Chemical companies and food: We are what we eat

New movie damns Monsanto's deadly sins

A new movie has dealt yet another severe blow to the credibility of US based Monsanto, one of the biggest chemical companies in the world and the provider of the seed technology for 90 percent of the world’s genetically engineered (GE) crops.

The French documentary, called “The world according to Monsanto” and directed by independent filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin, paints a grim picture of a company with a long track record of environmental crimes and health scandals.

The story starts in the White House, where Monsanto often got its way by exerting disproportionate influence over policymakers via the “revolving door”. One example is Michael Taylor, who worked for Monsanto as an attorney before being appointed as deputy commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1991. While at the FDA, the authority that deals with all US food approvals, Taylor made crucial decisions that led to the approval of GE foods and crops. Then he returned to Monsanto, becoming the company’s vice president for public policy.

Thanks to these intimate links between Monsanto and government agencies, the US adopted GE foods and crops without proper testing, without consumer labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over their safety. Not coincidentally, Monsanto supplies 90 percent of the GE seeds used by the US market.

Monsanto’s long arm stretched so far that, in the early nineties, the US Food and Drugs Agency even ignored warnings of their own scientists, who were cautioning that GE crops could cause negative health effects. Other tactics the company uses to stifle concerns about their products include misleading advertising, bribery and concealing scientific evidence.

(More here. The U.S. government ignoring scientific evidence? So what else is new?)

Would you like some carbon monoxide with your steak?

Congressmen Demand Answers From Safeway, Meat Packers
By Jodi Seth, Committee on Energy and Commerce
June 26, 2007

Reps. John D. Dingell (Dem.-Michigan), Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak (Dem.-Michigan), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, are demanding that Safeway Stores and three major meat packaging companies respond to concerns about the public health risks posed by meat treated with carbon monoxide.

In letters sent yesterday to Safeway Stores, Inc., Tyson Foods, Inc., Pactiv Corporation and Precept Foods LLC (Hormel Foods Corporation/Cargill Incorporated), Dingell and Stupak questioned the companies’ practice of packing fresh meat in carbon monoxide, which artificially colors the product and disguises spoilage. Safeway Stores, Inc. is the largest, and one of the few, grocery chains that sells meat packed in carbon monoxide.

“American consumers deserve to know that when they purchase food that looks fresh and safe, it actually is,” said Dingell. “We want to hear from Safeway and its meat suppliers about the precautions, warnings and other protections they have put in place to prevent consumers from unknowingly purchasing spoiled or contaminated foods.”

Carbon monoxide treated products find their way onto grocery store shelves through an FDA approval process called Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS). GRAS products are approved without pre-market review because, by FDA standards, they have proven to be sufficiently safe.

More than a year ago, Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats raised concerns about the dangers carbon monoxide packaging poses to the public health, particularly the elderly. In letters dated February 9, 2006, and March 30, 2006, they requested that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) remove products treated with carbon monoxide from markets until the safety of these products could be assessed. These requests were ignored.

(More here.)