The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

PrefaceA Book for Public HealthNicolas HulotAs I progressed in my reading of Marie-Monique Robin’s book, a flood ofweighty questions overwhelmed me, filling me with anxiety that I might sumup in a single question: how is this possible? How can Monsanto, that emblematicfirm of global agrochemistry, have made so many fatal mistakes,and how can it have marketed products so harmful to human health and tothe environment? How has the company succeeded in conducting its businessas though nothing had happened, constantly extending its influence(and its wealth), despite the tragedies its products have caused? How has itso quietly managed to continue its activities unconcerned and fool everyone?Why has it been able to carry on despite the heavy legal penalties it sufferedand despite the bans imposed on some of its products (unfortunately, afterthey had already caused a good deal of irreparable harm)?This book discloses a reality that hurts the eyes and grips the heart: thatof a calmly arrogant company heedlessly profiting from the suffering of victimsand the destruction of ecosystems. As the pages go by, the mystery is revealed.They show the prospering of a company whose history “constitutes aparadigm of the aberrations in which industrial society has become mired.”You may often shake your head in disbelief, but the demonstration is limpid,and we understand where Monsanto gets its power, how its lies have wonout over the truth, and why many of its allegedly miraculous products in theend turned out to be nightmares. In other words, at a time when the NorthAmerican company has taken on an even more totalizing ambition than