The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

introduction 5Confronted with this refusal, I did not give up on presenting the firm’sviews. I got hold of all the written and audiovisual archival materials availablein which its representatives spoke and also made extensive use of thedocuments it has placed online, in which it justifies the benefits that GMOsare supposed to bring to the world. “Farmers who planted biotech cropsused significantly less pesticides and realized significant economic gainscompared to conventional systems,” said the company in its 2005 Pledge Report,a kind of ethical charter the company has been publishing regularlysince 2000, in which it presents its commitments and its results. 6As a daughter of farmers, I am very aware of the difficulties that the agriculturalworld has experienced since I was born on a farm in Poitou-Charentesin 1960, and I have no difficulty imagining the impact that this kind of languagecan have on farmers who are struggling every day, in Europe and elsewhere,merely to survive. At a time when globalization is impoverishing therural North and South, those who work on the land no longer know whereto turn. Would the genius of St. Louis save their lives? I wanted to learnthe truth because what is at stake concerns us all; it’s a question of whoin the future will produce food for humankind.“Monsanto Company is helping smallholder farmers around the world becomemore productive and self-sufficient,” the Pledge Report also says. 7 “Thegood news is that practical experience clearly demonstrates that the coexistenceof biotech, conventional, and organic systems is not only possible, butis peacefully occurring around the world.” 8 This sentence drew my attentionbecause it touches on one of the major questions raised by GMOs, namely,that of possible risks to human health: “Consumers around the world are livingproof of the safety of biotech crops. In the 2003–2004 crop year, theypurchased more than $28 billion of biotech crops from U.S. farmers.” 9 Ithought of all the consumers who are nourished by the labor of farmers andwho can, through their choices, affect the evolution of agricultural practicesand of the world beyond—on the condition that they are informed.All these quotations from Monsanto’s Pledge Report are at the center ofthe polemic that pits defenders of biotechnology against its opponents. Forthe former, Monsanto has turned the page of its past as an irresponsiblechemical company and is now offering products able to resolve the problemsof hunger in the world and of environmental contamination by following the“values” that are supposed to direct its activity: “integrity, transparency, dialogue,sharing, respect,” as its 2005 Pledge Report proclaims. 10 For the latter,