Are Monsanto and Pfizer in Bed Together?
It’s no secret that many prominent FDA and USDA officials are former executives of large companies in the pharmaceutical, food and biotech industries. Recent documentary films, such as Food, Inc. and Capitalism: A Love Story, have helped to raise public awareness of this fact. Many people believe that because so many individuals with industry ties hold power in these federal regulatory agencies, the policy they create often tends to put the profits of big business before the health and safety of the American people.
Regardless of whether or not you believe such conflicts of interest exist or influence policy, I think it’s important to note that Big Agra and Big Pharma also have some ties to each other that you might not be aware of.
It’s not so surprising, really. These two industries, which we view as separate now, both have their roots in what was once, simply, the “chemical” industry. Both manufacture synthetic chemicals for legitimate reasons, though many of these are considered toxins, and some are known carcinogens. Yet they strive to maintain their separateness in this day and age. Could it be because they don’t want to be accused of some kind of massive conspiracy to make money off of a malnourished and heavily medicated populace?
I think to say there is a bona fide “conspiracy” makes the relationship a little more black and white or oversimplified than it really is. However, if there were some semblance of a conspiracy, I imagine it would go something like this: Big Agra works to gain total control over the food supply. They genetically engineer food for maximum yield and profit with little attention paid to the environmental or human health consequences of these changes to the food supply. Conveniently enough for Big Agra, genetically altering food crops in this way necessitates the heavy application of the very pesticides and herbicides that Big Agra manufactures, while depleting the foods’ nutritional content.
Humans consume hefty doses of these dangerous chemicals while missing out on the life-sustaining vitamins, trace minerals and antioxidants present in real food. The result is an epidemic of poor health, as evidenced by rising rates of diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s. The proposed solution? More chemicals, this time in the form of pharmaceutical drugs, happily supplied by Big Agra’s friends, Big Pharma.
Again, I’m not saying this conspiracy is really some kind of backroom deal made to make people sick and earn more money, but the relationship between the two can hardly be dismissed as coincidental. If you take a look at the intertwined history of biotech giant, Monsanto, and the drug company, Pfizer (the poster children of the industries we refer to as “Big Agra” and “Big Pharma”), you’ll gain an interesting perspective on the matter. Here’s a quick illustration of the history behind these two companies, created by my editor, Mina Shahriary. For more detailed information, visit Monsanto’s and Pfizer’s websites:
http://www.monsanto.com/whoweare/Pages/monsanto-relationships-pfizer-solutia.aspx
http://www.pfizer.com/about/history/pfizer_pharmacia.jsp
