Monsanto : Patent for a Pig

The Monsanto family were the first documented Jewish settlers to have migrated to New Orleans from the Netherlands in 1758. They were known slave owners and slave traders of 18th century. In 1901, the Monsanto family founded their eponymous chemical company. Its history is intimately linked to the production and promotion of highly toxic chemicals such as the herbicide, Agent Orange (used as a chemical weapon in the Vietnam war, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects), and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls, which can affect fertility, child development, the immune system, and increase the risk of certain cancers). Monsanto has known about the “systematic toxic effects” of such chemicals for decades, but has instructed its salespeople to maintain silence because, “we can’t afford to lose one dollar.” The gigantic biotech corporation now imperils the agricultural biodiversity which has supported life for thousands of years. The endless list of genetically modified seeds now sold and controlled via strict patents by Monsanto endanger age-old agricultural patterns under the presumptuous slogan of ending world hunger. What they really want is to control the future of the world’s food supply — that is, to enforce world hunger — much in the same manner, and with the same effect, that they control every aspect of life in occupied Palestine today. -W.