Monsanto Fail

Posted on 03/12/2010 at 6:32 am by Bob Cesca

Covalence, a Swiss research outfit, ranked the most (and least) ethical corporations in the world.

Monsanto? Dead last.

The least ethical corporation in the world.

Less ethical than Occidental Petroleum. Less ethical than WellPoint. Less ethical than Halliburton. Less ethical than AIG. Less ethical than Altria and Phillip Morris. How awful do you have to be to in order to be out-classed by two tobacco giants?

Good job, Monsanto. Wear it well.

Meanwhile, unless you’re exclusively organic, you’ll probably eat one or more items of food today containing something from Monsanto. We all will. Unlike many of the others on the list, the least ethical company in the world is probably in your refrigerator or cabinet right now.

Via Osborne

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  • ec

    Less ethical than Chevron. Now that is bad.

  • camel54

    The food situation in this country, oy. I do the shopping and most of the cooking for our family, and I’m pretty obsessive about food, and it eats at me that I can’t escape the Monsantos. My extended family thinks I’m crazy b/c I don’t want my kid ever touching Gogurt, and I think they’re crazy for feeding that crap to kids. These are good people who love and care for their kids and yet they won’t read labels. They feel it’s okay to compromise daily on sweets–not homemade cookies, which I can live with when I have to, but the filth that comes off the shelf, wrapped in crinkly plastic and bursting with HFCS and partially hydrogenated sludge.So I feel ya. These people are poisoning us, and we’re cheering them on. We complain when any attempt to stop these evil bastards is made–It’s a free country; I have the right to quintuple bacon gummi cheese deep fried burger and tub o’ fries. This ain’t Russia!

  • cynicalgirl

    Why isn’t Blackwater/XE on that list?

  • eljefejeff

    obviously whoever did this study just hates capitalism.

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    You CAN avoid eating Monsanto-originated products, but it takes a little knowledge that most people were never privy to. First, get your meat at your local butcher. He will tell you where he buys his beef and pork, if you ask, which is almost always grass fed (yes, even pigs will naturally eat grass, flowers, etc.) So step one in the food cycle can be taken care of easily.The second best step you can take is to stop eating corn, or anything with corn in it, and believe me, that eliminates a host of foods. But the step with the highest health benefits is also the step that will help reduce the foods you eat that Monsanto has their paws on; EAT A LOW GLYCEMIC DIET.Go here to find an index that helps you rate what’s good and what isn’t:http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Glycemic_index_and_glycemic_load_for_100_foods.htmAnything on that list with a glycemic load under 10 per serving will help maintain your health and even aid in weight loss as long as you are exercising. True, most dairy product is corn fed, but I don’t use a lot of milk, and ice cream and butter are really the only dairy in my life.The old adage that Carbs are energy food is dead. Carbs kill…plain and simple. They spike your blood sugar and what’s not used in immediate energy is converted to body fat. Our bodies evolved to use protein as our main, long term source of energy.Your body is not designed to deal with high doses of carbs. It will generally convert whatever you eat into whatever it needs. If you are not eating protein in decent amounts, your body will ADAPT and convert carbs to fat because you are telling your body that times are lean. On the other hand, if you eat decent portions of protein, your body will not convert it to fat; rather, it reverts back to form, burning everything because “times are good”.Every study on indigenous tribes around the world proves this to be true. They eat red meat, any fruits or nuts they find, and very few vegetables, except what might grow naturally in the region. Ever see an obese tribe member? Heart disease is unheard of in these tribes; they are all lean and fit. Diabetes doesn’t exist amongst them because they aren’t spiking their blood sugar every time they chew on something.Carbs simply are not a naturally occurring part of our native diet. Potatoes and rice are killing us, and partially hydrogenated corn syrup is making us fat. The Glycemic load of one serving of corn is 61. Potatoes are 32. These are two of the highest glycemic loads found. Things like french fries and corn bread take the glycemic load even higher.If you have a death wish, just keep eating these foods. Also, while you are eating them, you are making Monsanto rich. So buy stock in Monsanto if you are going to continue eating corn based products. You might as well profit while you are killing yourself.

  • TomatoKing

    “Every study on indigenous tribes around the world proves this to be true. They eat red meat, any fruits or nuts they find, and very few vegetables, except what might grow naturally in the region.”Sorry PPP but you are DEAD wrong, on many counts. That primary staple of most civilizations is carbohydrate, derived from plant sources-tubers, rice, wheat. Animal flesh was a rare element in homo sapiens diet intil the last 150 years of our evolution, after thousands of years of domestication we developed the ability to support larger herds of animals . Our GI tract and dentition are that of our herbivore primate cousins.People in Okinawa eat no red meat,eat fish, predominantly complex carbs, and have no heart disease or diabetes, and live well into their 90′s. Same with Italians (damn those immigrants Bob! :) )who immigrated to the US at the last century; meat was a rarity in the homeland, however in the US it was a regular staple and subsequently heart disease and cancer increased in Italian Americans proportionately. There are very well done epidemiological studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association that are free onlineIt is too simplistic to label carbs as bad. The Glycemic Index that you refer to indicates how rapidly a food will elevate serum glucose levels. As you will discover on that list, the more complex the carbohydrate…that is if it is a single molecule of sugar or a complex of multiple sugars (polysacharide). The more simpe the sugar the less work (of enzymes) is necessary and this the sugar enter the blood stream rapidly. Now add in the fiver, pectin, and other elements in an unprocessed carb, the process of digestion is longer, and thus the entry of glucose into the capillaries of the GI tract takes much longer. As an exerise tract the glycemic index of apple juice, apple sauce, and a whole apple.What causes diabetes, specifically type II DM, are two things. First, with rapid rise in circulating levels of glucose there is an immediate response of insulin. The insulin acts as a co-transport protein at the cell membrane to facillitate the entry of glucose into the cell. Once all of the sugar is taken up that surge of insulin is still available and overshoots- that is too much sugar enters the cells (primarily skeletal muscle)and circulating levels drop…we become hypoglycemic and feel miserable after that Snickers bar. With a highly processed carb diet these insulin surges result in tachyphylaxis, which means that the cell receptor for insulin is down regulated. This occurs with druges, hormones, etc and explains why patients may need progressively increasing doses of anti hypertensives, stc. So with a decrease in insulin receptors that sugar remains in the blood stream. and thuse the “sugar disease” of diabetes. It is the high levels of glucose/sugar that causes problems. It glycosylates proteins…that means the glucose will stick to proeins that line the filtering memebranes of the kidney, the blood vessels in the heart, and eyes, and to the surface of white blood cells causing premature hardening of the arteries and impaired ability to fight infection.The second problem that we Americans have is that we are fatter and have less muscle. Skeletal muscle is the most metabolically active tissue and the primary consumer of glucose. Fat tissue, once perceived to be inert, is now recognized a very hormonally active tissue be producing substances that cause high blood pressure, insulin resistance, atherosclerosis of the arteries, and on and on. We need to improve our lean body mass.So with regards to carbs…stcik with what your great grandmother ate…unprocessed vegetables, fruit, and occasional animal flesh.

  • http://www.osborneink.com OsborneInk

    Just to give you some idea of the level of awfulness, Bob: in HS, one of my friends lost his father at an Occidental plant. He slipped on a chemical-covered platform into an open vat of toxic compounds. There was no guard rail and although he was fished out almost immediately he spent the next 24 hours dying in the ICU with his flesh sloughing off his bones watching two execs attempt to get his wife to sign a hold-harmless agreement for a half-million dollars. Ten years later, I was informed there was still no guard rail along that catwalk.Then a couple of years ago, local environmentalists proved Occidental has been illegally dumping chemicals into the water table for 40 years. But the company has yet to be charged or forced to take any action to clean up their mess because the state EPA is in deep capture by polluters.So when we say Monsanto is even worse, I react with a shudder.

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    TomatoKing,I wasn’t talking about farmers and domesticated herd management. That’s only been with us about ten – fifteen thousand years…a mere blip on the evolutionary scale.I was talking about hunter-gatherers and the way our bodies evolved. Dr Loren Cordain is one expert in the paleolithic diet. Here’s a link to an interview with him:http://www.mercola.com/article/carbohydrates/paleolithic_diet.htmOkinawa is an example of a somewhat indigenous diet, as they do eat fruits and vegetables such as yams, squash, cabbages, greens, papayas, and melons. Notice no potatoes, grains, or corns? Also, lots of fish and pork. But even they are too late on the evolutionary scale.It’s a scientific fact that mankind did not evolve eating grains of any sort. Because cereal grains are virtually indigestible by the human gastrointestinal tract without milling (grinding) and cooking, the appearance of grinding stones in the fossil record generally heralds the inclusion of grains in the diet.The first appearance of milling stones was in the Middle East roughly 10-15,000 years ago, proving as fact that mankind can and did evolve completely without grains of any kind. They are not natural to our native diet, and the results of including them in our diet are obvious.Dr. Cordain’s study of the 229 remaining native societies found no vegetarian cultures, that game was their principal source of protein and fat, and that animal foods made up 50-65% of their entire diets.For some, it’s even higher. The Masai of east Africa live on raw milk, cattle meat and blood and organ meat; they completely lack dental cavities, obesity and heart disease, throwing the food pyramid of the USDA into the garbage. What would America’s health care look like without heart disease?

  • cynicalgirl

    Interesting about Italians, TK. I told my Dr that my (Italian) grandfather and uncle both died from stomach cancer. He told me it’s not hereditary, must have been something they were eating.

  • ec

    Back to ethics. I think that today (or last night) marks the beginning of the end of Ernst & Young. What they did at Lehman was much worse than what Arthur Andersen did at Enron.Also, it will probably mean the end of the unregulated accounting industry.

  • ec

    Back to ethics. I think that today (or last night) marks the beginning of the end of Ernst & Young. What they did at Lehman was much worse than what Arthur Andersen did at Enron.Also, it will probably mean the end of the unregulated accounting industry.

  • TomatoKing

    Thanks PPP ! I personally have done several prospective randomized clinical studies studying the effect of diet and lifestyle on vascular disease, based on epidemiological evidence from other cultures with low incidence of atherosclerosis and its associated risk factors.Tha Masai do not live beyond 50 years of age, despite what internet sources or obscure web pages you stumble across. To make legitimate observations regarding the realtionship of potential causative factors requires large aggregate studies of populations with adequate sample sizes to reach statistical significance, not based on a tribe of people. As an example:JAMA. 2009;302(4):394-400.21,000 study subjects. Which demonstrated that the lowest risk of heart failue was assoiciated with normal body weight, not smoking, regular exercise, moderate alcohol intake, consumption of breakfast cereals, and consumption of fruits and vegetables.Misinformation should be a crime as anecdotal trivia from unreliable sources does more harm than good.Beyond the carcinogens we ingest with cooked meat , the impact from farming animals for slaughter is destroying our environment:http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1602354_1603074_1603171,00.htmlEat egg whites instead!

  • Peter Bockenthien

    PPPI second TomatoKing, albeit you clarified. Getting carbs from veggies is primo because you get all the minerals that they have.Eat local, organic food only. You will clean the land, water and air. And you won’t be needing that mandatory “health” care that is about to rammed down our throats by Congress.

  • MrBrink

    …you’ll probably eat one or more items of food today containing something from Monsanto.

    That’s just f-ing creepy.

  • TomatoKing

    @cynical girl:Hmmm…a grandfather and an uncle both with cancer of the stomach, a rare disease with an incidence less than 0.01%,assuming that the GF and uncle are father and son I have reached the medical conclusion that you need a new doctor…unless your relatives live in Chernobyl.Our genes and the environment determine our health, or lack of.

  • Alan Fors

    Every time I come back here to read the additional comments, I feel guilty for having eaten at a really goo Texas style BBQ place here for lunch. Then I think about what I ate, and get hungry again. Sorry.

  • Alan Fors

    Ehh, that’s …good Texas style BBQ…

  • alopecia

    The LA Dog Trainer had an article today on Monsanto and its patented/licensed soybeans this morning—the government (Justice and Agriculture) is starting to ask questions about potential antitrust concerns. About damn’ time.Link:http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-food-monopoly12-2010mar12,0,6101989,full.story

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    TomatoKing,I understand and am glad you have participated in studies. It means you probably know the science behind this far better than I.I would caution your conclusion about the Masai, though. High rates of death at birth contribute greatly to their low life expectancy, and the expectancy of a fifteen year old is sixty. I don’t think that indicates anything more than a lower quality of health care, maybe the difference between dancing over someone infected by a snake bite versus actually receiving anti-venom. Granted, it’s probably not as simple as that, but I think you put too much emphasis on diet as being their downfall, when there isn’t a shred of evidence pointing to it.Okay…I read the article…good god, I was afraid that’s where you were going with it. Knock it off. Cows aren’t raising the earth’s temperature. For pete’s sake, it’s bad enough that you have to scare half the world into buying crap that won’t even make a dent in global warming, but now you want everyone to become a vegetarian.If you ever wanted to ensure a manmade event that could starve half of the world, put every one on a vegetarian diet. That’s all you need to do.We are not rabbits. Chimps eat meat, as do most primates. We are meat eaters; that’s what we are. You can’t escape it, and you can’t keep an entire population fed eating greens.Why is starvation more prevalent in cities than in the countryside or the wild? Because despite all of the “food”, mankind does not share well, and any person in distress of starvation merely needs to return to the wild to feed himself. There he find everything he needs…INCLUDING meat.

  • trahan

    ppp…..ha ha just another subject you are totally wrong about. You`re so full of false information it`s funny!