Monsanto To Do USDA’s Job

I tell you ... What could possibly go wrong?

Monsanto Will Soon Be Allowed To Police Itself.

Monsanto, enemy of organic farmers and anti-GMO advocates alike, will likely be allowed to conduct its own environmental studies as part of a two-year USDA experiment. But there is no good that can possibly come of an experiment where the company behind nearly every genetically modified crop in our daily diets is allowed to decide whether its products are causing any environmental harm. And Monsanto isn't the only biotech company that will be permitted to police itself.
As it stands, the USDA is responsible for assessing environmental impacts of new GMO crops. The agency has been lax about this, to say the least.
Because the USDA is so bad at doing its job on time, the agency decided to see if anyone else was prepared to do its EIS work instead. And so it looks like the USDA will at least temporarily hand over environmental impact responsibilities to the biotech companies behind GMO crops. The pilot program will allow these companies to conduct their own environmental assessments of crops or outsource the work to contractors.

Their PR department is also busy: Monsanto Pledges Support to St. Louis Area as Damage Estimates and Clean-Up Efforts Get Underway.

As the St. Louis community works to assess damages and initialize clean-up efforts following the devastating storms that hit the area on Friday evening, Monsanto Company pledges $100,000 to the American Red Cross to aid in early relief efforts.

That's certainly a nice gesture. In 2010 Monsanto's gross profit was $5.08 billion. To put their contribution into perspective, it's like a person who earns $40,000 per year giving 79-cents to the Red Cross.