Chapter 44: Farben Sprays Columbia

Shortly before Pearl Harbor, I.G. Farben camouflaged its American holdings by changing the name from "American IG" to "General Aniline & Film."

Before doing so, American I.G. took over Hoffman LaRoche and bought an undisclosed number of shares in Standard Oil (NJ, Indiana & California), Dow Chemical, the DuPont Company, and Monsanto Chemical. (290)

Monsanto brought the world saccharin, dioxin, PCBs, Agent Orange, Bovine Growth Hormone (291) and "Astroturf." (292)

But their biggest crime may be their involvement of the defoliating of Columbia - supposedly to eliminate the soul-destroying (yet time-honored) coca and poppy plants. (293)

A Colombian boy shows blisters on his face caused by herbicide spray

Roundup is manufactured by Monsanto using "liquid isoparafins" manufactured by (Rockefeller's) Exxon. Along with paraquat, Roundup is popular among law-enforcement officials in the US to kill outdoor cannabis grow-ops with. (294)

Almost 70,000 gallons of Roundup were sprayed in Colombia in the first months of 2001. In 2000, roughly 145,750 gallons were sprayed over 53,000 hectares (205 square miles).

With a retail price of $33 to $45 per gallon (Monsanto refused to confirm the wholesale price for such volumes), this represents a cost of around $4.8 to $6.6 million - paid to Monsanto by US taxpayers. (295)

Monsanto boasted almost $5.5 billion in sales in 2000 and nearly $150 million in profits. Roundup is the world's leading herbicide and the company's flagship product. Monsanto is also involved in developing biotech agriculture and has manufactured "Roundup Ready" soybeans and other crops that resist the herbicide. (296)

Researcher Mike Ruppert predicts a US-led invasion of Columbia in the near future "there's lots of oil there, too" he explains. (297) Fortunately, there are reports of spraying being halted in southern Caqueta province on orders from Bogota because of protests from indigenous groups and environmental concerns. (298)

image credit: Witness for Peace

A problematic solution. A farmer in Colombia displays the remains of legal crops that were inadvertantly sprayed with herbicides as part of a U.S.-backed program by the Colombian government to destroy coca crops. image credit: Witness for Peace

According to the latest issue of The Ecologist, Monsanto "posted a significantly larger quarterly loss in Oct. due to a slump in sales of its Roundup herbicide ..." (299) Monsanto tried to merge with another Farben company - American Home Products - but couldn't get it together. Watch for more mergers in the near future - it seems to be the trend. (300)

With any luck, the growing awareness of the hazards of Roundup will force these poison merchants into another line of work.

Notes

(290) "The Drug Story" p. 8

(291) "Monsanto: A Checkered History," Brian Tokar, Z Magaine, March 1999, p. 37-44

(292) inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blastroturf.htm

(293) see also "Plan Colombia's' Ground Zero'," Report by the Center for International Policy [1755 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 312, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 232-3317, www.ciponline.org|

(294) csf.colorado.edu/bioregional/jun98/0002.html

(295) "Spray or Else: U.S. Cuts No Slack in Colombia" By Philip Smith, DRCNet, July 3, 2001 - www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11121 - See also "US sprays poison in drugs war," Ed Vulliamy in New York, Sunday July 2, 2000, The Observer www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,338891,00.html

(296) ibid

(297) "Truth and Lies of 9-11," Mike Ruppert, copvcia.com - See also www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4378420,00.html - www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=140179&group=webcast

(298) "Spray or Else: U.S. Cuts No Slack in Colombia" By Philip Smith, DRCNet, July 3, 2001 - www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11121 -

(299) The Ecologist, Dec. 2002 / Jan. 2003, p. 11

(300) www.purefood.org/Corp/monsantomerger.htm - See also www.macalester.edu/environmentalstudies/MacEnvReview/columbia.htm