Seeds of irreversible change
Multinationals like Monsanto are facing real grassroots opposition in the world,
especially over agro-chemicals and GMOs. Monsanto has led the big corporations towards diversionary tactics: they have issued codes of conduct and ethical charters to conceal their real objective of creating value for their
shareholders. They are promoting their products as cures for third world hunger
and disease, and as an alternative to the dangers of pesticides. They hope to win over a hostile public with advertising.
by
Agnès Sinaï
Monsanto has declared a state of emergency. Following a bomb threat at its Peyrehorade site in the French department of Les Landes, the world’s second largest farm seed producer launched a security protocol on its Intranet network to safeguard its computer systems and protect its employees from physical attack. Personnel must report all suspicious behaviour, anonymous telephone calls and persons not wearing security badges; they must lock all doors, use passwords to block access to computer screens and not use modems to connect to the outside world. Only persons expressly authorised to do so may talk to journalists. Monsanto-France’s present director of communications, Armelle de Kerros, is in fact no stranger to a culture of secrecy, since she was previously with the Compagnie générale des matières atomiques (Cogema). But this does not prevent Monsanto presenting an image of “transparency”.