Page 61 - Winter2008

Tim’s DVD Reviews

The World According to Monsanto the company [Monsanto] provided to FDA, that
by Marie-Monique Robin was reviewed by FDA scientists. And so it’s not
Available in segments on YouTube.com in the company’s interest to try to design a study
in some way that would mask results.”
Monsanto’s motto is “to help farmers around Monsanto has been found legally guilty of
the world be successful, produce healthier foods, false advertising in two separate countries. Mr.
better animal feeds and more fiber, while also re- Maryanski is quite the trusting soul, bless his
ducing agriculture’s impact on our environment.” heart. When trying to explain the principle of
As this video begins, one farmer in Iowa seems substantial equivalence he said, “What FDA was
grateful for Monsanto’s help. He was growing saying was if you introduce a gene into a plant,
Roundup Ready soybeans. He only needed two that gene is DNA and we’ve consumed DNA.
applications of Roundup to kill all the weeds for We have a long history of consuming DNA.
a year, greatly reducing the labor needed. After We can establish that that is GRAS [Generally
less than eight years of experience he was calling Recognized as Safe].”
the system “sustainable.” Despite the FDA’s assurances that anything
The viewer is then taken on a trip around the with DNA is safe, I don’t plan to put that to the
world to listen to farmers, experts and others who test with hemlock anytime soon. This THUMBS
don’t seem quite so grateful, such as the residents UP video is jammed with two hours of disturbing
in Anniston, Alabama, which was made almost information, interviews with interesting people
uninhabitable by PCBs courtesy of Monsanto. like Jeffrey Smith ( author of Seeds of Deception),
Farmers in the Midwest talked about how hired and a pretty good guess as to what Monsanto’s
goons from Monsanto intimidate and destroy real goal is.
livelihoods with false accusations of reusing
patented seeds. Small farmers in India have been No MSG
driven to rioting and suicide due to poor cotton by CBS 60 Minutes
crop yields from Monsanto’s Bt cotton. Produced by Grace Diekhaus
Farmers in the heart of Mexico have care- First Aired November, 1991
fully preserved their own corn seed from one
year to the next. They never buy seed but use This is a Google Video that brings Ed Brad-
their own heirloom seed. They didn’t look too ley back from the grave to tell us about MSG.
grateful when they found transgenic contamina- He quickly runs through a long list of foods on
tion in their crops. Neither did South American the store shelves containing MSG. It might be
farmers. quicker to list foods that don’t have it!
Interviews of certain government officials One doctor interviewed makes the point
were particularly intriguing. According to James that there can be a wide range of symptoms as- MSG is
Maryanski, the decision to regulate GMO food sociated with MSG reactions— headaches, heart
the same as other food was a political decision, palpitations, asthma, etc. Another doctor has especially
not a scientific one. Maryanski was head of the done research indicating that MSG is especially hazardous to
biotech division of the FDA at the time the de- hazardous to children and can cause brain dam- children and
cisions were made. When asked how the FDA age. (The industry claims to have removed MSG
knew that GM soybeans, for example, were safe, from baby food, but it is still there in the form can cause
his answer was, “It’s based on all the data that of hydrolyzed protein.) But Michael Taylor of brain damage.

WINTER 2008 Wise Traditions 61