Monsanto
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Critical List: TransCanada reboots KeystoneXL; the most energy-dense battery ever
TransCanada is going to reapply for a Keystone XL permit and wants to start work on the Oklahoma-to-Texas portion of the pipeline. Envia Systems has created the most energy-dense battery ever, which could bring down the price of electric vehicles and extend their range. Rick Santorum thinks gas prices caused the recession. No, he really […]
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French judge: Monsanto poisoned farmer
In 2004, Paul François, a French farmer, breathed in the vapor of Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller while cleaning out the tank of a crop sprayer. He lost consciousness and later suffered from memory loss and headaches. Monday, a French court found that Monsanto could be held liable for poisoning François.
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Critical List: Obama budget ups clean energy funding; Monsanto poisoned farmer
Happy Valentine’s Day! Enjoy that chocolate now: it could be harder to find as climate change takes its toll on the cacao tree. Here are some other “green(ish)” ideas for presents to the one you love, be it your sweetie, your kid, your BFF, or your favorite teacher. And here’s Grist’s V-day roundup. President Obama’s […]
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Farmers advance in their suit against Monsanto
In one corner you have the biotech seed giant, in the other you have 83 non-GMO seed producers, farmers, and agricultural organizations who want Monsanto to stop suing and threatening them.
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Monsanto won’t have to clean up dioxin in West Virginia
West Virginia continues to win the game of exposing human beings to extremely hazardous conditions in exchange for working-class pay, then telling them to deal with it when they get sick. The latest example of this behavior doesn't even have to do with coal, but with Monsanto and Agent Orange.
For 30 years, the Monsanto plant in a town called Nitro (named after the chemicals produced there! For real!) produced a defoliant ingredient that would later be used in Agent Orange. But the herbicides made in Nitro were contaminated with dioxin, which meant that Nitro residents were exposed to the toxic chemical beginning in the late 1940s. Dioxin has been connected to every bad health impact imaginable—for adults, problems like cancer and immune suppression, and for kids, problems like birth defects and learning disabilities. And now, because of the way West Virginia law works, the most that the citizens of Nitro can ask from the company is that it covers the cost of medical testing fees. -
Critical List: Funding for climate research drops; USDA approves drought-resistant corn
The federal budget crisis is turning climate denialism into a vicious cycle: Skepticism contributes to lower funding, which means less research, which means less information, which means more skepticism. The USDA approved a drought-resistant corn, developed by Monsanto. Congress is cutting a federal program that helps low-income people with heating costs by about 25 percent. […]
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The bugs that ate Monsanto
The corn rootworm.Photo: Jimmy SmithNow that 94 percent of the soy and 70 percent of the corn grown in the U.S. are genetically modified, Monsanto — one of the companies that dominates the GMO seed market — might look to some like it’s winning. But if we look a little closer, I’d say they’re holding […]
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Hungary destroys 1,000 acres of Monsanto maize
Genetically modified seeds are banned in Hungary. So when government regulators found that 1,000 acres of maize had been planted with genetically modified seeds, they just plowed the suckers under. You stick it to the Monsanto, Hungary! Leaving aside the fact that this sort of sweep-the-checkers-off-the-board move is always kind of badass, this is also […]
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Critical List: Scientists find Earth 2.0; rootworms defeat Monsanto corn
Scientists found a planet that looks an awful lot like Earth. One U.N. leader says that even an international treaty won't ensure the world avoids dangerous climate change. And we don't even have that! Rootworms are developing a resistance to Monsanto's Bt corn, and scientists get to say "I told you so." The Carbon War […]
