OnCBS This Morningearlier this month , Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant talked aboutGMO labeling , the condom of Roundupand Monsanto ’s quest to become carbon copy achromatic . I thought it was an interesting interview and came by wondering how much Monsanto ’s public - relations staff get paid ( likely more than a freelance ag and intellectual nourishment writer ) , because they ’re good at craft subject matter that sound nice while not actually saying anything at all .
Monsanto Says Yes To GMO Labeling
WhenCBS This Morninghost Charlie Rose asked Grant , “ Are you in party favour of mandatory labeling , ” Grant gave an answer that surprise me :
“ I am in favor of some federal standard . I think a large-minded umbrella in labeling that ’s based on science and based on facts , I welcome . My worry , Charlie , is that a lot of the labeling debate so far has been DoS by state , so independent , dissimilar labels in different commonwealth , and that leave in confusion instead of transparency , and it results in more disbursement . If there were an overall standard , kind of like the organic fertiliser — if you look today at the today at the constitutional - solid food banner — something that mirrored that , I would be in favor of . ”
Then host Gayle King point out that Monsanto spend more than $ 4 billion to defeat a GMO - labeling initiative in Colorado and more than $ 6 million in Oregon , and Grant said that ’s because he does n’t want a patchwork of state - by - DoS regulations that will make it so “ you ca n’t move a can of soup from one state to the other . ” Grant is n’t alone in his pro - labeling stance , as in arecent pollby the Environmental Working Group , Consumers Union , Food and Water Watch , Friends of the Earth , and Center for Food Safety , 89 percent of people say they want compulsory GM - foods labeling . When is Monsanto going to put some money behind a national labeling campaign , then ?
Meanwhile , the Grocery Manufacturers Association is pushing for GMO labels to come in the figure of aQR code . I ’m saying what a spate of opponents to this idea are saying : What about all of those people who do n’t have smartphones , include low - income consumers and older consumer , plus those doing their grocery shopping in areas without data reporting and in stores without loose WiFi ? ( Do n’t you mock me — I worked on a farm in an area like that in rural Oregon just two years ago . ) In that consumer - chemical group survey , 88 percent of people want GMO label impress on the packet while 8 per centum choose scannable bar codes .
Grant’s Roundup Response
CBS This Morninghost Norah O’Donnell elicit the question of Roundup safety to Grant , pointing out the studies that say glyphosate — Roundup ’s active ingredient — is carcinogenic . ( “ Are we , in fact , envenom our crop by using this Roundup ? ” is in reality how O’Donnell put it . ) Grant did n’t respond right away .
“ Farmers calculate on this . It ’s an important tool in the fight against weeds . … I experience very good about the refuge of the safety of the product . It ’s been learn extensively for more than 40 years . … I think the key for me , forMonsanto and for Department of Agriculture in general is we need to do a proficient line of explain where food comes from , ” Grant enjoin .
Throughout the consultation , Grant keep coming back to sodbuster demand all of these tools — mean GM seeds and chemicals like Roundup — for their creature boxes if they ’re expected to deal with clime alteration and prey a growing universe .
Mike Mozart/Flickr
Going Carbon Neutral
By 2021 , Monsanto design to contend climate change bybecoming C neutral . So in six years , the world ’s largest seed company will have a zero - footprint harvest - production program “ through a unique program direct across its germ and crop - security surgical process , as well as through collaboration with farmers . ” There ’s a set of public - relations - speak hold out on here , and Grant did n’t elaborate on it during his audience , but I look fore to get word more about how a company that manufacturers and promotes chemicals is going to lay aside the climate .
Mike Mozart/Flickr
