“The World According to Monsanto” is a 2008 documentary that explains the domination of the agricultural industry by one of the world’s most powerful and harmful chemical companies known as Monstano.  It explains past and present abuses of the company, including how it creates a popular glyphosate weed killer called “Roundup” that is harmful, and how the company also creates genetically modified crops that are immune to being harmed by the application of Roundup.

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Following is a description of the video:

“The World According to Monsanto” is a 2008 documentary that explains the domination of the agricultural industry by one of the world’s most powerful and harmful companies known as Monstano.

A French filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin had heard about issues with Monsanto for 20 years before becoming an activist to expose issues with the company, where her documentary exposes its past as one of the world’s largest chemical companies that was responsible for the chemical herbicide Agent Orange that was used during the Vietnam War, the sugar substitute Aspartame, the Bovine Growth Hormone, Polystyrene, PCBs, the Glyphosate herbicide Roundup, and genetically engineered crops.

Monsanto’s most popular product is known as “Roundup” which is a glyphosate that has been the world’s best-selling herbicide for 30 years [in 2008].  Monsanto also holds the patent for 90% of generically modified organisms, where most have been modified to resist the application of the Roundup herbicide.

Roundup was introduced in 1974 where the product was claimed to be good for the environment due to it supposedly being biodegradable and “leaving the soil clean.”

Monsanto has been twice found guilty of false advertising, and it has now removed the word biodegradable from its labels.

The documentary interviews people in Pennsylvania who suffered serious health effects from Monsanto’s PCB production plant, where in 2001 a lawsuit was filed by 20,000 residents for compensation for health effects from the PCBs.  They explain that Monsanto settled by paying $700 million dollars to build a special hospital, compensate the victims, and clean up the contaminated site.  It is also explained that the entire world is now contaminated with PCBs due to it geting into into the water and the air.

Monsanto introduced “Roundup-ready” GMO soybeans in 1996, and by 2008 it accounts for 90% of the soybeans grown in America.  [Note: Almost all of it is fed to animals.]  70% of food in American stores contains bio-engineered elements, and there is no labeling of genetically modified food in the U.S.

Monsanto also created the Bovine Growth Hormone (rBHG), which is injected into cows to increase their milk yield.  Monsanto was involved in a major bribery scandal in Canada over their attempts to bribe Health Canada workers into suppressing their data about the effects of rBHG.  Eventually Canada did not approve the use of the drug, and the European Parliament has disapproved its use.

In the documentary, Marie-Monique Robin interviews many authorities on the subject, including both pro and anti-Monsanto, and she examines how policy is made in the U.S. that shows many individuals who have worked to approve the technology at the government level also have long ties with the company.