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In today's episode we're exposing the decades-long campaign by Monsanto (now Bayer) to conceal the truth about their flagship pesticide, glyphosate, sold as Roundup.
Drawing on the Monsanto Papers, we detail how the company employed a "disinformation playbook" similar to Big Tobacco and Big Oil. Learn about the tactics used: corrupting scientific studies, ghostwriting research papers, co-opting academics, and attacking independent journalists and scientists to protect profits.
We discuss the growing evidence linking glyphosate to non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other health concerns, culminating in billions paid out in cancer settlements.
Discover how Monsanto manufactured doubt to avoid regulation and maintain its "freedom to operate".
Source:
Excerpts from "Merchants_of_Poison_Report_final_120522.pdf" → https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Merchants_of_Poison_Report_final_120522.pdf
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0:00
Yeah,
0:01
welcome to another video of Foodn
0:03
Nourishes Deep Dives, the video cast of
0:05
foodnourish.net, where we explore topics
0:07
like health, food, supplements, and
0:09
alternative approaches to health and
0:11
wellness. Today, we're digging into a
0:13
really fascinating report called
0:14
Merchants of Poison. It claims to pull
0:16
back the curtain on a corporate playbook
0:18
that's allegedly used to shape public
0:20
opinion, scientific debate, and even
0:22
government rules, all to protect one
0:24
incredibly profitable product. Let's
0:26
dive in. You know, the story really
0:28
starts here with this infamous quote
0:30
from a tobacco industry executive back
0:32
in 1969.
0:33
For decades, when the science was
0:35
becoming crystal clear that smoking
0:37
caused cancer, the industry's strategy
0:39
wasn't to prove their products were
0:40
safe. No, their strategy was to create
0:43
doubt. Their whole goal was to make the
0:46
science seem unsettled, to muddy the
0:48
waters, and to delay any kind of
0:50
regulation for as long as humanly
0:51
possible. And this wasn't just a one-off
0:54
thing. The report we're looking at
0:56
argues this became a repeatable,
0:58
predictable playbook. The core idea is
1:00
kind of simple really. If the science
1:02
threatens your profits, you don't change
1:04
your business. You go on the attack
1:06
against the science itself. And it's a
1:08
strategy that's been used over and over
1:10
again to protect all sorts of products.
1:13
Which of course brings us right to the
1:15
central question of today's explainer.
1:17
The Merchants of Poison report
1:19
investigates whether this exact playbook
1:21
has been rolled out to defend one of the
1:23
most widely used chemicals in modern
1:25
agriculture. So, let's talk about
1:27
glyphosate. You probably know it as the
1:29
active ingredient in Roundup. For
1:31
decades, it was a massive product for
1:33
Monsanto and now for Bear, which bought
1:35
Monsanto a few years back. But in 2015,
1:37
a huge crisis emerged that the report
1:40
alleges triggered the full force of this
1:42
corporate playbook. To really get the
1:44
scale of this crisis, you kind of have
1:46
to see how glyphosate became so
1:48
dominant. It was registered way back in
1:50
' 74. But the real gamecher was in 1996
1:54
with Roundup Ready crops. See, these
1:56
genetically modified seeds could survive
1:58
being sprayed with the herbicide so
2:00
farmers could just douse their entire
2:02
fields and use just skyrocketed. Then in
2:05
2015, the World Health Organization's
2:07
prestigious cancer agency, the IR,
2:10
dropped a bombshell. It classified
2:11
glyphosate as a probable human
2:13
carcinogen. And this chart right here
2:16
just brilliantly illustrates the impact
2:18
of those Roundup Ready crops. I mean,
2:20
just look at it. Between 1990 and 2014,
2:23
the use of glyphosate in US agriculture
2:26
spiked by over 3,000%.
2:29
It became one of the most common
2:30
chemicals in the entire world. Found in
2:32
our food, our water, even in our bodies.
2:35
The market was just enormous. So, you
2:37
really have to understand the IRC ruling
2:40
in 2015. This wasn't some obscure
2:42
scientific paper. This was a direct
2:45
threat from a major global health agency
2:47
to the foundation of a multi-billion
2:49
dollar product. And according to the
2:51
report, this is the moment the company
2:53
went into full-on product offense mode.
2:56
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2:58
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The link for that is right in the
3:18
description of this video. All right,
3:21
welcome back. So, how does a company
3:23
allegedly fight back against a major
3:25
finding from the World Health
3:27
Organization's own cancer agency? Well,
3:29
according to the Merchants of Poison
3:31
report, you don't do it yourself. you
3:34
deploy the playbook. Let's break down
3:35
the specific tactics that are alleged in
3:37
the report. Okay, first it's really
3:40
important to understand this concept of
3:42
a product defense industry. The former
3:45
head of OSHA, David Michaels, actually
3:48
coined the term to describe this whole
3:50
network of consultants and PR firms that
3:53
specialize in one thing, manufacturing
3:55
doubt and producing the scientific
3:57
results that their corporate sponsors
3:58
pay them for. The report really boils
4:01
down Monsanto's alleged strategy into
4:03
three key tactics. First, you corrupt
4:06
the science itself to create a body of
4:08
literature that supports your product.
4:10
Second, you mobilize a whole network of
4:12
third party allies, you know, academics,
4:14
front groups, associations to spread
4:17
that message for you. And third, if that
4:19
still doesn't work, you attack the
4:21
credibility of the scientists and the
4:23
institutions that dare to challenge you.
4:25
Now, this is where things get really
4:27
interesting. This is a direct quote from
4:29
an internal Monsanto email that was
4:31
uncovered during litigation. The report
4:33
alleges that back in 2015, as the
4:35
company was planning a new scientific
4:37
paper to counter that ruling, a
4:39
toxicologist suggested ghostriting it.
4:42
That's where the company does the actual
4:43
writing and then outside academics just
4:45
edit and sign their names. And he even
4:48
references a 2000 paper implying, "Hey,
4:50
this is how we've done it before." So,
4:52
let's talk about the second tactic,
4:54
building an echo chamber. The report
4:56
alleges Monsanto didn't just create its
4:58
own science. It built a whole network to
5:00
amplify it. This apparently involved
5:02
organizations that looked independent on
5:03
the outside, but were allegedly pushing
5:05
pro-industry talking points. The report
5:07
points to groups like Academics Review
5:09
and the American Council on Science and
5:11
Health as examples. Organizations that
5:12
would attack critics while allegedly
5:14
taking corporate money behind the
5:15
scenes. And that brings us to the third
5:18
tactic, attacking the messenger. This
5:21
quote from the French newspaper Lemon
5:23
really sums up the report's allegations
5:25
of a coordinated aggressive campaign to
5:28
just discredit the ARC and its
5:30
scientists. The strategy wasn't just to
5:32
disagree with their science, but to
5:34
paint the entire institution as
5:36
fraudulent, as having an agenda, and as
5:38
being fundamentally anti-science.
5:41
So, the big question is, did this
5:43
playbook work? Well, in the court of
5:45
public opinion and with regulators, the
5:47
debate is still very much alive. But in
5:49
actual courts of law, the story took a
5:51
very different and very very expensive
5:54
turn. Let's look at the real world
5:56
fallout. In 2018, just as the first
6:00
massive lawsuits were getting underway,
6:02
the pharmaceutical giant Buyer bought
6:04
Monsanto for a staggering $63 billion.
6:08
They literally bought the company right
6:09
at the peak of this massive legal storm.
6:12
And the scale of that storm was just
6:15
immense. Over 125,000 lawsuits have been
6:19
filed in the US alone. These are from
6:22
people from all walks of life, farmers,
6:24
groundskeepers, regular homeowners, all
6:27
alleging that their exposure to Roundup
6:29
caused their cancer. After losing the
6:32
first three major trials, Bayer ended up
6:35
setting aside roughly 14 billion to
6:38
settle the vast majority of these cancer
6:40
claims. That is a massive financial
6:42
price tag tied directly to this
6:43
scientific debate over glyphosate
6:45
safety. And this quote right here from
6:48
the US district judge who was overseeing
6:50
a lot of the litigation is incredibly
6:52
telling. After he reviewed the company's
6:54
internal documents that were presented
6:56
as evidence, he concluded that a jury
6:58
could reasonably find that the company
7:00
was more focused on manipulating public
7:02
opinion than on figuring out whether its
7:04
product was actually giving people
7:06
cancer. So, after all of that, what are
7:09
we supposed to take away from this? The
7:11
Merchants of Poison Report really argues
7:13
that this story isn't just about one
7:15
chemical or one company. It's about a
7:17
much, much bigger picture concerning the
7:19
integrity of science itself. The
7:22
ultimate argument of the report is that
7:24
the whole glyphosate story is really a
7:26
case study in a fundamental conflict. It
7:28
shines a big spotlight on the tension
7:30
between corporate profit motives and
7:32
public health. And it shows just how
7:34
difficult it can be for the public and
7:35
even for regulators to get clear
7:37
information when science itself becomes
7:39
a PR battleground. And that really
7:42
leaves us with the critical question
7:43
that's at the heart of this entire
7:45
explainer. When science and profit
7:47
collide, how do any of us know what or
7:49
who to believe? You can find links to
7:51
the resources we used, including the
7:53
full Merchants of Poison report, right
7:55
there in the episode's description. If
7:57
you found this deep dive valuable,
7:58
please do us a huge favor and hit that
8:00
like button. It really helps us grow our
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channel and continue delivering these
8:03
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8:04
matters. And of course, subscribe to our
8:06
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8:07
episode. Thanks for joining us.
8:13
[Music]