1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,440 Hello. Today I'm happy to announce that this Thursday, 2 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:14,480 Buyer will complete the acquisition of Monsanto. This is good news for several reasons. 3 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:21,360 It's first of all good news for our customers, farmers around the world, no matter what type 4 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:28,880 of conversation. If you had told someone two decades ago that by 2018 the company that 5 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:34,080 commercialized chemical warfare and the company that commercialized Agent Orange were going to 6 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:38,720 team up to control a quarter of the world's food supply, chances are you would have been 7 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:47,840 labeled a loony. Unless your name was Robert P. Shapiro. He was CEO of Monsanto from 1995 to 2000, 8 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:53,200 and in 1999 he told Businessweek that the company's goal was to wed three of the largest 9 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:58,720 industries in the world, agriculture, food and health, that now operate as separate businesses. 10 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:02,560 But there are a set of changes that will lead to their integration. 11 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:10,000 With this month's announcement that Buyer had completed its $63 billion acquisition of Monsanto, 12 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:16,400 it is hard to deny that Shapiro's vision has been realized. Too bad for all of us, that vision 13 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:22,320 is a nightmare. Because, contrary to the feel-good corporate propaganda being churned out by the 14 00:01:22,320 --> 00:01:26,720 company's PR department, propaganda that would have you believe that this merger will be good 15 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:32,640 for the environment, for farmers, for ending global hunger, and, incidentally, for lining the pockets of 16 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:38,640 shareholders, these two corporate giants are in fact committed to the consolidation and transformation 17 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:42,560 of the world's food supply in the hands of the genetic engineers. 18 00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:50,080 Monsanto and Buyer are a match made in hell. This is the corporate report. 19 00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:57,600 It is hardly surprising that the first thing Buyer did after completing their takeover of Monsanto earlier 20 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:02,240 this month was to announce that they were dropping the Monsanto name, merging the two companies' 21 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:09,120 agrochemical divisions under the buyer crop science name. After all, as everyone knows, Monsanto is one 22 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:11,440 of the most hated corporations in the world. 23 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:19,920 In the film Food Evolution, Neil deGrasse Tyson notes that Monsanto is one of the most hated companies 24 00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:24,800 in the world. Why do people have such strong feelings toward Monsanto? 25 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:33,280 The worldwide march against Monsanto has drawn hundreds out onto the streets here in New York City, 26 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:40,880 with people seizing the opportunity to voice their concerns and opposition to GMO foods. 27 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:43,920 Why are you here? 28 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:52,880 I am here because I have a loathing hatred for the company Monsanto, which a lot of people don't know 29 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:58,880 that Monsanto is actually just a chemical company and they have no business basically dictating our food supply. 30 00:03:00,640 --> 00:03:06,960 New at noon, the city of Seattle is suing biotech giant Monsanto to make it pay for removing cancer-causing 31 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:12,880 chemicals in the water. The city says the company knowingly dumped the compounds in the city's drainage 32 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:19,120 system and the Duwamish River for years. Seattle needs to build a stormwater treatment plant to clean 33 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:26,960 the system. That will cost about 27 million dollars. Six other major municipalities sued Monsanto as well. 34 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:33,760 Environmental lawyers have begun filing lawsuits against Monsanto for cancer deaths related to their 35 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:40,080 product Roundup. What these lawsuits are showing is an effort both on the part of Monsanto and the U.S. 36 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:45,600 government to minimize the message about the dangers of Roundup in relationship to human cancer. 37 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:54,640 Now your bullseye is on Monsanto. Why is Monsanto so crucial to this fight over seeds? 38 00:03:56,160 --> 00:04:03,600 Monsanto is crucial to this fight because they are the biggest seed company now. Monsanto is 39 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:10,240 privatizing the seed. They control 95 percent of the cotton in India, 90 percent of the soil in this 40 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:14,160 country. They've taken over most of the seed companies of the world. 41 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:22,160 This hatred of Monsanto is not unreasonable. It is, after all, difficult to think of a company that 42 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:26,800 has ruined the lives of more people around the world, either directly through its coercive and 43 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:31,840 litigious practices against small farmers the world over, or indirectly through the pollution of the 44 00:04:31,840 --> 00:04:38,240 food supply with their genetically modified crops. Many are familiar with the company's sorted past, 45 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:42,480 including its role in the development of Agent Orange and its contribution to the epidemic of 46 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:48,000 farmer suicides in India. But in recent years, Monsanto has gained special notoriety for its 47 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:53,200 attempt to push the boundary of patent law in a self-admitted effort to gain a monopoly over the 48 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:59,760 world's food supply. Even worse, Monsanto has, thanks to a revolving door with the highest levels of the 49 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:05,920 U.S. government, been not just evil, but extraordinarily effective in spreading its evil seed around the 50 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:12,080 world. That revolving door has seen literally dozens of top Monsanto executives drift in and 51 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:17,760 out of the U.S. government agencies that, laughably, are said to regulate the agrochemical business, 52 00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:24,000 including Dennis DeConcini, the former U.S. senator who now acts as legislative consultant for Monsanto, 53 00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:30,320 Mickey Cantor, the Commerce Secretary under President Clinton who also served on Monsanto's board of directors, 54 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:37,720 Michael Taylor, Obama's deputy FDA commissioner who had previously served as Monsanto's vice president for public policy, 55 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:46,640 Linda Fisher, who was appointed deputy administrator of the EPA in 2001, fresh off a five-year stint as Monsanto's vice president of 56 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:52,960 government and public affairs, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who served as a corporate lawyer for 57 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:59,420 Monsanto in the 1970s. These officials have helped smooth the way for Monsanto to achieve a number of key 58 00:05:59,420 --> 00:06:05,480 corporate objectives, including the passage of the infamous Monsanto Protection Act in 2013. 59 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:13,760 First off, President Barack Obama recently signed into law what many are calling the Monsanto Protection Act. 60 00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:19,980 Monsanto, the world's leading producer of genetically modified food, will benefit greatly from the bill 61 00:06:19,980 --> 00:06:25,040 since the legislation gives companies dealing in modified organisms and genetically engineered seeds 62 00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:31,200 immunity from federal courts. Nothing creepy about that. The bill states that even if future research shows 63 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:37,000 that GMOs or GE seeds cause major health issues in consumers, the federal courts will have no power 64 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:43,300 to stop their spread, use, or sale. Interesting to note, the bill carrying the Monsanto rider has 65 00:06:43,300 --> 00:06:50,240 virtually nothing to do with food, agriculture, or consumer health. It was inserted into a spending bill 66 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:54,880 through lobbying efforts and the good work of freshman Senator Roy Blunt. 67 00:06:55,140 --> 00:06:57,120 Well, congratulations, Mr. Blunt. 68 00:06:57,260 --> 00:06:57,780 Well done. 69 00:06:57,980 --> 00:06:58,740 Very good. 70 00:06:58,900 --> 00:06:59,700 Maybe write him a letter. 71 00:06:59,700 --> 00:07:04,640 I love Mr. Blunt, because Monsanto's such a wonderfully, like, healthy, nutritious company. 72 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:09,820 Really looking out, and it's amazing. The Center for Responsive Politics notes that 73 00:07:09,820 --> 00:07:17,840 Senator Blunt received $64,250 from Monsanto for his campaign committee between 2000 and 2000. 74 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:21,060 That had nothing to do with him making a protection bill or anything like that. Of course not. 75 00:07:21,060 --> 00:07:23,560 That was just purely good citizenry at work. 76 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:30,980 Of course. Mr. Blunt has been the largest Republican recipient of Monsanto funding as of late. 77 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:31,660 Oh, lovely. 78 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:38,420 So basically, you know, Mr. Blunt gave him an out clause. We don't know what these GMO seeds 79 00:07:38,420 --> 00:07:42,560 and all that crazy s*** they do does. Sorry for the sailor talk. But, you know, we don't 80 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:48,100 know what these cats do. They basically are poisoning, you know, the plants to kill bugs. 81 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:53,540 Their pesticides are actually killing the bee population. There's research to prove 82 00:07:53,540 --> 00:07:57,500 it. And now, because of this law, technically, we can't do anything about it. 83 00:07:57,500 --> 00:08:02,420 Yeah, we can't go back as citizens. The government can't go back and sue them or hold them accountable 84 00:08:02,420 --> 00:08:06,100 for any of the actions that they've done. This is beautiful. This is wonderful politics 85 00:08:06,100 --> 00:08:10,040 as usual. You know, the old, you know, pay-to-play kind of technique of, you know, we'll give you 86 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:12,980 X amount of dollars, get you elected, and then help us out here. 87 00:08:15,260 --> 00:08:21,080 But, ironically, of all the corporations in the world, Bayer is one of the few that could 88 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:25,120 compete with Monsanto for its position as the world's most evil company. 89 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:32,800 There are two huge issues with this Bayer-Monsanto merger. The first is that it's going to raise 90 00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:37,960 food prices all across the United States and even beyond our borders. Farmers have already 91 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:43,120 experienced a 300% price increase in recent years on everything from seeds to fertilizer, 92 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:48,280 all of which are controlled by Monsanto. And every forecaster is predicting that these prices 93 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:52,440 are going to climb even higher because of this merger. So we're going to have this massive price 94 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:57,240 hike at a time when 14 million Americans have already been unable to provide food for their 95 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:02,160 families. And then we're going to have this ethical problem that's plagued both of these corporations 96 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:07,360 for decades. Let's start with Monsanto. This is a company that produced Agent Orange, which resulted 97 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:12,720 in one of the largest human-induced health epidemics in modern history. They made dioxin. They created 98 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:18,560 and distributed PCBs across the planet. And now pending litigation against them for Roundup is right 99 00:09:18,560 --> 00:09:23,880 there. Looking at their rap sheet would scare the heck out of anybody with a brain. They're 100 00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:27,560 in the business. Actually, really, when you drill down to it, it looks more like a cancer 101 00:09:27,560 --> 00:09:32,800 business than anything. They've been hit for false advertising and bribing public officials, 102 00:09:32,800 --> 00:09:36,980 then moved to Bayer. So we got Bayer and we got Monsanto. Moved to Bayer. This is a company 103 00:09:36,980 --> 00:09:41,960 that's joined at the hip with the Nazis during World War II. They produced a clotting agent for 104 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:48,440 hemophiliacs in 1980s called Factor VIII. This blood clotting agent was tainted with HIV. 105 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:52,320 And then after the government told them they couldn't sell it here, they shipped it all 106 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:56,680 over the, all over the world, infecting people all over the world. That's the company. That's 107 00:09:56,680 --> 00:10:01,460 part, that's just part of the Bayer story. Right now they're facing lawsuits over products 108 00:10:01,460 --> 00:10:10,200 like Yaz, Xarelto, Esure, Cipro. In fact, the company in 2014 annual report listed 32 different 109 00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:15,900 liability lawsuits that the company's now facing. So now you have the worst of the worst joining 110 00:10:15,900 --> 00:10:20,860 with the worst of the worst and we have this magnificent experience of greed with these 111 00:10:20,860 --> 00:10:26,520 two huge corporations. This is a merger of evil, probably second only to the kind of merger 112 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:32,240 that we'd see with DuPont and Dow Chemical. It's an ugly story. Again, the media is missing 113 00:10:32,240 --> 00:10:37,100 the point. They're not looking at all behind what these people are, and they're people. 114 00:10:37,100 --> 00:10:42,220 These corporations are regarded as people. If these are people on a witness stand, it's 115 00:10:42,220 --> 00:10:46,980 going to be a very ugly cross-examination. These are people who should probably be in prison 116 00:10:46,980 --> 00:10:51,420 rather than engaging in mergers. 117 00:10:51,420 --> 00:10:56,860 Although less well known by the general public, Bayer's shameful history is, like Monsanto's, 118 00:10:56,860 --> 00:11:03,760 a case study in corporate psychopathy. Founded in 1863 by Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich 119 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:10,080 Veskot, it wasn't until 1899 that the company trademarked its most well-known product, aspirin. 120 00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:15,300 Less well remembered is the fact that Bayer was the first company to trademark heroin, 121 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:20,520 which they marketed as a non-addictive alternative to morphine and a cough suppressant. 122 00:11:21,380 --> 00:11:26,000 But it was under the stewardship of Karl Duisberg at the turn of the 20th century that the company 123 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:32,680 began to develop its psychopathic character. In 1914, the German Ministry of War appointed Duisberg 124 00:11:32,680 --> 00:11:36,660 as one of the co-directors of a commission into the use of dangerous by-products from 125 00:11:36,660 --> 00:11:42,240 the chemical industry. Unsurprisingly, Duisberg and his fellow directors jumped at the opportunity 126 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:46,720 to turn their waste into profit by recommending the development of chlorine gas for use on the 127 00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:51,200 battlefield, a direct contravention of the Hague Convention respecting the laws and customs 128 00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:54,620 of war on land, which Germany had signed just seven years earlier. 129 00:11:55,620 --> 00:12:00,460 Bayer, under Duisberg's command, did not just participate in the development and use of 130 00:12:00,460 --> 00:12:06,680 poison gas in warfare. They spearheaded it. Duisberg personally oversaw the earliest tests 131 00:12:06,680 --> 00:12:12,400 of poison gas and bragged about its lethal capabilities. The enemy won't even know when 132 00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:17,380 an area has been sprayed with it and will remain quietly in place until the consequences occur. 133 00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:23,860 Setting up a school for chemical warfare at Bayer headquarters in Leverkusen, Duisberg also 134 00:12:23,860 --> 00:12:28,940 oversaw the development of phosgene and mustard gas, which he urged the German government to use. 135 00:12:28,940 --> 00:12:35,120 This phosgene is the meanest weapon I know. I strongly recommend that we not let the opportunity 136 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:44,000 of this war pass without also testing gas grenades. On April 22, 1915, Duisberg got his wish. On that 137 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:50,460 day, 170 tons of chlorine gas was used against French troops at Ypres, Belgium, killing 1,000 and 138 00:12:50,460 --> 00:12:58,480 injuring a further 4,000. Attacks on the British followed days later. In all, some 60,000 people died as 139 00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:03,780 the result of the chemical warfare perfected by Bayer and urged on by Duisberg, one of the great, 140 00:13:04,160 --> 00:13:10,600 largely forgotten atrocities of the First World War. Most galling of all, Duisberg was not ashamed of 141 00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:16,640 his accomplishments. On the contrary, he was immensely proud of them. He even commissioned famed artist 142 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:23,060 Otto Bollhagen to paint the scene of the earliest poison gas test at Cologne. Duisberg so enjoyed the 143 00:13:23,060 --> 00:13:27,860 finished result that he had it hung in his breakfast room at Bayer headquarters in Leverkusen. 144 00:13:29,060 --> 00:13:34,280 Later, Duisberg, inspired by a tour of Rockefeller's Standard Oil in the U.S., 145 00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:36,880 wedded Bayer to the I.G. Farben chemical cartel. 146 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:42,820 As I explained in How Big Oil Conquered the World, I.G. Farben was a key player in the 147 00:13:42,820 --> 00:13:47,900 burgeoning oiligarchy of the early 20th century, boasting key oiligarchs like Royal Dutch Shell's 148 00:13:47,900 --> 00:13:52,240 Prince Bernhard and Standard Oil's Walter Teegel on the boards of its various branches. 149 00:13:53,340 --> 00:13:56,300 Bayer's Duisberg served as the head of its supervisory board. 150 00:13:57,440 --> 00:14:02,240 Joining Duisberg on the board was Fritz Termeer, who oversaw the construction of the I.G. Farben 151 00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:06,800 factory at Auschwitz, which ran on slave labor and participated in human experimentation. 152 00:14:08,140 --> 00:14:12,440 After the war, Termeer was sentenced to seven years in prison for his participation in looting 153 00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:18,800 and enslavement of the camp prisoners, but was released in 1954, good behavior, and in 1956, 154 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:23,680 became chairman of Bayer A.G., newly resurrected from the ashes of I.G. Farben. 155 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:29,200 But this legacy of death is not some ancient relic of Bayer's distant past. 156 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:36,000 Decade after decade, the company continues to be involved in scandal after scandal involving 157 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:40,520 wanton environmental destruction, injury, and even mass murder. 158 00:14:43,020 --> 00:14:49,860 Bayer accidentally funds studies showing its pesticide is killing the bees and promptly denies 159 00:14:49,860 --> 00:14:50,680 those conclusions. 160 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:57,760 A large-scale study on neonicotinoid pesticides is adding to the growing body of evidence that 161 00:14:57,760 --> 00:15:02,360 these agriculture chemicals are indeed harming bee populations, to say the very least. 162 00:15:02,780 --> 00:15:08,200 Carried out at 33 sites in the United Kingdom, Germany, Hungary, the study found that exposure 163 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:14,500 to neonicotinoids, quote, left honeybee hives less likely to survive over winter, while bumblebees 164 00:15:14,500 --> 00:15:17,540 and solitary bees produced fewer queens, end quote. 165 00:15:19,100 --> 00:15:25,620 Morena is a chemical-coated, soft plastic IUD that proved to be a huge moneymaker for Bayer. 166 00:15:25,940 --> 00:15:30,900 But part of the reason that this particular contraceptive was so profitable was because 167 00:15:30,900 --> 00:15:36,200 Bayer was deliberately overstating the benefits of their device and not disclosing some of 168 00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:38,000 the rare but dangerous side effects. 169 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:43,240 For example, in April of 2009, the FDA had to issue a warning letter to Bayer Healthcare 170 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:48,680 because its website for Morena made a number of claims that were simply untrue or unproven. 171 00:15:49,340 --> 00:15:54,920 Bayer was so busy making claims that the IUD was a perfect solution for busy moms and would 172 00:15:54,920 --> 00:16:00,600 increase women's sex lives while making them look and feel great, that it forgot to mention 173 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:04,880 that the device is recommended for women who've already had at least one child. 174 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:11,420 The company also declined to state that the Morena IUD increases the risk of ectopic pregnancies, 175 00:16:11,640 --> 00:16:15,680 which is when a fertilized egg attaches to an area other than the uterus. 176 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:22,180 So the CEO was actually speaking to Bloomberg Businessweek, and he is trying to appeal the 177 00:16:22,180 --> 00:16:26,860 Indian court's decision to allow this patent for another company. 178 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:28,000 He said the following, 179 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:30,800 We did not develop this medicine for Indians. 180 00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:35,000 We developed it for Western patients who can afford it. 181 00:16:35,340 --> 00:16:38,380 Oh, oh, oh. 182 00:16:38,740 --> 00:16:39,580 And look at that face. 183 00:16:39,900 --> 00:16:42,400 That's the kind of face that would say a thing like that. 184 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:43,360 Doesn't he look so smart? 185 00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:44,400 Like, oh, please. 186 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:46,300 We didn't develop this for Indians. 187 00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:49,740 We developed it for Westerners who are rich. 188 00:16:49,740 --> 00:16:55,480 In the 1980s, Bayer Corporation produced a medicine that was supposed to improve the 189 00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:56,700 lives of hemophiliacs. 190 00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:01,120 Bayer didn't tell those hemophiliacs that their product was infected with HIV. 191 00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:07,580 Because of that, entire families of hemophiliacs died with AIDS as the virus spread within households. 192 00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:12,600 When Bayer was ordered to stop selling their drug in America, they dumped their AIDS-laden 193 00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:15,180 product in Asia and killed Asian families. 194 00:17:15,660 --> 00:17:17,640 No one with Bayer management was arrested. 195 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:21,560 No one who made these psychopathic quality decisions went to prison. 196 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,920 They claimed the protection of their status as a corporation. 197 00:17:25,500 --> 00:17:30,560 That corporate status gave management the ability to kill people for profit and not go to prison. 198 00:17:33,100 --> 00:17:37,940 Indeed, it is not difficult to see why these two companies, each one a titan of its respective 199 00:17:37,940 --> 00:17:42,640 industry, each one guilty of the most atrocious crimes against humanity and the destruction of 200 00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:45,100 the environment, would feel an affinity for each other. 201 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:47,180 But why merge? 202 00:17:47,640 --> 00:17:52,180 What does a pharmaceutical giant have to gain from buying out and merging with an agrochemical 203 00:17:52,180 --> 00:17:55,500 giant, especially one that carries as much baggage as Monsanto? 204 00:17:56,220 --> 00:18:01,360 If the connection between these corporate behemoths seems tenuous, then perhaps the key to understanding 205 00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:05,780 it is presented in that 1995 quote from former Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro. 206 00:18:05,780 --> 00:18:11,700 We're talking about three of the largest industries in the world, agriculture, food and health, that 207 00:18:11,700 --> 00:18:16,280 now operate as separate businesses, but there are a set of changes that will lead to their 208 00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:16,780 integration. 209 00:18:18,360 --> 00:18:24,020 Integration of agriculture, food and health is the goal, and once that goal is reached, the 210 00:18:24,020 --> 00:18:30,120 entire life support system of the human population, including all our food and medicine, will be in the 211 00:18:30,120 --> 00:18:31,860 hands of a few megacorporations. 212 00:18:32,660 --> 00:18:37,560 Indeed, the history of the production of food and pharmaceuticals has always followed the same 213 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:44,080 trajectory, away from natural, abundant, locally produced organic materials, and toward artificial, 214 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:47,140 scarce, factory-produced synthetic alternatives. 215 00:18:47,140 --> 00:18:52,940 Control of the global food supply is, needless to say, along with control of money and oil, 216 00:18:53,300 --> 00:18:57,060 one of the pillars upon which the globalist oligarchs seek to construct their system of 217 00:18:57,060 --> 00:18:57,780 total control. 218 00:18:58,740 --> 00:19:03,080 Although there is no proof whatsoever that he said it, the dubious quote sometimes attributed 219 00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:05,220 to Henry Kissinger is nonetheless quite true. 220 00:19:06,100 --> 00:19:08,460 Who controls the food supply controls the people. 221 00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:11,560 Who controls the energy can control whole continents. 222 00:19:12,260 --> 00:19:14,420 Who controls money can control the world. 223 00:19:14,420 --> 00:19:19,220 The process of consolidating these industries is of course nothing new. 224 00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:21,440 In fact, it started long ago. 225 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:27,160 As I explained in How Big Oil Conquered the World, even the current agrochemical industry 226 00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:32,040 has to be seen in its historical context as a fusion of the petrochemical fertilizer giants 227 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:38,840 DuPont, Dow, Hercules Powder, and other businesses in the Standard Oil Orbit, with the ABC seed cartel 228 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:41,840 of Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis-Dreyfus. 229 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:47,900 These previously separate fields were gradually consolidated under the flag of agribusiness, 230 00:19:48,300 --> 00:19:52,700 itself developed at Harvard Business School in the 1950s with the help of research conducted 231 00:19:52,700 --> 00:19:55,440 by Vasily Leontief for the Rockefeller Foundation. 232 00:19:56,420 --> 00:20:01,560 And as I also explained in How Big Oil Conquered the World, Big Pharma too was a creation of 233 00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:05,080 the same drive toward consolidation and spearheaded by the same people. 234 00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:11,220 From the Carnegie and Rockefeller funded institutionalization of the medical profession, to Standard Oil's 235 00:20:11,220 --> 00:20:15,340 role in supplying the petrochemicals for the burgeoning pharmaceutical industry, to the 236 00:20:15,340 --> 00:20:20,000 role of Rockefeller Institute researchers like Cornelius Rhodes who developed chemotherapy from 237 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:25,280 the mustard gas pioneered by Bayer, the overlap of the oligarchical interests in cementing 238 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:27,680 global control has been abundantly clear. 239 00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:34,460 Then, with the advancement of GMO technology in the 1980s and 1990s, again with considerable 240 00:20:34,460 --> 00:20:39,480 help from the Rockefellers and other oligarchical interests, new opportunities for consolidation 241 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:40,500 presented themselves. 242 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:46,040 Seeds used to be sold by seed companies, and fertilizers and herbicides used to be sold 243 00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:47,020 by chemical companies. 244 00:20:47,580 --> 00:20:52,920 But then the GMO revolution came along, and all of these companies spun off biotech branches 245 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:54,800 to genetically engineer seeds. 246 00:20:55,660 --> 00:21:00,460 That, in turn, opened up opportunities to create GMO seed strains that are tailored to 247 00:21:00,460 --> 00:21:02,880 work with patented herbicides and fertilizers. 248 00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:09,440 The combination of GMO seeds and specially tailored agrochemicals has been especially lucrative 249 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:14,360 for Monsanto, which was the first to capitalize on those synergies when it won regulatory approval 250 00:21:14,360 --> 00:21:17,300 for its first Roundup-ready soybeans in 1994. 251 00:21:17,300 --> 00:21:24,120 Roundup, aka glyphosate, has gone on to become the most used agricultural chemical in the 252 00:21:24,120 --> 00:21:25,240 history of the world. 253 00:21:26,780 --> 00:21:32,480 Monsanto and Bayer, not to mention their cohorts in the agrochemical, pharmaceutical, and euphemistically 254 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:38,720 named life sciences industries, are ultimately seeking the same thing, complete control over 255 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:43,800 the population, from the genetic engineering of its food supply to the control of its medicines 256 00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:44,760 and chemicals. 257 00:21:45,500 --> 00:21:50,920 It is a race toward complete centralization, and with this acquisition, Bayer and Monsanto 258 00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:52,380 are getting a head start. 259 00:21:53,780 --> 00:21:58,900 Particularly frightening, then, though hardly surprising, that this latest round of consolidation 260 00:21:58,900 --> 00:22:04,120 is being spearheaded by two corporations as thoroughly deplorable as Bayer and Monsanto. 261 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:11,180 Bayer, one of the pieces of IG Farben's grim and oligarchical legacy, supplier of chemicals 262 00:22:11,180 --> 00:22:16,560 for the poison gas attacks of World War I, knowing seller of HIV-contaminated vaccines, 263 00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:24,080 mass murderer of bees, seller of tainted GMO crops, and Monsanto, dumper of toxic chemicals, 264 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:31,640 proud seller of carcinogens, sewer of farmers, cause of farmer suicides, suppressor of scientific 265 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:32,220 dissent. 266 00:22:32,220 --> 00:22:37,680 Are you feeling safe, knowing that a quarter of the world's food supply will soon be in 267 00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:38,680 their combined hands? 268 00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:45,060 If not, then all of the efforts that have been made in recent years to march against Monsanto 269 00:22:45,060 --> 00:22:50,580 must be translated into a boycott against Bayer and all of their friends in the burgeoning 270 00:22:50,580 --> 00:22:53,900 biotech Big Agra seed cartel GMO franken industry. 271 00:22:53,900 --> 00:23:00,700 It is only by increasing our support for locally sourced, organic, heirloom seed-grown produce 272 00:23:00,700 --> 00:23:06,480 that we can hope to supplant this new mega-giant and consign it to the dustbin of history, where 273 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:07,120 it belongs. 274 00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:16,620 The Corbett Report is brought to you by the Data DVD series. 275 00:23:17,620 --> 00:23:25,560 From 2007 to 2016, each set of Data DVDs contains every podcast, every article, every video, 276 00:23:25,820 --> 00:23:28,520 and every interview from that year's the website. 277 00:23:29,780 --> 00:23:35,620 Celebrate the Corbett Report's decade of alternative media dominance by owning it all, only on these 278 00:23:35,620 --> 00:23:36,780 Data DVDs. 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