Monsanto's dubious ad campaign

June 16, 9:58 AMBoston Sustainable Food ExaminerLeah Bloom

Previous Next

4 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Boston Sustainable Food Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

With the world economy still looking grim, everyone's lives and businesses are being impacted.  In some parts, people are wondering where their next meal will come from.  In others, business men are concerned with how they will be able to continue to sell their products.  And while there has always been a tension between the needs of individuals and the goals of corporations, the conflict of interest is becoming ever more apparent in some sectors.

Take Monsanto, an agricultural company whose bread and butter is genetically modified crop seeds and the pesticides and other chemicals that protect them.  If you listen to "Marketplace" on WBUR, Boston's NPR station, you may have heard the company's newest ad:

"Marketplace is supported by Monsanto, committed to sustainable agriculture, creating hybrid and biotech seeds designed to increase crop yields and conserve natural resources. Learn more at ProduceMoreConserveMore.com."

Why is this a conflict of interest?  These products are expensive, and many are engineered to last only one generation.  For those that do produce viable seeds, Monsanto forbids farmers from saving those seeds, requiring them to buy new stock each year.  Kim Denney, matriarch of Chestnut Farms in Hardwick, MA, sums up the reasons for her disbelief in Monsanto's ad campaign in her latest dispatch to members of the farm's meat CSA:

"For those of us in small, family based, organic practices farming, this is beyond absurd. For decades, Monsanto has been at the leading edge of corporate agriculture. They have litigated against a non-GMO farmer in Canada putting him out of business. Germany recently joined France, Austria, Hungary and Greece in banning MON810 – a GMO corn.  Extracting a significant human toll is the 100,000 acres of corn planted in South Africa with three varieties of Monsanto’s GM corn that failed to pollinate.  This left farmers with tons of seedless cobs. Monsanto blames 'under-fertilization in the laboratory' and has offered to compensate the farmers for the losses; what is unclear is how Monsanto will support the 48 million residents of South Africa who have corn as a staple food.  This disaster has led for calls for an immediate government investigation and a ban on all foods from GM seed."

Denney also points to a recent study performed by the Union of Concerned Scientists showing that "20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization have failed to significantly increase America’s per-acre crop yield.  The report notes '….In comparison, traditional breeding continues to deliver better results.'"  (Read the full report here.)

Do you believe Monsanto means well, or are they out to corner the market in a bid to line their own pockets, regardless of the global cost?  The company devotes an entire portion of their website to refuting the later argument, justifying suits against seed-saving farmers and the like.  But as recently as the beginning of this month, NPR ran a story about farmers turning their backs on the company in the face of a lack of evidence that their genetically modified crops live up to their promises.

If you think Monsanto is using NPR's sterling reputation among liberals to buff its own image, tell American Public Media, the producers of "Marketplace," to take the offending ad off the air.  To learn more and take further action against Monsanto, check out the Organic Consumers' Assocation's "Millions Against Monsanto" campaign.