The Circus Gardener's Kitchen

seasonal vegetarian recipes with a side helping of food politics

Tag Archive for ‘Monsanto’

10 Comments

spaghetti with olive, caper and tomato sauce

Monsanto, once dubbed the “most evil corporation in the world” no longer exists but its toxic legacy shows no sign of disappearing, thanks to one of its flagship products, the weedkiller Roundup. The principal ingredient of Roundup is a chemical called glyphosate, which seven years ago the World Health Organisation labelled “probably carcinogenic.” Since then, a growing body of evidence has associated exposure to glyphosate with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer […]

Continue Reading →

2 Comments

sweet potato mulligatawny soup

Monsanto, the US multinational chemical corporation once voted “the most evil corporation in the world” no longer exists, as a result of its acquisition by the German chemical giant Bayer. However, Monsanto’s legacy lives on. One of the corporations most successful products is glyphosate, a key component in weedkillers. It was described by the World Health Organisation in 2015 as “probably carcinogenic to human beings”. Since then, a growing number […]

Continue Reading →

15 Comments

Lebanese-style rice and lentils with crispy onions

For the second time in less than a year, a US court has found that the weed killer Roundup is responsible for causing cancer. In this second case, the jury also found that Roundup’s manufacturer, Monsanto (which has since been taken over by German multinational Bayer) had deliberately manipulated records to hide the risk of cancer from exposure to Roundup. The judge in this most recent case stated that “there […]

Continue Reading →

9 Comments

spicy roast cauliflower with hummus and pomegranate

hummus with pomegranates and pine nuts, spicy cauliflower and halloumi

It is now three years since the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that glyphosate, the key ingredient of the popular weedkiller Roundup, is “probably carcinogenic to humans”. In response, Monsanto (the manufacturers of Roundup) has set about trying to discredit the WHO’s findings by, for example, setting up and funding numerous research projects, each of which, unsurprisingly, has gone on to conclude that Roundup is safe. Safe or not, glyphosate […]

Continue Reading →

15 Comments

wild garlic gnocchi with kale

The proposed merger between US chemical giant and its German counterpart Bayer, otherwise known as the “marriage made in hell”, is slowly but inexorably heading towards completion. It has not, however, been without its problems. The proposed merger has had to negotiate several anti-trust and anti-monopoly regulations in various global markets before it can proceed. Last month, for example, the European Union only gave the $62.5 billion deal its final […]

Continue Reading →

19 Comments

cabbage, coconut and cumin pakora with coriander relish

Glyphosate is a systemic herbicide widely used in agriculture. In the USA, around 80% of genetically modified crops (GMOs) have been modified to be “Roundup-ready”, in other words to be resistant to the weedkiller Roundup, the world’s most popular glyphosate-based weedkiller. Many of these “Roundup-ready” crops end up in cattle feed, which is not just used in the USA but exported around the world. As a consequence traces of glyphosate […]

Continue Reading →

19 Comments

mushroom and chestnut ragout with parsnip puree

Seeds are the stuff of life. That is why the increasingly tight grip over the international seeds market by a small group of powerful, unaccountable multinational corporations should cause us alarm. In achieving this market dominance these giant corporations, which include Monsanto, Bayer and Dupont, have enjoyed the support and active connivance of senior politicians. In the USA, for example, nearly thirty states have passed legislation known as “seed-preemption” laws. […]

Continue Reading →

19 Comments

new potato salad with rocket, lemon and mint pesto

Whilst the eyes of many environmentalists have been focused on the “marriage made in hell” that will result from the takeover of notorious agrochemical giant Monsanto by Bayer, two other equally alarming acts of corporate consolidation are in train. The state owned Chinese chemical company ChemChina is in the process of swallowing up Syngenta in a $43 million deal. Last week, the proposed deal received both EU and US antitrust […]

Continue Reading →

21 Comments

spiced clementines with clementine sorbet

Recently published research in the USA by the University of Virginia has confirmed that the increased use of genetically modified crops (GMOs) by farmers has led to a significant increase in the use of herbicides. Covering a thirteen year period up to 2011, this is the largest study ever undertaken into the impact of GMOs on US farming and the environment. The researchers found that on average farmers growing genetically […]

Continue Reading →

9 Comments

squash, mushroom and chestnut pie

The $66 billion acquisition of controversial US agrochemical multinational Monsanto by the German multinational Bayer will, assuming it passes regulatory tests, come into effect by the end of next year. It has been described rightly as a “marriage made in hell” by Friends of the Earth. The new company will be the world’s largest seller both of seeds and of agrichemicals, holding the intellectual copyright to over a quarter of […]

Continue Reading →

7 Comments

strawberry sorbet

Not long ago Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company (and several times voted “the world’s most evil corporation”), caused alarm amongst environmentalists by launching a hostile take over bid for Syngenta, the world’s largest crop chemical producer. The bid was ultimately unsuccessful, but it now appears that the proposed takeover was merely a precursor for a much larger feeding frenzy within the agrochemical industry. Monsanto is back in the news […]

Continue Reading →

26 Comments

leek, potato and chive cakes with shallot and tomato sauce

This is the time of year when we gardeners like to indulge ourselves by browsing through seed catalogues and deciding what we want to grow in the year ahead. A proportion of the vegetable seeds I will be sowing this year are seeds I have saved from last season’s vegetables, all of them heritage (“true seed”) varieties. Some vegetable seeds are easy to collect, for example beans, peas, tomatoes and […]

Continue Reading →