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Monsanto’s Harvest of FearMonsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics—ruthless legal battles against small farmers—is its decades-long history of toxic contamination. We speak to James Steele, contributing editor at Vanity Fair.
James Steele, investigative journalist and Vanity Fair contributing editor. He is co-author of the article Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear
AMY GOODMAN: Monday’s top story on the popular financial website Kiplinger.com begins with this advice to potential investors: “Everywhere you look people are grumbling—and in many cases rioting—about the high price of food. Before you buy a 20-pound bag of rice at Costco, consider hording shares of Monsanto.”
It’s true. While the rising cost of food pushes millions around the world into deeper hunger and scarcity, agricultural companies like Monsanto are posting record profits. The top seed maker in the world, Monsanto’s stock has gained 95 percent over the past year and 1,600 percent over the past five years. Monsanto’s profits topped $1.6 billion in the first quarter, up 37 percent from the same quarter last year.
Monsanto rose to prominence as one of the leading chemical giants of the twentieth century, but its focus today is agriculture. A company statement says, “At Monsanto, we apply innovation and technology to help farmers around the world be more successful, produce healthier foods, and better animal feeds, and create more fiber, all while reducing agriculture’s impact on the environment.”
But critics have accused Monsanto of undermining local farmers and public health through a wide means of corporate bullying. The latest issue of Vanity Fair has a lengthy article profiling some of Monsanto’s controversial corporate practices, from patenting seeds to fighting warning labels on milk cartons. It’s called “Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear.”
Vanity Fair contributing editor James Steele joins us here in our firehouse studio. He is the co-author of the piece, along with Donald Bartlett. And we welcome you to Democracy Now!, Jim.
JAMES STEELE: Nice to be with you, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: Why did you look at Monsanto?
JAMES STEELE: I think one of the reasons, it’s one of these companies that’s sort of below the radar screen to a lot of Americans at this point, and one of the things that fascinated us is the transformation of this company. I think a lot of people think of them for chemicals, fibers, all of those things that the name—that the company made its reputation on. But below that, in recent years, has been this remarkable revolution, where they are now an agricultural company, a life sciences company, and they want to completely put their chemical past behind them, in that sense, to concentrate on these new areas: genetically modified seeds and artificial supplements to increase milk production, and so forth. So it became just one of those interesting companies that people sort of know the name, but they don’t really know much about. That’s the kind of thing that’s always appealed to Don and me. ......(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/6/monsantos_harvest_of_fear
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