Monsanto Manipulated Data, New Documents Reveal Details

Ring of Fire’s Sam Seder and Farron Cousins recently released documents that show Monsanto Executives were colluding with EPA officials to manipulate scientific data.

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Sam: So, Farron, before we talk about the really blockbuster news from this week regarding Monsanto, let's go back and talk about the history of the EPA and Monsanto's Roundup, which of course is known as a glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in Roundup. Just give us some background so that people understand where we are as of this week with the release of these documents, what that means. But just give us some background on Roundup.

Farron: Well, basically, in 1985, Roundup had been on the market for several years. 1985 the EPA, after studying it for many, many years, decided they were going to classify it as a possible human carcinogen. And then after six years, six years ago they had said, "Yeah, okay, possible human carcinogen."

In 1991, they decided to, I guess, take a second look at Monsanto's request and for some reason looked at the exact same science, the exact same studies, that showed that there was a connection between exposure to glyphosate and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. They looked at the exact same science. Nothing had changed, and they said, "Okay, we're going to take away this possible human carcinogen designation, and now you're free to go, Mr. Monsanto."

Here's the kicker on this. That happened just about six months before GMOs produced by Monsanto hit the market. And those GMOs, people need to understand, were basically created so that Monsanto could sell the seeds that were resistant to Roundup, then sell Roundup by the barrel for them to go dump on all of the crops. The crops wouldn't be hurt. It's going to kill all the weeds. Less tillage, less work for you, if you buy our seeds and our poison. They have quite literally and figuratively at this point made a killing off of everything Roundup and Roundup-Ready related since that initial decision change in 1991.

Sam: Roundup-Ready is the term that we basically use when we're talking about an agricultural product that is designed to be resistant to Roundup, as opposed to, I guess, theoretically the weeds around it. Now, so, every 15 years, federal law ... And it's at least 15 years ... The longest period of time a pesticide or an herbicide can go without being reviewed again is 15 years, and they really pushed it to the limit, didn't they? The EPA just started looking at it again, I guess, last year.

Farron: They did, and here's the thing that's happened since then. We have seen study after study. We've had the World Health Organization come out and designate this as a probable human carcinogen. The IARC Agency has come out basically said the same thing. Independent studies from universities, from independent scientists, they're all coming to virtually the same conclusion, and that is that there is a higher instance of specific cancers like non-Hodgkins lymphoma along with a whole host of other diseases that are related directly, according to these studies, to exposure to Monsanto's Roundup.

So, finally, the EPA once again came back and said, "Okay, I guess we're a little past due on this issue, so we're going to look at it again," and that's one of the reasons why Monsanto has once again found itself in the headlines. Not because the EPA is reviewing it, but because of what they're trying to do with the EPA while they're reviewing this particular herbicide.