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For all those generations who lived their childhood surrounded by comics or cartoons, which told stories of fiction, including "Super Heroes and Villains."
Even for them would have been too complex to imagine an "Archie Enemy" as real and powerful that represent a potential risk to human health, animal, vegetable and the environment of the way the products genetically engineered by Monsanto does.
His founder John Francis Queeny, pharmaceutical chemists named the company with the family name of his wife: Olga Mendez Monsanto.
The company nowadays is a supplier of: chemicals for the farmer market, mainly dedicated to the production of herbicides / pesticides and genetically modified seeds, the later popularly known as genetically modified food.
In their beginnings around 1914 Monsanto business was dedicate to the distribution of sweeteners saccharin, becoming the main supplier of Coca Cola Company.
Subsequently, between 1927 - 1938 the business development in the chemical industry, specifically in plastics and resins. Through the acquisition of Swann Chemical Company a company that marketed Polyvinyl Biphenyls (PCB). A product used by industrial plants, petrochemical and transportation industries.
Product use was banned in the late seventies, after being described as one of the twelve most harmful pollutants to human health by the UN, (United Nations).
Its harmfulness is due the persistence of their residues in the environment; wastes are consumed by animals and transmitted to humans once they are consumed as food.
Recent studies in the USA and Canada say that the population born after the mass dissemination of PCB may have severe damage to memory and that between 5% and 7% have intellectual damage from previous generations.
A more unrepairable harm, that mentioned above is that Monsanto conducted during the decade of the sixties, when the company was hired by the United States government to produce a herbicide called "Orange Agent" which was used in the Vietnam War in order to destroy the Vietnamese jungle, depriving of that way the Vietnamese population of food and vegetation shelter.
Agent Orange was a highly carcinogenic potent chemical that caused some 400,000 deaths and 500,000 children born with birth defects in the Vietnamese population, at least one million people were disabled after their effects, plus countless losses on the United States Army.
The same independent studies claim that Monsanto was involved in the creation of the first nuclear bomb in the Second World War and operated a nuclear plant in the eighties for American Government mode.
Unfortunately the creation of products harmful to health does not end here. A new scandal involved the company in the early nineties, when the company was responsible for developing and marketing the Hormone Bovine Somatotropin, known commercially as "Posilac" .
A hormone injection administered that revolutionized the market because make possible to increase the profits of those involved producing more milk with fewer cattle.
Its use has been being questioned not only because it may induce some problems in cattle, as the appearance of "Mastitis" an udder infection that must be treated with antibiotics, this one cannot be destroyed in the pasteurization process, once the milk is consumed produce bloodstream, increasing the production of diabetes, and cancer cells in breast, prostate and colon in humans population.
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While not all products marketed by Monsanto have been recalled or received health penalties, it is noteworthy that in January 2005 another big scandal erupted following revelations that Monsanto bribe to a senior official in Indonesia, in order to avoid environmental impact assessment on genetically modified cotton. Investigations revealed that bribery of approximately fifty thousand dollars was covered up with a bill known as "consultancy costs".
The legal opinion concluded that the company was fined 1.5 million dollars for fraud.
Similarly in 2007 the European Union classify the herbicide / pesticide Monsanto as "biodegradable and not toxic," so the company was fined.
They also had to modify their advertising and remove the word "biodegradable" of their products in order to continue marketing them.
Today in Europe, GM foods, Monsanto's core business encounters great resistance among the population and farmers do not consider proven its safety for human health.
Despite the disapproval of many of the world's population today Monsanto still operates regularly multinational, its headquarters are located in St Louis Missouri United States, recent economic reports indicate that their income reached 10.502 million dollars, and employs some 22,000 workers.
Ironically and despite the rejection of public opinion the company has been named as one of the best places to work according to "Great Place to Work" for the second consecutive year. Similarly in 2013 he received several awards regarding employee innovation, leadership, and job satisfaction survey by Forbes.
After several failed attempts in 2013 Monsanto announced its withdrawal from the European market with the exception of four countries: Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic and Romania. Reason for the cultivation of these GM foods is virtually nonexistent in the territory of the European Union.
The knowledge and information about the toxicity and damage to products manufactured by the company have climbed globally, have spread through all types of media, and has even led to the production of several documentaries that address the issue.
The popularization of this information has led to a rejection of such a level that today an International Day against Monsanto is performed. One of the main reasons for complaint is the lack of label GM products despite evidence that would harm human health.
In May 25, 2013 marches and protests were held against the world's largest producer of GM seeds and also against similar companies in more than 40 countries and hundreds of cities in coordination.