The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

128 the world according to monsantotached to the research grants they are getting. A couple of them called meand said: ‘You are on the right trail, but we cannot give you any information.’They are scared to death. I am so proud of you people because you are notscared to death. If they ever do anything to you, let us know.”Whelan, a former Minister of Agriculture, was prophetic. After the act ofnational catharsis produced by the senate committee, everything went backto normal. Canada definitively banned rBGH from its territory, leading tothe same action by the European Commission, although the latter had beenon the verge of following the advice of the JECFA and lifting the moratoriumthat had been in force since 1990.* Australia and New Zealand followedsuit. But at Health Canada, old habits reasserted themselves: in July 2004,Shiv Chopra, Margaret Haydon, and Gérard Lambert were fired for insubordination.“After our testimony to the committee, we were harassed andmarginalized,” Chopra explained when he met with me in July 2006 in hishome outside Ottawa. “Everything we were afraid of happened, and no onelifted a little finger. We took the case to court, but there is no law protectingwhistle-blowers in Canada. This country is corrupt to the core, and that’sthe title of the book I’m working on.”“Do you think Monsanto played a role in your firing?”“I have to be very careful about my answer,” he said, smiling. “Let’s say ourtestimony came at a very bad moment for the company, which was justlaunching its GMOs in Canada. It’s clear that the growth hormone was atesting ground, which turned out badly in part, but it enabled the companyto work out its techniques for conquering the market.”*On March 10, 1999, the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare of the EuropeanCommission issued a ninety-one-page report recommending that “rBST not be used in dairyherds.” At no point was there any mention of risks that the hormone might pose for human health.The hormone has been officially banned in the European Union since January 1, 2000.