Is It Just Bad Press Or Is Monsanto Involved in Yet More Threats To Human Health?

The corporate behemoth, Monsanto, garnered the title of Worst Company of 2011 by Natural Society for "threatening both human health and the environment."

Back in December, the group of internet hackers known as Anonymous, claimed to have disrupted the operations of the Bivings Group, which ran marketing campaigns for Monsanto. It's hard to verify this last point, since the website for the Bivings Group now redirects to a company called Brick Factory, started by former Bivings Group employees. Anonymous sent a video message to Monsanto: We fight for farmers!

On Facebook, there is a Global Day of Action - Shut Down Monsanto scheduled for March 16, 2012. And the location? Anywhere there is a Monsanto Facility.

Comments on the event page point to an article/video depicting how Monsanto forced Fox News to censor coverage of the Monsanto's dangerous drug, rBGH, the genetically engineered bovine growth hormone found in dairy products. Interestingly, this is old news.

Minutes after viewing this video, I noticed an online petition opposing the appointment of former Monsanto Vice President, Michael Taylor, to senior advisor to the U.S. Commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This is rather old news as well.

Why so much bad press outside the mainstream media? I think Monsanto epitomizes the corporate model that has brought out the ire of the Occupy Movement. Monsanto has manipulated scientific research, government regulations, and the media to achieve market supremacy. They have done this at the expense of our health, our lives, and our planet. In Occupy parlance, they value profits over people. As Anonymous puts it, Monsanto continues to do this by -

• Contaminating the global food chain with genetically modified organisms.
• Intimidating small farmers with bullying and lawsuits.
• Propagating the use of destructive pesticides and herbicides across the globe.
• Using “Terminator Technology”, which renders plants sterile.
• Attempting to hijack UN climate change negotiations for their own fiscal benefit.
• Reducing farmland to desert through monoculture and the use of synthetic fertilizers.
• Inspiring suicides of hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers.
• Causing birth defects by continuing to produce the pesticide “Round-up”
• Attempting to bribe foriegn officials
• Infiltrating anti-GMO groups

The fired Fox News reporters would add that they exert control over the Food & Drug Administration, rig the research concerning their products, and suppress news coverage of these activities. This is not in any way meant to be an exhaustive tirade exposing the sins of Mansanto. And it's not breaking news; this has been going on for years. But, it is resurfacing and has been making the rounds over the last few days.

Update: Here are more recent articles of interest -

• February 7, 2012: Short Monsanto, From Ethical Imperative to Capital Markets Earth Defense Trade Strategy
• February 10, 2012: Farmers advance in their suit against Monsanto