Why Does France Hate Monsanto?

The American giant is not well liked anywhere, but over here, we hate it. What did it do to arouse so much hate?

This afternoon, the General Assembly is looking at a law the Socialist Party has proposed to ban the cultivation of transgenic corn in France. It’s a new attempt to permanently outlaw Monsanto’s MON 810. But who is Monsanto, and why does France hate this industrial power so much?

Monsanto is an old industrial group founded by an American entrepreneur who gave the company his wife’s maiden name — so he was a true sentimentalist. The group came into being at the very beginning of the 20th century, in 1901, in Missouri. Its headquarters are located — this is hard to make up — in a small town of fewer than 20,000 called Crève Cœur, which is 30 minutes by car from St. Louis. During the course of its history, Monsanto was a company at the intersection of chemistry, pharmacology and agriculture or food production. Its first product was saccharine, a sweetener. Sweetener: Nothing other than the name makes it seem unnatural, and then they say it causes cavities … well, there is nothing to hate in that.

So why does the group have a negative image?

First, there are historical reasons. It’s true that beyond sweeteners, the other products that have made Monsanto famous throughout its history did not make for very good publicity. First, there is the infamous DDT, in the first generation of insecticides. They were products that were essentially made available commercially after World War II. They were efficient in fighting off not only insects, but also illnesses like malaria. The only problem was that DDT would emerge at the center of many controversies: It would be accused of being a carcinogen and was banned in the U.S. during the 1970s. And, just to make things even more complicated for Monsanto, it was also the company, alongside Dow Chemical, that provided the U.S. Army with a defoliant — Agent Orange, also infamous — which allowed it to attack the Vietnamese jungle and make sure that the communists could not hide beneath the trees. The product is harmful even in small doses, but in Vietnam, it was straight out overused; it caused a lot of illnesses, and as a result, this hurt Monsanto’s image a lot. And just to round things out, we can add that Monsanto was involved in nuclear affairs, aspartame, polyester …. In short, after many years, ecologists have plenty of reasons to hate this group.

But today, is it Monsanto’s pro-GMO activity that makes the company a target?

Monsanto is a technological company. It still sells RoundUp, the world’s primary herbicide. But what has made the company a new fortune, what makes up two-thirds of its revenue, around $10 to $15 billion, are GMOs. During the 1980s, the group was the first to believe in this new green revolution. Today, GMOs feed its growth, with its revenues growing by 10 percent last year and its profits by 20 percent for the third year in a row. Monsanto has become a giant that solely represents one-third of the global seed market. The group has a complicated history, and it is very strong. Therefore, it has many enemies and rivals.

But fundamentally, should we be wary of Monsanto?

It’s up to the scientific community to answer that question. As a rule, in France, we are cautious as a matter of principle. It’s better to be careful for sure. But we should not vilify Monsanto without a doubt. First of all, according to Monsanto, GMOs allow us to use fewer pesticides, which could increase crop yields or save water. Monsanto’s adversaries are obviously trying to paint a dark picture, while Monsanto tries to dress things up a little. But it would be best for us to have a rational approach and not just an emotional one toward this group that many nations have accepted, while we point our finger at it.