Monsanto and the EPA, a loving embrace????
1) From the Huffington Post
Upcoming EPA Meetings on Safety of Monsanto Weed Killer Drawing Scrutiny
By Carey Giliam
29/09/2016 11:24 PM AEST | Updated September 29, 2016 23:24
Excerpt
Bayer better be paying attention to this.
The German company”s intended $66 billion acquisition of Monsanto Co. comes amid growing concern over the future of the company”s top-selling weed killer, a chemical called glyphosate that Monsanto introduced to the world 40 years ago as the active ingredient in its Roundup herbicide. Monsanto reaps billions of dollars annually, roughly a third of its sales, from those products.
So it”s no small matter that in mid-October the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to spend four days holding public meetings with a scientific advisory panel on the topic of whether or not glyphosate can cause cancer. The idea of shining a public spotlight on this mounting concern about the world”s most widely used herbicide has not set well with Monsanto and the rest of the industry that profits from glyphosate products like Roundup. Agrichemical interests have gone so far as to tell the EPA that the meetings should not be held at all, and have said that if they are, many of the world”s top scientists should be excluded from participating.
The industry clearly does not welcome the public scrutiny the meetings bring, but it should be satisfied that the EPA has made it clear it has no intention of contradicting Monsanto”s claims of glyphosate”s safety. After all, in a Sept. 12 report issued to the public, the EPA offered a 227-page evaluation of glyphosate”s cancer-causing potential that ended with a “proposed” conclusion that glyphosate was “”not likely to be carcinogenic to human” at doses relevant to human health risk assessment.” All of this before the meetings are held.
SNIP
Read the full article with links here
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2) AND now a relevant viewpoint from Gary Lindorff:
Life Arts 9/9/2016 at 13:06:33
Monsanto and the EPA “” How are they doing?
Monsanto is walking
With his best friend-with-benefits, the EPA:
So why are you dragging your heels
Signing off on glyphosate?
EPA: Oh, we”re having such a nice walk,
Do you really want to ask me that?
I thought we were going to have a nice time.
Why don”t you just say how pretty my hair looks.
I had it done for you.
Monsanto: Please don”t change the subject.
I”m serious. I have huge plans and
You are holding things up.
We should be better at this game by now.
EPA: Listen to you.
You seem to have forgotten I am an “environmental” agency.
You know I love you
But the public believes in me.
P is for “protection” (snort-laugh).
Monsanto: Right.
But can”t you just wind things up
And rubber-stamp this one?
EPA: Things are changing, love.
Look around.
Appearances are everything these days.
The best I can do is stall.
You are killing off your customers, you know.
Monsanto: I”m giving them what they want
And they want results sweetheart.
Like a cowboy roping a steer,
Or a football player making the touchdown.
You”re not even listening to me!
EPA : Once people hear the word “carcinogenic”,
As in “Roundup is carcinogenic”. . .
They turn green.
I”ve got an idea.
Just add some vinegar to the formula
And call it something with “green” in it:
Call it “Round-up Green”.
Monsanto: Are you breaking up with me?
EPA looks hard into Monsanto”s eyes,
Leans in and kisses him long on the lips.
They continue, hand in hand.
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