“I am alive today, but part of the farming population is going to be sacrificed and is going to die because of this.”-Paul Francois, victim of Monsanto’s LASSO 384

In February 2012, for the first time, a French court found Monsanto guilty of chemically poisoning a farmer who used an herbicide called LASSO 384. The active ingredient is called Alachlor.

This is the first court case that directly links Monsanto’s products with illnesses.

In 2004 the farmer suffered sever neurological problems that included memory loss, stammering and headaches, after using LASSO.  In 2007 the French government banned LASSO.  France has the largest agricultural economy of the European Union.

In 2003 Monsanto quietly paid a settlement of $700 million USD to victims of poisonings in Anniston, Alabama.

To add to the court cases, a recent study found that Kanup 480 SL (aka Roundup) actually destroys the soil it’s used on.  No shit Sherlock!!!  I’ve worked in landscaping for long enough to see the damage it causes to soil, and actually got in trouble with my bosses for refusing to use Roundup!

The study was published in Current Microbiology, and says the active ingredient, glyphosate, destroys beneficial microorganism that live in the soil, and results in crops with less nutritional value!  (I wounder if this has anything to do with mass colony collapse in bees?)

For example, the microorganism used in yogurt, Lactobacillus cremoris, has actually disappeared in areas where Roundup was used extensively.  The study also said such destruction occurres with much lower doses of Roundup, than what is recommended by Monsanto.

But it was discovered that many farmers end up using more and more Roundup, year after year, to fight the growing number of super weeds.  The results are huge tracks of farmland that are producing crops with very little nutrition!