A few weeks before the Italian wine trade fairs were to begin, we were actually very excited to see that the CEO of Monsanto, Hugh Grant, had been interviewed by the progressive public radio program Here and Now<\/a> in the United States.<\/p>\n It’s a pretty tough interview for Mr. Grant, although he remains unflappably true to form and never loses his cool.<\/p>\n Public radio journalist and commentator Jeremy Hobson started the interview off with a question we’ve often considered many times before.<\/p>\n “Why do you think Monsanto has become the ‘face of corporate evil’ in this country?” he asks Grant.<\/p>\n “I think a piece of this comes with,” answers Grant without breaking a sweat, “we\u2019re the market leader, the original inventor of a lot of these technologies and I think sometimes when you\u2019re first out the gate, when you\u2019re in a leadership position like that, you become the de facto spear catcher. I think for us that was maybe the genesis of this, and I think there\u2019s a piece of, also, this\u2014we\u2019re right in the middle of this discussion on food and agriculture and the safety and security of food, so I understand some of the concern. But I think, nevertheless, there\u2019s work to be done in explaining more clearly where food comes from and how food is produced.”<\/p>\n In other words, if feeding the world is wrong, then we don’t want to be right.<\/em><\/p>\n That much could be expected from some one as slick and slimy as Grant.<\/p>\n But in the second part of the interview,<\/a> he says something that really makes our blood boil (at least my blood).<\/p>\n “People think your Roundup pesticide could be linked with cancer and other health problems,” notes Hobbs. “How do you respond to that?” he asks Grant.<\/p>\n “Roundup is not a carcinogen,” answers the CEO. “It\u2019s 40 years old, it’s been studied; virtually every year of its life it’s been under a review somewhere in the world by regulatory authorities. So Canada and Europe just finished. Europe finished their review last year and came back with glowing colors. The Canadians were the same and now we are going through a similar process in the U.S., so I\u2019ve absolutely no concerns about the safety of the product.”<\/p>\n This would seem to contradict what the manufacturer of Roundup, Monsanto, says about the product on its label: “Probably carcinogenic.”<\/p>\n We highly encourage to watch and share the following video from the progressive website, the Undercurrent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\nIs Monsanto the “face of corporate evil”?<\/h2>\n
Glyphosate is not a carcinogen? Say again?<\/h2>\n