by Anna Hess
August 20, 2013
from
TakePart Website
Agricultural giant Monsanto
has committed many a wrong
over its 112 year history.
Here are some of the highlights.
The list of Monsanto’s economic, agricultural, chemical and
biological wrongs is virtually endless.
A
recent study completed by the Food and Water
Watch details Monsanto’s controversial chemical past,
which includes the creation of numerous superfund sites and the
U.S.’s largest-ever chemical disasters - just to name a couple.
Since its inception in 1901, Monsanto has monopolized global markets
and put consumers (and even American soldiers) at risk.
Here’s a
roundup of some of Monsanto’s major misconducts:
Unleashing PCBs
In the 1930s, Monsanto began
producing
PCBs (polychlorinated
biphenyls), which were used as coolants and lubricants in
electronics.
PCBs are chockfull of
life-threatening toxins that are carcinogenic and harmful to
the,
-
liver
-
endocrine system
-
immune system
-
reproductive
system
-
developmental system
-
skin
-
eyes
-
brain,
...basically every part of the body, according to
Food and Water Watch.
Until they were banned in 1976,
99 percent of all the PCBs in the U.S. were produced at a
single Monsanto plant in Sauget, Illinois.
The SS Grandcamp Explosion
Monsanto’s noxious chemicals
were responsible for the largest and most deadly U.S.
chemical disaster to date, according to
Food and Water Watch.
In 1947, the
SS Grandcamp was being
loaded at a Monsanto dock in Texas when the 2,500 tons of
ammonium nitrate on board exploded. The blast killed 500
people.
Agent Orange
During the Vietnam War, Monsanto
produced the
defoliant herbicide Agent Orange for
the U.S. government.
Dioxin, an extremely potent
carcinogen, is created as a byproduct of Agent Orange’s
manufacturing process. 18 million gallons of the toxic
herbicide was dropped on jungles and farms in Vietnam
between 1962 and 1971 as part of an effort to eliminate
cover for enemy soldiers and create food shortages.
Vietnamese and
American war vets alike
have suffered from the herbicide’s powerful toxins.
Peppering the U.S. with Toxic Dumps
A superfund site is
essentially an overpoweringly potent toxic waste bin.
After Monsanto
transitioned to a predominately agricultural company in the
late '90s, the megacorp abandoned their chemical-laden
factories all over the United States - and
41 of them have since been
classified as superfund sites.
Monsanto also created
EPA-designated toxic wastelands in Georgia, Idaho, Illinois,
Alabama, West Virginia and Missouri that are laden with
arsenic, radium, PCBs, dioxin and many other carcinogenic
poisons, according to the
EPA and the
Food and Water Watch.
Pioneering GMOs
Monsanto’s scientists were the
very first to tamper with Mother Nature’s DNA.
In 1982,
Monsanto genetically
modified a plant cell for the first time, kick-starting the
rise of - and subsequent war against -
GMOs.
Monsanto & Co.
are the guys to thank.
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