Monsanto hearts Blackwater

Last week I wrote about the new peer reviewed French study on Monsanto GMO corn and its purported propensity to cause tumors in lab rats. You can link to my blogpost and the study here.

In the wake of Russia suspending GMO corn imports, Monsanto is, as would be suspected, mounting a full court press, attacking the peer reviewed study and its authors by all available means.

They have a lot of money, many friends in the administration, and things are about to get really dirty. I have already seen their heavy hand in the press and on the blogs today, their reach is certainly wide. My brother says that the supposedly "anti study" press he saw today in Canada is incredible.

Here's a puff piece from the Chicago Tribune today criticizing the study. Besides all corn causes breast cancer in rats, don't you know? The corporate shills are already out in full force, emphasizing the exact same talking points, points that don't seem to hold any water once you actually read the study itself. Like the high concentration isn't as harmful as the low, a charge not supported by the evidence.

I was doing a little research today and found this rather old (2010) news article that informs that Monsanto hired Blackwater, doing business these days as Xe or Total Intelligence, to infiltrate anti GMO groups and investigate unfriendly bloggers for at least a couple years.

Journalist Jeremy Scahill, who wrote a book on the history of Blackwater, broke the initial story in the Nation. Titled Blackwater's Black Ops, it divulged information about the unholy relationship.

"One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.
...Blackwater had developed "a rapidly growing, worldwide network of folks that can do everything from surveillance to ground truth to disruption operations." He added, "These are all foreign nationals (except for a few cases where US persons are the conduit but no longer 'play' on the street), so deniability is built in and should be a big plus."According to internal Total Intelligence communications, biotech giant Monsanto—the world's largest supplier of genetically modified seeds—hired the firm in 2008–09. The relationship between the two companies appears to have been solidified in January 2008 when Total Intelligence chair Cofer Black traveled to Zurich to meet with Kevin Wilson, Monsanto's security manager for global issues.After the meeting in Zurich, Black sent an e-mail to other Blackwater executives, including to Prince and Prado at their Blackwater e-mail addresses. Black wrote that Wilson "understands that we can span collection from internet, to reach out, to boots on the ground on legit basis protecting the Monsanto [brand] name.... Ahead of the curve info and insight/heads up is what he is looking for." Black added that Total Intelligence "would develop into acting as intel arm of Monsanto." Black also noted that Monsanto was concerned about animal rights activists and that they discussed how Blackwater "could have our person(s) actually join [activist] group(s) legally." Black wrote that initial payments to Total Intelligence would be paid out of Monsanto's "generous protection budget" but would eventually become a line item in the company's annual budget. He estimated the potential payments to Total Intelligence at between $100,000 and $500,000. According to documents, Monsanto paid Total Intelligence $127,000 in 2008 and $105,000 in 2009.This past summer Erik Prince put Blackwater up for sale and moved to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. But he doesn't seem to be leaving the shadowy world of security and intelligence. He says he moved to Abu Dhabi because of its "great proximity to potential opportunities across the entire Middle East, and great logistics," adding that it has "a friendly business climate, low to no taxes, free trade and no out of control trial lawyers or labor unions. It's pro-business and opportunity." It also has no extradition treaty with the United States.

* Might not want to buy your corn at Walmart.

About that genetically engineered corn...

I just saw this scary study in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology. Séralini, G.-E., et al. Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize. Food Chem. Toxicol. (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2012.08.005 .This is the first peer reviewed study on the health effects of genetically altered corn.

You just might want to ease up on eating that genetically modified, roundup tolerant, Monsanto corn. Lab rats are sporting some serious tumors, mammary the most common, the pituitary second. Sex hormone balance was shredded and liver necrosis was two and one half times higher. Not so good for kidneys either. It is also resulting in a much higher rate of premature death in our little rodent friends. If you can wade through the study, please note that these application dosages were well below the recognized safety limits.

The health effects of a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize (from 11% in the diet), cultivated with or without Roundup, and Roundup alone (from 0.1 ppb in water), were studied 2 years in rats. In females, all treated groups died 2–3 times more than controls, and more rapidly. This difference was visible in 3 male groups fed GMOs. All results were hormone and sex dependent, and the pathological profiles were comparable. Females developed large mammary tumors almost always more often than and before controls, the pituitary was the second most disabled organ; the sex hormonal balance was modified by GMO and Roundup treatments. In treated males, liver congestions and necrosis were 2.5–5.5 times higher. This pathology was confirmed by optic and transmission electron microscopy. Marked and severe kidney nephropathies were also generally 1.3–2.3 greater. Males presented 4 times more large palpable tumors than controls which occurred up to 600 days earlier. Biochemistry data confirmed very significant kidney chronic deficiencies; for all treatments and both sexes, 76% of the altered parameters were kidney related. These results can be explained by the non linear endocrine-disrupting effects of Roundup, but also by the overexpression of the transgene in the GMO and its metabolic consequences.2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Here is part of the conclusion from the paper:

In conclusion, it was previously known that glyphosate consumption
in water above authorized limits may provoke hepatic
and kidney failures (EPA). The results of the study presented here
clearly demonstrate that lower levels of complete agricultural glyphosate
herbicide formulations, at concentrations well below officially
set safety limits, induce severe hormone-dependent
mammary, hepatic and kidney disturbances. Similarly, disruption
of biosynthetic pathways that may result from overexpression of
the EPSPS transgene in the GM NK603 maize can give rise to comparable
pathologies that may be linked to abnormal or unbalanced
phenolic acids metabolites, or related compounds. Other mutagenic
and metabolic effects of the edible GMO cannot be excluded.
This will be the subject of future studies, including transgene and
glyphosate presence in rat tissues. Reproductive and multigenerational
studies will also provide novel insights into these problems.
This study represents the first detailed documentation of longterm
deleterious effects arising from the consumption of a GM Rtolerant
maize and of R, the most used herbicide worldwide.
Altogether, the significant biochemical disturbances and physiological
failures documented in this work confirm the pathological
effects of these GMO and R treatments in both sexes, with different
amplitudes. We propose that agricultural edible GMOs and formulated
pesticides must be evaluated very carefully by long term
studies to measure their potential toxic effects.

According to the Right to Know blog, where I was first alerted to this study, Monsanto has been actively trying to suppress studies on its products, in the guise of protecting intellectual property.

...The reason we have been denied such critical information is that biotech companies like Monsanto have controlled and suppressed such research (because of patent restrictions on GMOs). As the editorial board at Scientific American wrote, “Scientists must ask corporations for permission before publishing independent research on genetically modified crops. That restriction must end.”

Another good reason to support accurate labeling of genetically modified food. Unless you want to end up looking like these rats. Or the rats at Monsanto.