“It is a historic decision in so far as it is the first time that a (pesticide) maker is found guilty of such a poisoning.”
~Plaintiff’s attorney 

Well this is bad news for Monsanto and very good news for anyone who cares about their health.  Monsanto makes tremendous profits by not only engineering (and placing patents on) seeds for food but also for developing pesticides like Roundup.  Chemicals and genetically modified food don’t make for a healthy supper, and in the case of this French farmer inhaling Monsanto’s weedkiller left him with serious health problems.  A french court found Monsanto guilty for their failure to adequately notify consumers of their products just how toxic they really are.  Approximately 200 farmers a year notify the French government of health problems related to pesticides they use in farming.  What do you think happens to the people who eat the food these farmers are producing?

This isn’t nearly as big as the $2 billion judgement on behalf of Brazilian farmers (source), but it’s one more step in the right direction.

Reuters explains the details HERE:

In the first such case heard in court in France, grain grower Paul Francois, 47, says he suffered neurological problems including memory loss, headaches and stammering after inhaling Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller in 2004.  Previous health claims from farmers have foundered because of the difficulty of establishing clear links between illnesses and exposure to pesticides.

Francois and other farmers suffering from illness set up an association last year to make a case that their health problems should be linked to their use of crop protection products.  The agricultural branch of the French social security system says that since 1996, it has gathered farmers’ reports of sickness potentially related to pesticides, with about 200 alerts a year.  But only about 47 cases have been recognized as due to pesticides in the past 10 years. Francois, who suffers from neurological problems, obtained work invalidity status only after a court appeal.

One of the biggest problems with Monsanto is how they create and then patent their own seeds.  These seeds grow and make it difficult to farm even if you don’t purchase Monsanto seeds.  Additionally – since these seeds are patented – farmers have to buy new seeds every single year.  We wrote about another way … a better way HERE.  Labeling of GMOs is very important to helping consumers make up their own mind; unfortunately – a ballot initiative to label GMOs in California failed to pass (source).  If California won’t pass it – not many “moderate” states will either.  Because Americans are top of the world intelligent.

We wrote about the beekeeper who researched the effects of Monsanto on bees; his research was destroyed.  Coincidentally – honeybee populations continue to shrink and without bees … goodbye controlling our own food supply.  It’s really scary stuff.  More on that HERE:

Bottom line – this man’s property was stolen and the evidence that his bees were infected was stolen and perhaps destroyed.  The state has violated this man’s constitutional rights in numerous ways and they have yet to give him access to his bees to prove they were incorrect.  They did this without a warrant and it’s completely unacceptable.  The relationship between the Agriculture Department and Monsanto is too comfy … but it’s undeniable that there is a dwindling population of bees all of a sudden and for some reason … we can’t seem to figure out why.

Unfortunately – both revenues and profits at Monsanto are at all time highs (source); they’re worth over 50 billion and they’re #1 in their industry.  A big part of the problem of course comes down to Americans not being able to differentiate between genetically modified foods and non-GMOs.  Monsanto and others in the bio-engineering industry have invested tremendous sums to ensure you don’t know the difference.  So – even people who would avoid their products are unable to because they don’t know the supply chain of the food they’re eating.

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