Community | November 12, 2010 | 31 comments

Open Letter To All Employees Of Monsanto

source: http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-videos/23-gm-corporations/12552

JanforGore
NOTE: For more on the history of Agent Orange: http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-videos/23-gm-corporations/12552
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Dear Friends,

In addressing you today, I wish to draw your attention to the background of Monsanto, a company whose name and products are held in contempt not only within the United States, but also in every country where it has offices, its products sold and used. The reason for the contempt goes back to the United States War on Vietnam, in particular August 10th 1961.when the first use of the herbicide Agent Orange began.

President Roosevelt speaking of the attack on Pearl Harbour December 7th 1941 stated, "It will be a day that will live in infamy".

So too friends will August 10th 1961, for on that day began the spraying of 80 million litres of Agent Orange - manufactured by your company along with others. The spraying was to continue for ten-years. I ask you to imagine every day for ten-years A Vietnamese Pearl Harbour. The loss of life on that day in 1941 was indeed tragic, but consider the loss of life over ten-years, and the millions born years after the war ended in 1975 crippled in mind and body due to Agent Orange.

Today in Vietnam there are over three million victims suffering from the effects of Agent Orange, and the company you work for Monsanto, is one of those responsible.

Hugh Grant who holds the positions of President, Chairman, and Chief Executive of your company was just three years of age when the spraying began and 13 years when it stopped. So we cannot blame him then. But, on reaching the age of 23 in 1981 - six-years after the Vietnam War ended, Hugh Grant joined Monsanto, and would have known the history of the company and its products including Agent Orange, its use on Vietnam and the effect on the people and land.

When he became President, Chairman and CEO if he did not know of Agent Orange and its use, then he is unfit to remain with the company. Shamefully Monsanto's public relation office to this very day continues to deny any responsibility for the illnesses and deformities that Agent Orange has caused to the people of Vietnam. Nor have they made any financial compensation to the Vietnamese victims. Yet the evidence is plain to see if Hugh Grant or the people who write these denials were to visit the victims in the hospitals, clinics, or in their homes as I have done many times indeed, the offices of Monsanto and Dow Chemicals - another company responsible for Agent Orange - are just a ten-minute car ride away from the Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

In my visits to these offices I have asked that the director or manager to visit or come with me to the Tu Du Hospital, each time they have refused, instead they give me a statement that denies all responsibility.

But Hugh Grant and/or his board members do not have to go to Vietnam to see some of the victims of Agent Orange; they can seen in many cities of the United States, for those who served in Vietnam were also affected and are suffering from the same illnesses and disabilities that the Vietnamese have. Many, again like the Vietnamese victims, have died as a result of Agent Orange.

Friends, next year, 2011, will see the 50th anniversary of the spraying of Agent Orange on Vietnam. Remember the date 10th August. It will be a day when millions in Vietnam and its friends in many countries around the world will commemorate as a day of infamy.

Tomorrow, as you walk through the gates of your company Monsanto, I ask you to remember the deaths and disabilities that Agent Orange has caused, especially to the many thousands of innocent children who died in their mother's womb, and those who survived born with deformities and ask yourself: Why am I working for such a company as MONSANTO?

Yours sincerely

Len Aldis. Secretary
Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society
  1. groups:
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  2. tags:
    Environment,  Cancer,  Monsanto,  Humanity,  9 more
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31 comments // Open Letter To All Employees Of Monsanto // Video

  • wolfess
    • 0
      wolfess  

    • I married my husband in 1969, right before he shipped out for Korea; 13 months later he came home and shipped out for Vietnam. He returned home to stay in January of 1972; on October 6 our first son was born; 2 days later he died (of cancer). Five years later our second son was born; he is severely retarded.

      In 2006 my husband was diagnosed with diabetes, chronic kidney failure, and congestive heart failure. Two years ago he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I believe ALL of these events are the result of his exposure to agent orange. We are financially comfortable so I have no need for financial compensation, but I want Monsanto and all of its products WIPED OFF THE FACE OF THIS EARTH! It is unconscionable that they are more concerned with profits than they are with people, and that translates -- for me at least -- to this company and its employees not being worthy of SHARING THIS PLANET!

    • 1 year ago
  • onechance
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  

    • And get this, on their site Monsanto actually had the gall to state they are not responsible for any of this as they were following orders of the government as if they were held at gunpoint to make and provide this toxic soup. If you voluntary sign a contract to provide poisons you know are above acceptable levels and can kill and deform humans, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE. If US troops who murder civilians in the course of their duty can be put on trial which is right, so should Monsanto, Dow and all companies involved in this war crime.

    • 1 year ago
  • getrounder
    • +1
      getrounder  

    • yes, MrMxyzptlk, you can play devil's advocate, but the fact is, we are lazy.
      it should be up to you and me, ourselves alone, to provide for ourselves.
      i personally don't care what the benefits of this round-up ready stuff are. i have a garden and i'd prefer if monsanto didn't somehow 'own' the rights to the seeds that i plant, or that monsanto's plant strains don't contaminate mine so that within one growing season my own heirloom seeds have managed to change into monsanto's, thereby giving them ownership and patent rights over something i had no control over.

      yes, round-up ready makes things easier for some people.

      but let's use a really bad example here....gas chambers helped speed up the process of killing all of those jews. i mean, they could have just used the less toxic bullets in their guns, but that would have taken too long.

      lol

      good point though. i've read both sides and i can't ever find myself siding with monsanto.
      it's weird that they started as a chemicals company and now create the world's food.
      anyone know where to find any good anti-conagra films? i like to lump monsanto and conagra into the same category.
      of course, i'm anti-everything. freaking corporations. what ever happened to tribes and villages? i hate this metropolis shit.

    • 1 year ago
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • getrounder
    • 0
      getrounder  
    • MrMxyzptlk:

      yes, americans are extremely lazy. to the point that renouncing citizenship seems to be the only way to distance myself from this laziness and overall ineptitude.
      i guess i should point out that my opinions come from the perspective of an anarcho-communist. i'm okay with fewer/more workers, so long as we end the mass production.

      i say, if you can't acquire your own food (or find a way to do so that doesn't involve mega-corporations) then it's your own fault.
      i'm agreeing with what you say about americans wanting it all and for cheap. it's pathetic.

      not you, but us, americans. we are pathetic for the most part.

    • 1 year ago
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • getrounder
    • 0
      getrounder  
    • MrMxyzptlk:

      i sure do.
      we don't need the internet. i mean, look at it. look at this site. look at the pointlessness of it, honestly.
      i'm just saying, i agree with the intent of this thread, which is to say that i disagree with monsanto's practices, regardless of any positive that can be ciphered from what they do.

    • 1 year ago
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • getrounder
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • macdontcare
    • 0
      macdontcare  
    • MrMxyzptlk:

      I see your point. However, rarely do enough people consider food as a primary financial concern. People that don't mind paying for many of modern society's unnecessary products and services shouldn't be concerned about what they pay for food. We are what we eat, right?

    • 1 year ago
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • macdontcare
    • 0
      macdontcare  
    • MrMxyzptlk:

      I worry about the endless cycle of poison in and on our food = more trips to the doctor or morgue(well, we only make one trip there). The connection between changes to the current agrucultural system and skyrocketing food prices cannot be ignored. I've heard it stated, from people that consume organic products, that if you are adding "less" at the time of growth and cultivation why does it cost more. The simple answer is: labor. Health is my primary concern here. No doubt there is much work to be done.

    • 1 year ago
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • macdontcare
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • macdontcare
    • +1
      macdontcare  
    • MrMxyzptlk:

      Fall not fail. It's a reference to some peoples' desire to change a system(rarely fully understood) to quickly causing a cascade effect. Politicians are not scientist and vice versa. Politicians rarely understand the complexity of policies they vote on, just as scientist are ill suited to format complex equations in a way the commoner can understand.
      Pull out the rug, remove one brick, butterfly flaps it's wings, it's all the same reference. Change just ONE thing in the equation there is no way to properly predict the outcome. Change our agricultural practices to quickly...we will fail.

    • 1 year ago
  • cclark_productions
  • riverratt50
  • CalgarC
    • +2
      CalgarC  

    • reposting to the other site. please log in :D we have 20 users already and it needs a jumpstart... anyway

      i truly doubt monsanto will survive the decade. :D

    • 1 year ago
  • getrounder
    • +3
      getrounder  

    • Thank you for this post.
      Monsanto has nothing less than a notoriously negative history with products like Round-up, Dioxin, etc.

      In my opinion, we need to petition them, but on a global scale, since they are, in fact, in complete control of nearly 100% of all food grown and processed on this planet, responsible for the destruction of genetics within strains of plants due simply to countries growing Monsanto's genetically engineered 'Round-up ready' strains and so on.

      Personally, I think that the only way to get rid of something as evil as Monsanto involves explosives.

      Every single employee of Monsanto needs to be on the look-out. One day, when the revolution comes, they will be among the first to be stripped of their authority to monopolize the food we eat and need to survive. They will also see the least mercy.

      To Monsanto: We are coming for you and there is nothing that you can do to stop us.

    • 1 year ago
  • riverratt50
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  
    • getrounder:

      You are quite welcome. And don't listen to the propaganda from those who always defend these murderers without real reason to. Those who would do so reveal much about their own lack of a conscience and soul. If Monsanto were to go under tomorrow it would be a great day for biodiversity on this planet and for agriculture globally. These vipers have done nothing but destroy the basis of agriculture ( saving seeds in particular) that has been in practice for over 40,000 years. They have perpetuated a toxic monoculture world seeking to control our food supply while subjecting farmers to poverty, death, and contamination of their organic seeds all in the name of their own profit. Agent Orange still haunts and deforms the generations of Vietnam and our troops that came home. Notice however that the very same people who spew lies to you about Round Up Ready crops that are not only causing monoculture, superweeds and an actual increase in pesticide use now because it has failed to do what Monsanto claimed it would, don't wish to discuss the toxic legacy of Agent Orange, dioxin, and DDT and PCBs, which is the true legacy of these despicable environmental terrorists.

      http://current.com/news/92277642_negative-impacts-of-round-up-ready-systems.htm

      http://current.com/technology/92685375_roundup-sprayed-on-gm-soy-causes-health-p...

    • 1 year ago
  • Ihatethemall
    • +1
      Ihatethemall  

    • Id like to add.Go to hell monsanto. I agree with nothing you say Jan....other than your fight against monsanto. on that I say, keep up the good work

    • 1 year ago
  • macdontcare
  • JanforGore
  • lamborghini
  • artemis6
  • riverratt50
    • 0
      riverratt50  
    • lamborghini:

      Look up the movie, Food, Inc. and watch it. They don't put agent orange on the crops but they have genetically modified them to be tolerant to round-up, a NASTY herbicide, that they Monsanto also make.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
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