A bad day for Monsanto and a good day for public health in Europe

March 10, 2016 12:02 am0 CommentsViews: 4

by Aisha Dodwell

Flickr/Mike Mozart
A BATTLE of corporate profit vs peoples needs has been fought out at the European Union over the past two
days as heated negotiations took place about the re-licensing of a chemical that probably causes cancer in
humans. It just so happens that this very same chemical makes millions in profit for the giant chemical and
seed company Monsanto.
For now, neither side has emerged victorious as the decision about whether to re-license glyphosate, which was
due to be voted on today, has been postponed until May. The news of postponement would have come as a
particular blow to Monsanto who have a lot at stake glyphosate is the key ingredient in Monsantos flagship
product Roundup, the worlds most widely sprayed weed-killer and the product responsible for one third of
Monsantos total earnings.
It is used everywhere from our gardens, local parks and school playgrounds to our food, clothes and cosmetic
products. In the last ten years 6,133 million kilos have been sprayed globally and its use is rapidly increasing.
Glyphosate is now so widespread that traces can be found in one out of every three loaves of bread consumed
in the UK, it appears in all of Germanys top 14 beers and it recently made headlines after being identified in
numerous feminine hygiene products across Europe.
For those of us who take seriously the publics wellbeing, and are less interested in Monsantos profit margins,
the pending decision about whether or not to relicense glyphosate for another 15 years has a lot resting on it.
Concerns about the safety of glyphosate were corroborated by the World Health Organisations 2015
breakthrough study finding glyphosate to be probably carcinogenic to humans.
This serious threat to public health was behind the decision of a number of member states including France,
Sweden and Italy to announce in recent days that they would be voting against the re-licensing of glyphosate.
It also drove 1.5million people to sign Avaazs petition urging the EU not to re-license it.
This resistance to one of Monsantos key chemicals goes beyond Europe with hundreds of bans, restrictions
and campaigns across the world. From countries such as Sri Lanka, El Salvador and Colombia either banning
or restricting its use, to local communities in New York and California banning it from their public spaces.
Instead of following suit and taking steps to protect all European citizens from this chemical, the EU called for
its own European Food Standard Agency (EFSA) to carry out an alternative study. Their conclusions reject the
WHOs findings and claim glyphosate is in fact safe for humans.
Having two studies with such conflicting conclusions is confusing for anyone who simply wants to avoid

eating food that has been sprayed with cancer causing chemicals, or just wants to avoid using toxic products in
their gardens. But what makes it worse is that this cant be resolved by a simple process like having
independent scientists re-visit the two studies, or even allow people to compare the two and make a decision
themselves. This is because of EFSAs insistence that the data used in their study remains strictly secret and
unavailable for any external scrutiny. The secretive study has also kept anonymous the names of the
researchers. This makes it impossible to know whether any conflicted interests were at stake, which is
particularly worrying given that EFSAs research into product safety are well known to be reliant on industry
sponsored studies.
This is all in stark contrast to the WHO study which has made public all its data and named all the scientists
involved.
It was this scandalous lack of transparency that triggered some 96 prominent scientists to write a fierce letter
calling for the EFSA findings to be disregarded.
You dont need to be an expert in scientific research to find it mind boggling that the European Commission
wants to make a decision, with such serious implications for peoples health, on the conclusions of a secret
study while disregarding the WHO findings. The sensible thing to do, if of course the main concern is public
wellbeing, would be to exercise the precautionary principle and stop the use of glyphosate once and for all.
While it is notoriously difficult to unravel the specific details of the secretive way in which Monsanto works in
influencing these decisions, they are well known for exerting power behind closed doors via lobbying groups
such as the European Association for Bioindustries (Europabio), the Crop Protection Association and the
glyphosate Task Force. According to lobbying monitor group Corporate Europe Observatory Monsantos
lobbying activities in Europe are hidden, secretive and dirty.
If approved, the implications go beyond Europe and beyond Roundup. If global leaders can continue to
approve Monsantos products despite serious public health concerns, and based on secret evidence, then we
need to be seriously worried because Monsanto currently positions itself as the global expert on sustainable
food production. It is among a handful of large companies in the agriculture industry who are increasingly
pitted as the solution to feeding the worlds growing population. A reputation that Monsanto fiercely defends
with slick PR campaigns, and a 90 million annual advertising budget.
Monsanto is hugely influential in global food and agricultural policy, it is regularly given a platform at the
UNs Food and Agriculture body (FAO) and is involved in numerous international agricultural projects and
agreements, increasingly including those related to Africa. It is a part of the New Alliance for Food Security
and Nutrition and GROW Africa. Under the guise of being development projects, these schemes have actually
helped Monsanto expand its African markets and have enforced drastic changes to laws and policies in order to
ensure more favourable business environments for Monsanto and their friends.
Like in Europe, Monsantos Africa division benefits from new rules passed by regional governmental bodies
that help keep Monsantos business booming. Such was the case with the little reported but hugely
controversial 2015 Arusha Protocols an agreement that enforces strict new legislation that is essentially
about the commercialisation of seeds. It gives new rights to private seed breeders and companies (like
Monsanto) while criminalising traditional farming practices of swapping and saving seeds, which is
devastating for small-scale farmers. As expected in such negotiations, Monsanto werent named at the table but
were very much present through their membership of the African Seed Trade Association who had a heavy
presence.
This pattern of Monsanto lurking behind decision makers as they take important decisions regarding our food
and agriculture needs to end if we want a food system that puts the needs of people before profit. Monsanto
needs to be stopped, the health of the world literally depends on it. This is our opportunity to do just that
lets stop this re-licensing and stop Monsanto.
CommonDreams.org, March 8.
Aisha Dodwell is campaigns and policy officer for Global Justice Now.