The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

IntroductionThe Monsanto Question“You ought to do an investigation of Monsanto. We all need to know whatthis American multinational really is, which is in the process of seizing controlof seeds, and so of world food.” The scene was the New Delhi airport inDecember 2004. I was being addressed by Yudhvir Singh, the spokesman ofthe Bharatiya Kisan Union, a peasant organization in northern India withtwenty million members. I had just spent two weeks with him travelingaround Punjab and Haryana, the two emblematic states of the “green revolution,”where almost all Indian wheat is produced.A Necessary InvestigationAt the time I was making two documentaries for the Franco-German televisionstation Arte in a series dealing with biodiversity, entitled “Seizing Controlof Nature.” 1 In the first, The Pirates of the Living, I describe how theadvent of the techniques of genetic manipulation provoked a veritable racefor genes, in which the giants of biotechnology have not hesitated to seizethe natural resources of developing countries through abuse of the patentsystem. 2 For example, a Colorado farmer who claimed to be an independentspirit secured a patent for a variety of yellow bean that had long been grownin Mexico; claiming to be its American “inventor,” he demanded royaltiesfrom all Mexican peasants wishing to export their crops to the United