Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders recently did an interview with CBS revolving around agriculture. Sanders has not yet elaborated on his claims, but he reportedly attests that a scheduled interview with CBS was cancelled because “Monsanto threatened to sue” the network.
During a town hall meeting, a citizen asked Sanders what he thought of GMOs and Monsanto. Sanders reportedly says:
“Monsanto is a very, very powerful corporation. They are one of the leaders in food technology and basically working hard to transform our food system. Let me tell you a funny story, or not so funny. In my state, a great dairy state, we have a lot of dairy cows. There was an effort to put what was called BGH, bovine growth hormone, which is a stimulant that makes cows produce cows more milk but is unhealthy. I was against that.
I’ll never forget this. I was invited by CBS, not a small company, to appear on television to talk about why I was opposed to bovine growth hormone. CBS then called me up and said, ‘Well, Monsanto is threatening to sue us, so we can’t go on with it.’ They are very powerful.”
Bernie Sanders didn’t elaborate on when this conversation took place, but his claim is not unusual compared to those made by others. Dr. Arpad Pustazai was one of the first scientists to be shut-up by the biotech industry, and there have been dozens more. Dr. Thierry Vrain, a former biotechnologist himself, has blown the whistle on the industry as well. Kirk Azevedo was also once employed by Monsanto, but later exposed the dangers of Bt toxins in GE plants.
The point here is that Monsanto has more control than the average citizen is aware of. It looks like silencing a presidential candidate is just another day at the office for Monsanto.
