It’s not every day you meet the head of Monsanto, which is why actor Mark Ruffalo knew he needed to take advantage of the opportunity and speak out for millions when he addressed the company’s CEO, Hugh Grant.
Before a segment for the movie Spotlight with Mike Rezendez, Ruffalo was in the green room watching Grant on screen giving “slippery non-answer[s] to every question he was asked.”
Ruffalo wrote that he was disgusted watching the “guy who is responsible for so much misery and sickness throughout the world slime his way through his interview.” Which is why when Grant came through the green room, he simply told him this:
“You are wrong. You are engaged in monopolizing food. You are poisoning people. You are killing small farms. You are killing bees. What you are doing is dead wrong.”
Likely taken a bit aback, Grant responded: “Well, what I think we are doing is good.”
Of course he did. And then the exchange was over.
But not before Mark had the opportunity to contemplate the evil of Monsanto and outline the written piece he would soon share with EcoWatch.
The informed activist knows that when people get paid the kind of money Grant gets paid, their thinking becomes incredibly clouded and the first thing to go is their morality.
It’s sad, but it’s time the public is made aware of how toxic greed can be to innate humble nature.
“Hugh, it’s not your messaging that makes you and your company horrible. It’s the horrible stuff you guys do that makes you and your company horrible. People don’t walk around making horrible stories up about good companies because they got nothing else better to do with their time. People like you and your company are horrible because … you are horrible. No matter how much jumping around you do on morning shows (where no one can really nail you down for the horrible stuff you do), you will still always be horrible and people will always greet you the way I did, when you go around trying to cover up the fact that you are horrible,” wrote Ruffalo.
The actor backed up these claims with facts in his lengthy article to raise awareness about the wrongdoings of the biotech company. You can read more here.
As per Tumbler, Monsanto’s greatest hit jobs:
In 2003, Monsanto settled a lawsuit for $700 million with 20,000 Anniston, AL residents who claimed that a Monsanto plant contaminated the local rivers, lakes, soil and air with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Plaintiffs reported a range of health issues including cancer, birth defects, and neurological disorders.
NYTimes: $700 Million Settlement in Alabama PCB Lawsuit
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/21/business/700-million-settlement-in-alabama-pcb-lawsuit.html
CBS News: Toxic Secret: Alabama Town Never Warned of Contamination
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/toxic-secret-07-11-2002/
In 2012, Monsanto settled a lawsuit with tens of thousands of plaintiffs in West Virginia for $93 million. Residents of Nitro, WV claimed they had been poisoned by decades of contamination from cancer-causing chemicals used in the manufacturing of Agent Orange produced in a Monsanto plant.
The Guardian: Monsanto Settles ‘Agent Orange’ Case with US Victims
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/feb/24/monsanto-agent-orange-west-virginia
In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organization, concluded in a study that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s widely used weedkilling product Roundup, was “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
World Health Organization:
http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf
Shortly after the IARC’s study was made public, France took steps to limit the sale of Roundup. France has also banned the cultivation of genetically modified crops.
Reuters: Frances Bolsters Ban on Genetically Modified Crops
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/17/us-france-gmo-idUSKCN0RH1BV20150917#fXGsoHblh5ZgGJm3.97
Newsweek: Frances Bans Sale of Monsanto’s Roundup in Garden Centers After UN Names it Probable Carcinogen
http://www.newsweek.com/france-bans-sale-monsantos-roundup-garden-centers-after-un-names-it-probable-343311
In September 2015, a French appeals court in Lyon upheld a decision that held Monsanto liable for poisoning a French farmer. The grain farmer, Paul Francois, developed neurological damage after inhaling Monsanto’s weedkilling product Lasso.
Reuters: French Court Confirms Monsanto Liable in Chemical Poisoning Case
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/11/us-france-monsanto-court-idUSKCN0RA1UM20150911#bPqGhYIjCbbUQwBl.97
Le Monde: Monsanto Condamné pour L’Intoxicite d’un Agriculteur Français
http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2015/09/10/monsanto-condamne-en-appel-pour-la-toxicite-de-son-hebrbicide-lasso_4751628_3244.html
In September 2015, two U.S. farm workers filed suit against Monsanto claiming that exposure to Roundup caused them to develop cancer.
Reuters: US Workers Sue Monsanto Claiming Herbicide Caused Cancer
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/29/us-monsanto-lawsuit-idUSKCN0RT2L220150929#H4LdTbt1hK86CxcU.97
You can find reports of Monsanto products being linked to cancer and other health issues all over the world, for example:
Argentina is the world’s third largest soy-producing country. According to Mother Jones, nearly 100% of the soy crop is genetically altered, and Monsanto’s Roundup is very widely used. As the use of pesticides and herbicides in Argentina has increased, cancer clusters have begun to develop around farming communities. A 2010 study at the University of Buenos Aires also found that injecting glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) into chicken and frog embryos caused the same sort of spinal defects that doctors have found to be increasingly prevalent in communities where farm chemicals are used.
Mother Jones: Argentina is Using More Pesticides than Ever. And Now It Has Cancer Clusters.
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2013/10/argentina-cancer-cluster-pesticide
On Monsanto Suing Small Farmers:
The Guardian: Monsanto Sued Small Farmers to Protect Seed Patents
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/12/monsanto-sues-farmers-seed-patents
Vanity Fair: Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/05/monsanto200805 https://www.youtube.com/embed/mO7mx8Emv78?si=NNyEbTYQCLdaRkIz
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