When the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer labeled glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” back in 2015, the first real crack appeared in Monsanto’s carefully constructed narrative that its billion-dollar product is harmless, and that farmers should continue dousing their fields with this toxic herbicide. (Related: EPA hid truth about glyphosate and cancer for decades to protect Monsanto's corporate profits.)
The IARC also found that there was “limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans for non-Hodgkin lymphoma,” as well as “convincing evidence that glyphosate also can cause cancer in laboratory animals.” (Related: Learn more about the science linking glyphosate and cancer at Glyphosate.news.)
Monsanto was immediately assaulted with a slew of lawsuits from farmers and others claiming to have developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma as a result of exposure to glyphosate, which is the primary ingredient in the company’s Roundup product.
Of course, Monsanto should never be underestimated. The people who run the “world’s most evil corporation” are master tacticians, and they had a plan for dealing with this situation even before the IARC released its report.
That plan has included Monsanto’s old favorites: Propaganda and misinformation spread by recognized and “reliable” mainstream journalists, culminating in politicians using their political clout to launch an attack on the proven science.
USRTK reported that internal company communications surfaced in some of the recent lawsuits which prove that Monsanto launched its plan to discredit the IARC study in February 2015, a month before its release.
Their stated intention: “Orchestrate outcry with IARC decision.”
USRTK laid out the first step of Monsanto’s plan:
The efforts to manipulate public perception about IARC ramped up last summer when Monsanto allies spoon-fed a false narrative to a Reuters reporter who produced a news story that shot around the globe and has been a key talking point for the chemical industry attack against IARC.
The story relied on the deposition of an IARC scientist named Aaron Blair and reported that Blair withheld critical information that would have altered the IARC glyphosate classification. Reuters never provided a link to the deposition, which at that point was not filed in any court and was not publicly available.
Chairman Smith ran with the story, stating that Blair “admitted to knowing that this research could have prevented” the classification of glyphosate as a probable carcinogen.
That deposition has now become available to the public, and clearly shows that Blair did not in fact make any such statement. What he did say, was that the data under discussion had not been properly analyzed or published and was therefore not suitable for inclusion in the IARC study.
Monsanto’s next step was to get the chemical industry to repeat the same accusation about a “doctored” study, claiming that the IARC deleted evidence proving there was no connection between glyphosate and cancer from its final report. In fact, this “proof” consisted of assertions by Monsanto which could not be proved or backed up, and were therefore rightly excluded from the final report.
As a final attack, U.S. Rep Lamar Smith, chair of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Science, Space, & Technology, conducted a hearing earlier this month entitled “In Defense of Scientific Integrity: Examining the IARC Monograph Programme and Glyphosate Review,” which was a direct attack on these world-renowned and respected scientists.
Smith is either a pawn of Monsanto or has been duped by its cleverly presented misinformation. Either way, this is further evidence of the need to double check anything presented as “scientific fact” by the government or the mainstream media.
Read more news on glyphosate at Glyphosate.news.
Sources for this article include:
Please contact us for more information.
