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Title details for Seed Money by Bartow J. Elmore - Available

Seed Money

Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future

by Bartow J. Elmore
Sean Patrick Hopkins
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
An authoritative and eye-opening history that examines how Monsanto came to have outsized influence over our food system.
Monsanto, a St. Louis chemical firm that became the world’s largest maker of genetically engineered seeds, merged with German pharma-biotech giant Bayer in 2018—but its Roundup Ready® seeds, introduced twenty-five years ago, are still reshaping the farms that feed us.
 
When researchers found trace amounts of the firm’s blockbuster herbicide in breakfast cereal bowls, Monsanto faced public outcry. Award-winning historian Bartow J. Elmore shows how the Roundup story is just one of the troubling threads of Monsanto’s past, many told here and woven together for the first time.
 
A company employee sitting on potentially explosive information who weighs risking everything to tell his story. A town whose residents are urged to avoid their basements because Monsanto’s radioactive waste laces their homes’ foundations. Factory workers who peel off layers of their skin before accepting cash bonuses to continue dirty jobs. An executive wrestling with the ethics of selling a profitable product he knew was toxic.
 
Incorporating global fieldwork, interviews with company employees, and untapped corporate and government records, Elmore traces Monsanto’s astounding evolution from a scrappy chemical startup to a global agribusiness powerhouse. Monsanto used seed money derived from toxic products—including PCBs and Agent Orange—to build an agricultural empire, promising endless bounty through its genetically engineered technology.
 
Skyrocketing sales of Monsanto’s new Roundup Ready system stunned even those in the seed trade, who marveled at the influx of cash and lavish incentives into their sleepy sector. But as new data emerges about the Roundup system, and as Bayer faces a tide of lawsuits over Monsanto products past and present, Elmore’s urgent history shows how our food future is still very much tethered to the company’s chemical past.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 12, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593556993
      • File size: 295943 KB
      • Duration: 10:16:32

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Sean Patrick Hopkins shows great talent as he offers a warm, accessible, light, and engaging narration of this audiobook. However, his style may be at odds with the villainous story at hand. Historian Barlowe J. Elmore offers a well-researched examination of the St. Louis-originated chemical firm Monsanto, which grew into a powerful conglomerate that was later purchased by Bayer. The primary thrust is that the profit motive tainted the original Monsanto's values as it became the world's largest manufacturer of genetically engineered seeds--seeds that may have been knowingly toxic. Hats off to Hopkins for accepting the narration challenge and for succeeding in handling the many scientific terms and foreign expressions in this work. This mixed listening experience will inform those who enjoy expos�s of "scavenger capitalism." W.A.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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