An event that will likely amplify Monsanto’s hard-earned distress 10-fold, three Chinese citizens have decided to take China’s Ministry of Agriculture to court so that the public can see how Monsanto’s best-selling, cancer-causing herbicide Roundup was approved.
In a rare case where citizens actually throw a lawsuit at the Chinese government, the ones initiating the lawsuit are looking to reveal to the public the toxicology report which led to Roundup’s approval 27 years ago.
Yang along with the other plaintiffs, Li Xiangzhen and Tian Xiangping, are demanding that the citizens be able to view the animal test report used to deem Roundup ‘safe’ by the government. Just months ago, the Ministry had declined to show the report, as it would reveal Monsanto’s ‘commercial secrets.’ The test report was submitted by U.S.-based Younger Laboratories in 1985 after being conducted in St. Louis Missouri.
Beijing No.3 Intermediate People’s Court had accepted the case, but a date for a hearing has not yet been set, an official at the court told Reuters.
“The government is taking actions to deal with other food safety issues but it is not dealing with the GMO problem,” said Yang Xiaolu, 62, one of the plaintiffs bringing the case and a long-time GMO activist.
As recent news would suggest, what sparked this most recent lawsuit was the declaration from the World Health Organization that glyphosate, the chemical ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, is ‘likely carcinogenic.’ The decision was made by IARC, the France-based cancer research arm of the World Health Organization, which considered the status of five insect and weed killers including glyphosate, which is used globally in industrial farming.
After analysis, it was determined that glyphosate ‘probably causes cancer.’ But of course Monsanto didn’t take this sitting down. Just days after the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer released the report, Monsanto demanded it be retracted.
But whether it will be retracted or not, it has already sparked widespread concern, leading to things like increased urgency to reconsider the use of GMO crops which have been made specifically to tolerate copious amounts of pesticides, as well as lawsuits launched to reveal toxicology reports.
It seems our government agencies around the world will do nothing but continue to protect the world’s most hated corporation, while hiding the true toxicity levels of their best selling product from the people. Though maybe that will change soon.
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