Monsanto and the Damage Done
Weekend Edition May 15-17, 2015
Neil Young Targets Monsanto
Monsanto and the Damage Done
by COLIN TODHUNTER
Neil Young is reportedly about to release a new album called, The Monsanto Years. Dont expect the lyrics to be music to the ears of the companys executives over in St Louis, however. With falling profits and glyphosate being reclassified by the WHO as probably causing cancer, Monsanto needs Neil Young like it needs a hole in the head.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsantos Roundup herbicide, which was primarily responsible $5.1 billion of Monsantos revenues in 2014. But thats not all. The herbicide is used to support Monsantos Roundup Ready crops, which comprise a significant proportion of its revenue stream.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, herbicide-tolerant biotech plants were grown on virtually all (94 percent) soybean fields in the US last year and on 89 percent of all cornfields. Food & Water Watch found the volume of glyphosate applied to those crops increased almost 1,000 percent between 1996 and 2012, from 15 million pounds to 159 million pounds.
But perhaps the WHOs reclassification presents just another hurdle to be pushed aside by this science-denying company that has such immense influence within the US Environmental Protection Agency so as to have its fraudulent science accepted and studies showing the carcinogenic impact of glyphosate sidelined.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/15/monsanto-and-the-damage-done/