Monsanto denies links with Sumitomo and the pyriproxifen used in Brazil
MONSANTO, the agrochemical multinational, is accusing the Network of Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages of lying, and is requesting that the connection between MONSANTO and the Japanese company Sumitomo Chemical is denied within 24 hours. Sumimoto is a company that markets Sumilarv, a pyriproxyfen-based larvicide that was added to drinking water used by people in the poorest villages and neighbourhoods in Northeastern Brazil, raising suspicions that this poison might be linked to the microcephaly cases and neurological congenital malformations present in that region.
Sumitomo note announcing its partnership with Monsanto, click here:[download id=»112″]
Monsanto claims that in the Report from Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages regarding Dengue-Zika and mass-spraying with chemical poisons, we say that “Sumitomo is a company associated to or subsidiary of Monsanto in Latin America. And said information is false.”
However, there are two websites from the agribusiness (Croplife and Sumitomo News Release) announcing that they are “Expanding collaboration from Monsanto and Sumitomo to Latin America.”
http://www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp/english/newsreleases/docs/20141209e.pdf
This document is even used as reference of such claim in the Report in question, and in its last paragraph it reads: “With the improvement of the association with Monsanto, Sumitomo Chemical aims to expand its business in Latin America.”
In both press releases, it is claimed that these agrochemical companies are expanding their collaboration in such a way that Monsanto’s trading network will be distributing Sumitomo herbicides needed for the strategy of “weed” control.
This appears to be a high degree of collaboration and business association complementing its portfolio of herbicides in Brazilian and Argentine markets.
That’s where our assertion comes from, that Sumitomo and Monsanto are partners in Latin America; we do not know the degree of interrelatedness or subsidiarity, but the fact that they operate together in our countries, it is something they are saying themselves.
The lawyer from the Monsanto multinational, who is threatening us (Cesar Mayer — former legal counsel of the Ministry of Interior during the 1981-1982 military dictatorship, and former adviser of the Argentine Energy Secretariat for the privatisation of hydroelectric plants during 1993-1996) claims that:
“1) Monsanto does not manufacture nor sells pyriproxifen. This product is a larvicide and Monsanto does not manufacture nor sells larvicides, by itself or through third parties.”
“2) Monsanto is not the owner nor is it associated by itself or through third parties to Sumitomo Chemical for the manufacture of herbicides, in Latin America or anywhere in the world.”
These two claims were not made by us; we only reproduced what appears in Sumitomo’s and Monsanto’s own public releases: that both companies are partners in Brazil and Argentina.
Attorney Cesar Mayer from Monsanto is demanding that within 24 hours we must:
1. Suppress in the aforementioned report any mention to Monsanto as manufacturer or seller of Pyriproxifen and as partner or subsidiary to Sumitomo for the manufacture of said product or any larvicide.
Those claims were never present in our report. We only mentioned the relationship between both poison companies in our countries.
2. Publish a correction of false information.
We reaffirm that Monsanto and Sumitomo are partners in the “expansion” of the pollution of our environment with toxic chemicals that are increasingly applied year after year, and exposing the population to the risk of developing diseases such as cancer, birth defects, reproductive and endocrine disorders.
We woud also like to take the opportunity to ask the Latin America health authorities for the immediate suspension of the use of pyriproxyfen in drinking water due to the existing suspicion of its link with congenital malformations, even though this may affect the business of chemical poisons companies.-
Dr. Medardo Avila Vazquez
Coordinator Red de Médicos de Pueblos Fumigados
