used in feed.   However, GE modified salmon will likely obtain approval and green certification at some time.  

In 2013 a US biotech company, Aquabounty, produced the first genetically engineered salmon.  The GM salmon eggs are now mass produced and marketed.  Marine Harvest claimed it would not consider farming GE salmon.  However, how could such a corporation resist the new “frankenfish” that grow twice as fast as the old farm-bred salmon?  Don’t  trust them to turn away the opportunity for twice the profits for 2x the amount of salmon flesh.

According to the WWF website: “Always ask for sustainably sourced salmon. Even if it isn't available, demand for sustainable seafood will drive fisheries and retailers towards a sustainable future. Look for MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) certification on salmon and salmon products.”

One Last Note

We have touched briefly on  the salmon industry but there is more WWF-style “sustainability” in Chile. Chile’s forests have been turned into pulp lumber operations which bear the FSC “eco-label”. The Forest Stewardship Council certification was also co-founded by the WWF.  Destruction of animal habitat for profit was supported by them.  No people can live on the corporate lands, of course. Those that work for the pulp mills, work in sub-standard conditions.  It’s the same old story worldwide.

References and Further Reading

Americas Program Biodiversity Report—April 2010.  Carmelo Ruiz Marreo.

Certification: Watch out for the 'Abominable Salmon Council' - bringing 'responsible' farmed salmon to a supermarket near you soon!   The Global Alliance against Sustainable Aquaculture.   

Greenpeace Seafood Sustainability Report. Carting Away the Oceans. (2013)

 

PandaLeaks: The Dark Side of the WWF.   (Wilfried Huismann)

Some WWF Corporate benefactors:

Coca-Cola 

Shell, Monsanto, HSBC, Cargill, BP, Alcoa and Marine Harvest

MSC and ASC accredited Salmon Producers:

Cermaq 

Other ASC accredited salmon Farms 

Certified Chain of Custody Suppliers are also listed in this section

MSC Certified “Fisheries” by Region

(this is not the most user friendly site - but the information is there)

Agriforestry, the Biofuel Industry and Greenwashing: Decimating Forests and Native Cultures

Consumer Beware
I am including this information because many conscientious people want to buy healthy products that are good for themselves and good for the earth. Holistic health and sustainable products go hand in hand but just because a product may have a green stamp of approval does not make it truly sustainable or for the highest good of all. This caveat also applies to unethical GMO labeling that claims to be non-GMO, gluten free but really isn’t. Big Bu$iness is all about making money – and the bigger the business, the more likely it is that they are more interested in marketing strategies, misrepresentations and buying certifications rather than working for the good of the planet and its people. Monsanto's soybean business in Mexico, Central and South America parallels the agri-forest business model.

Green is the Color of Big Money
Since many exposes have been well researched and written about the World Wildlife Fund aka Worldwide Fund for Nature, I will focus on this organization. Many other NGOs and non-profits have followed and used them as a “successful?” business model. I have listed a few reference documents at the end of the article where you can read further and learn more.

The WWF began decades ago with a goal to control large areas of land that would be made into animal parks and sanctuaries. However, in doing so, native peoples that had lived there, survived there and sustainably managed their homeland for centuries, were evacuated by any method deemed necessary. Sound familiar? The foreign interlopers, wealthy hunters and tourists did not want to be around these “ignorant and backwards savages.” That is, unless, these native peoples were doing their bidding for slave wages and performing cheap travesties of their cultural rituals and dances for a few coins.

The foreigners, in their superior knowledge (EGO) attempted to educate the natives about their own land and how to better manage it. Let that sink in when you think of our smoggy cities, polluted water and air, poisoned fields of crops, urban sprawl and other problems our own culture has generated. The result of this green meddling and control is that both animals and native people have suffered greatly. Both have lost habitat. Both have been diminished in numerous ways. Both have been threatened and endangered.

Over the years, the WWF published fund raising appeals to pull at the heartstrings and purse strings of well-meaning people who gladly donated thousands and thousands of dollars to save the “forlorn animals” featured in pictures published by the non-profit organization. The monies were promptly deposited in Swiss bank accounts where the WWF headquarters are located. It wasn’t long before the WWF mascot would be dubbed “the pander bear” since they worked both sides of the street, so to speak. They took money from conservation minded and animal loving individuals while also receiving monies from large corporations that wanted to exploit valuable lands for a good price via leases with the WWF. Sustainability has become a buzzword that implies a positive treatment of the earth, but in reality, all too often greenwashes the unpleasant and inconvenient truth.

While the native people were and still are losing their lands, traditional livelihoods and cultures – the wealthy corporations have a ready-made, inexpensive labor force to exploit along with the lands they have taken. The natives often work as little more than slave labor, barely surviving. They can be laid off at any time and work in harsh and polluted environments caused by industry. The water they once fished in is polluted. Pesticide use has rendered the once fertile soil useless for true sustainable farming.

Meanwhile, the land that wasn’t used to grow forests – and for this article I will focus on the palm oil tree forests – are small parcels of land are “protected” for animals and eco-tourism, if that. These are referred to as “High Conservation Value Areas” while everything else is slashed and burned to plant trees. Hunting, planting and even entering high conservation areas is often forbidden. Some of the areas are secondary growth and do not provide enough area or food resources for animals to survive. They are designated high value areas only because the land is unsuitable to grow palms.

And by the way, many eco-parks allow hunting of big game – for a price, of course. They justify this of culling and over-population of animals while the WWF continues to beseech good honest folk for more donations to save them! If the animals get in the way of the corporate producers, hunters are hired to kill them.

All in the Name of Biofuel
Passport to Big Business: RSPO and the RSPO Green Palm Oil label

Indonesia is paradise – if you are a palm oil producer. If you are an orangutan or native, it is the opposite. The WWF doesn’t have any orangutan projects in Indonesia or run any rescue centers where animals can find shelter. The few national parks where they live are secondary forests and those are rapidly disappearing. Six out of nine orangutan habitats in the Wilmar plantation areas have been destroyed. Nevertheless, they still receive certification from the Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil. All it takes is some of the world’s best known, universal palm oil (Money) to obtain the label.

You might also find it interesting that the WWF has a banking partnership with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). This “green” bank has financed the majority of loans to the biofuel energy sector. Corporations need money to keep them afloat until the palm trees yield their first fruits after five years. Other banks, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), provide “green” loans as well.

Biofuels and Carbon Offsets 
Because slashing and burning forests to plant new tree plantations generates constant raging fires, Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest CO2 polluters. Ironically, biofuel from palm oil is considered a “climate-friendly” energy source because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) simply doesn’t factor the greenhouse gases emitted during production. hmmmm

The WWF joined forces in 2004 with the multinational food giant Unilever (headquartered in Zurich. Unilever, along with over 500 other companies – producers, traders, and financiers – are fee-paying members of the RSPO - the Round Table of Sustainable Palm Oil. The list includes such corporations like Bayer, Cargill, DuPont, Henkel, Mitsubishi, Nestlé, Shell, ADM, IKEA, Unilever, Rabobank, HSBC Bank and the energy giant RWE. All of them are on board because the “sustainable” label spells profit and lots of it.

Palm oil is an ingredient in thousands of consumer goods from soaps, cosmetics and detergents to margarine, sweets and pastries. It has been sold to Europeans as a “renewable” fuel for cars and power plants.

These giants in biofuel have no problem getting their sustainable certificates because there is no independent oversight authority to ensure compliance with standards. In other words, the standards are not worth the paper they are printed on. But the exploitation doesn’t end there. Palm oil agribusinesses discovered a lucrative new sector – the trade in carbon credits. Companies that clear forests for industry but conserve a few “high-value” areas, are rewarded with credits for “avoided carbon emissions.” This system is a product of the United Nations REDD program (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). This panel also participates in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Carbon credits are then sold for cash value on the climate exchange.

That's right....they get carbon credits for land they couldn't use to grow palm oil trees on anyway. Furthermore, renewable energy certificates (RECs) are given for running an oil mills on palm oil instead of diesel. Another way to obtain even more RECs are to plant oil palms on fallow forest areas and deforested land and call these reforestation initiatives!!! Win-Win-Win BINGO

The WWF added their own new sustainability seal of approval called an International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) which is applicable to all biomass products that can be used to produce fuel. This helps to facilitate international trade but doesn’t do anything to protect nature or wildlife. Ka-Ching! It's a rigged game, every time.

Sustainable BS. Fungicides and insecticides including Paraquat (produced by Syngenta) are used on the palm tree plantations and have eliminated all other plant and animal life. Nothing is being sustained except corporate greed. The stench of untreated waste water from the biofuel mills is reported to be overwhelming.  It is metaphorical evidence for what is really going on in the palm oil forests.   The polluted effluent runs through open trenches and then sinks into the ground, contaminating nearby rivers and streams. Toxic green lakes are created by this mess.

The impact on the health of people, wildlife, fish and the earth is great. And the corporations exploit every aspect of the palm plantations they can without giving back anything. So while we in the northern hemisphere of the planet generally believe that palm oil and biofuel are excellent ways to help our earth and reduce air pollution and carbon footprints etc., nothing could be further from the truth.  


References and Further Reading:

ANATOMY OF A CON JOB: Exposing the players and the scams behind the “sustainability” movement!  John Truman Wolfe

Are You Eating Dirty Palm Oil? The Environmental Impacts of the Palm Oil Industry. 
One Green Planet

Cloak of Green: The Lines between Key Environmental Groups, Government and Big Business. Elaine DeWar. (1995)

Death of Sustainability.  Glenn Hurowitz. Grist. (2013)

Orangutans – Victims of Sustainable Palm Oil in Indonesia. Digital Journal: Anne Sewell: 18 April 2013 

Panda Leaks: The Dark Side of the WWF. Wilfred Hussmann. (2014)

Round Table of Sustainable Palm Oil – Member corporations

RSPO Trademark Product Gallery

World Wide Government Fund: Does WWF Protect Nature? Parts I and II. Published by Stichting de Groene Rekenkamer. www.gorenerekenkamer.nl (2012)   (If this link does not work for you - search the for the Title of this paper and you should be able to download both Part I and II in pdf form)

Monsanto Settles in GMO Wheat Case

http://northernag.net/AGNews/AgNewsStories/TabId/657/ArtMID/2927/ArticleID/3599/Monsanto-Settles-in-GMO-Wheat-Case.aspx

Monsanto Settles in GMO Wheat Case

Friday, November 14, 2014/

by Katie Micik, DTN Markets Editor

OMAHA (DTN) -- Monsanto Co. announced Wednesday it has reached a settlement with soft white wheat growers over the discovery of genetically engineered wheat on a farm in Oregon in May 2013, which led to temporary restrictions on exports.

Monsanto will set aside $2.125 million for a settlement fund for farmers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho who sold soft white winter wheat between May 30, 2013, and Nov. 30, 2013.

Under the agreement terms, Monsanto will also give a total of $250,000 to wheat growers' associations, including $100,000 to the National Wheat Foundation and $50,000 each to Washington Association of Wheat Growers, the Oregon Wheat Growers' League and the Idaho Grain Producers' Association.

In the event any portion of the settlement funds remain after claims are paid, up to $250,000 will be added to the donations to wheat organizations.

"Rather than paying the costs of protracted litigation, this agreement puts that money to work in research and development efforts for the wheat industry, while providing a negotiated level of compensation for farmers with documented soft white wheat sales from May 30 to Nov. 30, 2013," Kyle McClain, Monsanto chief litigation counsel, said in a press release. "Resolution in this manner is reasonable and in the best interest of all of the parties."

Monsanto did not admit liability under the settlement, nor did it settle complaints with farmers that grew other types of wheat besides soft white winter. Litigation is ongoing in Kansas.

In the spring of 2013, an Oregon farmer found wheat that continued to grow after several treatments with glyphosate, also known as Roundup, on roughly 1% of one field. Testing showed the wheat contained Monsanto's Roundup Ready trait even though research on that trait ended almost a decade earlier.

The U.S.' top export markets for soft white wheat -- Japan, Taiwan and South Korea -- temporarily halted and tested shipments for the presence of the trait. Ninety percent of soft white winter wheat is exported each year, and cash prices initially dropped at Pacific Northwest ports on fears of contamination.

Whitman Co., Washington, farmer and Washington Grain Commission member Randy Suess said prices eventually recovered because tight soft white wheat supplies were followed by another small crop. Relationships with Asian buyers are on the mend, too.

"A lot of them (Asian buyers) said they appreciate our openness and willingness to share information," he said about a recent marketing conference. This year's soft white wheat crop has relatively high protein, which affects the baking quality for the cookies, crackers and pastries it's used in.

He did say the Japanese are still testing wheat shipments for the presence of genetically engineered traits. Since no biotech wheat varieties have been commercialized, the concern now comes from low-level presence of corn or soybean traits. The wheat industry is still trying to reassure Japan the testing is unnecessary.

A 10-month-long investigation by USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service couldn't determine how the Roundup-resistant variety got onto the Oregon farm after interviewing nearly 300 farmers, grain elevators operators, crop consultants and wheat researchers.

APHIS said that further testing on the wheat variety showed it was not a commercial variety of wheat, and its genetic characteristics were more representative of a breeding program. APHIS found no evidence it entered commerce.

Suess said he's glad APHIS' investigation couldn't explain the appearance of the biotech trait or say that the wheat was of a particular class. There was no one to point a finger at, and "it feels good to have this whole thing behind us."

When APHIS announced the results of its Oregon investigation, it also announced the discovery of genetically engineered wheat on a university research farm in Montana. Suess said that case didn't create many phone calls and almost seemed like a moot point to the market since the wheat in question wasn't sold commercially.

Suess was not acquainted with the details of the settlement with Monsanto.

Claims in the case will be handled by Heffler Claims Group. Soft white wheat farmers seeking a claim form or more information about the claims process can call 855-229-7512 or submit claims through the website.

Bibb v Monsanto Class Action Suit

Bibb v. Monsanto Company
Civil Action No. 04-C-465
Pending in the Circuit Court of Putnam County, West Virginia

Big wins can happen in small places. The West Virginia State Supreme Court finalized a big blow to the biotech giant Monsanto this month, finishing a settlement causing Monsanto to pay $93 million to the tiny town of Nitro, West Virginia for poisoning citizens with Agent Orange chemicals.

The West Virginia State Supreme Court finalized a big blow to the biotech giant Monsanto this month, finishing a settlement causing Monsanto to pay $93 million to the tiny town of Nitro, West Virginia for poisoning citizens with Agent Orange chemicals.

Links about this case and the settlement

Excerpt From The West Virginia Gazette

"For more than 50 years, the Monsanto plant churned out herbicides, rubber products and other chemicals. The plant’s production of Agent Orange, a defoliant deployed widely in the Vietnam War, created dioxin as a toxic chemical byproduct.

In a 2008 class action suit, residents sought medical monitoring for at least 5,000 — and perhaps as many as 80,000 — current and former Nitro, WV residents.

Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, endometriosis and other infertility problems, and suppressed immune functions. The chemical builds up in tissue over time, meaning that even a small exposure can accumulate to dangerous levels.

. . . . .

Between 3,000 and 5,000 people are estimated to be eligible for the medical tests. The initial health screening will include blood tests and a standard health history report. Also, samples will be taken to determine how much dioxin participants have in their blood. Other blood tests will be used to determine blood sugar, cholesterol and blood count, which can provide early detection of cancer and other diseases. These tests would then be performed every five years. If 25 percent or more of the participants in the program are found to have more than certain “background” levels of dioxin in their blood, increased frequency of the medical tests kicks in, from every five years to every two years, which Monsanto has agreed to provide up to $63 million in additional funding for, according to court documents.

Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.

This case can have far reaching affects!  Let's hope that other towns and cities across the nation will follow suit!