The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

oundup: a massive brainwashing operation 77the euphemistic “medicine”—they covered three categories: fungicides, insecticides,and herbicides.Every pesticide is made up of an active ingredient—glyphosate in the caseof Roundup—and numerous inert ingredients, such as solvents, carriers,emulsifiers, and surfactants, the purpose of which is to intensify the physiochemicalproperties and biological effectiveness of the active ingredients,and which have no pesticidal effect of their own. Hence, the various productsin the Roundup range contain between 14.5 and 75 percent glyphosatesalts, with the rest of the formulation including a dozen principal additives,whose “composition is often kept secret,” as Marc observes. The role of theseadditives is to enable glyphosate to penetrate into the plant, as in the instanceof polyethoxylated tallowamine (POEA), a detergent favoring thespread of spray droplets on the leaves.In France, the third-largest user of pesticides in the world (after theUnited States and Japan), with 100,000 tons sold every year—40 percentherbicides, 30 percent fungicides, and 30 percent insecticides—it is estimatedthat 550 active ingredients and 2,700 commercial formulations arenow registered. Following the practice of the rest of the world, notably othercountries in Europe, every new phytosanitary product must be registered beforeit is put on the market, which means an authorization of sale for tenyears, granted by the Ministry of Agriculture. To secure an authorization, thecompany must demonstrate that its formulation is effective and harmless,through a technical dossier containing laboratory tests of the chemical,physical, and biological properties of the product, as well as tests of its possibletoxicity for people, animals, and the environment. When one reads thelist set out by Julie Marc of the tests supposed to constitute this toxicologicaldossier, one may think that all is for the best in the best of all industrialworlds and that theoretically there is nothing to worry about.The tests required by regulatory authorities in France, as in the rest of theEuropean Union, are numerous. They begin by assessing the effects of thesubstance on rats (and sometimes other animals) when it is absorbed orally,through the skin, or by inhalation. Researchers measure in particular the absorption,distribution, metabolism, and elimination of the molecule by theorganism, and calculate what is known as the “lethal dose,” that is, the quantityor concentration of the product necessary to bring about the death of 50percent of a group of test animals (“LD50” or “LC50”), with a view toward