FFS 026 - We Need To Talk About Monsanto

Over the past decade, Monsanto has become a pop cultural bogeyman. Surrounded by controversy, cover-ups, and conspiracies, the agricultural giant is for many the face of corporate evil.

At the same time, the company continues to deliver commercial success. Reporting record sales, the world’s largest seed company shows no signs of slowing down.

In this episode, we talk with Carey Gillam, veteran investigative journalist and author of Whitewash: The story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science.  A former senior correspondent for Reuters, Carey has spent over 20 years covering the agricultural industry and big food business. Today, she continues her work as the research director for consumer advocacy group US Right to Know.

We discuss:

• The origins: how Monsanto came to be the agricultural giant it is today

• Monsanto’s lucrative business model: patented GMO-seeds & ‘Round-up’ weed-killer

• Monsanto, farmers and the Green Revolution

• The GMO controversy

• The rise, dominance (and eventual fall?) of Glyphosate: a controversial pesticide in our food, water, air and bodies

• The ‘Monsanto Papers’: decades of deception come to light

• The EU and Monsanto: head to head

• The Bayer-Monsanto merger: another twist

• Our role as consumers: more than spectators to a horror show?  

Links:

• Carey Gillam Website and Twitter

• Carey Gillam (2017) Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science

• Consumer Advocacy group US Right to Know

• Carey Gillam Presentation at the EU Parliament Hearing on Glyphosate 2017

• New York Times ‘Monsanto’s Roundup faces European Politics and U.S. Lawsuits’

• EU Observer: 'German vote swings EU decision on 5-year glyphosate renewal'

You might also like:

• FFS 024 – The Soilution: Saving our soils, saving ourselves

• FFS 016 – The Most Important Room in the World

• FFS 009 – Stop Generalising GMOs