Arson Suspected In Massive Fire At Monsanto Research Facility

Earlier this week one of Monsanto’s research facilities in France somehow caught fire and burned to the ground. Investigators and Monsanto are lead to believe that an arsonist was responsible for the fire.

Jakob Witten, a Monsanto representative informed Reuters that their investigators,

“Strongly suspect it was a crime as no electrical or other sources were found. No Monsanto sites in Europe have so far been the victim of fires of criminal origin, this is unprecedented violence.”

The fire was said to have multiple points of origin, which means that it was highly unlikely that the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction or any other natural causes. In different areas of the site, investigators said that they had noticed the strong smell of gasoline.

In June, France announced that it would be banning any and all sales of Monsanto’s flagship herbicide, Roundup, amid the mounting public pressure with release of the World Health Organization’s announcement that Roundup was extremely carcinogenic. Over the past month, France had announced that it would be strengthening its bans on GMO crops as well.

In France, Monsanto faces particularly strong resistance to any and all of their produces, and if the fire is confirmed to have been the result of arson, it is highly possible that this vociferous opposition could have been a strong motivating factor.

In regard to Monsanto’s recent problems, this fire is merely the tip of the iceberg.

Monsanto has recently had to quickly move to shut down three different research facilities in an effort to conserve money in the face of ever declining profits. Reuters had reported that over this past week that Monsanto would soon be closing research centers in Connecticut, Wisconsin, and North Carolina due to their attempts to cut costs.

Over this past month, Monsanto had announced that it would have to cut 2,600 different jobs, which is 12% of their whole workforce in order to save money and cut costs. This diabolical company had also announced that they had seen a 19 cents a share from the most recent quarter, and profits are expected to remain low throughout this year.

Associated Press has reported that Monsanto has lost a whopping $156 million in the final quarter of last year alone, and they’re expecting this year to be even worse.

http://www.ewao.com/a/arson-suspected-in-massive-fire-at-monsanto-research-facility/