THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO is French journalist Marie-Monique Robin’s documentary tracing the questionable practices of American company Monsanto – the result of her 3 year long investigation.

Monsanto, with 18,000 employees in 50 countries and a 2007 profit of $1 billion, is the world leader in genetically modified (GM) seeds.  But as Robin blatantly points out, mainly through interviews with some documentation, it has destroyed the lives of millions and aims at controlling the world food supply.  This is quite a strong accusation.  But quite a lot of scenes shows her at her PC googling information and proving her beliefs. 

Among the facts - Monsanto is also one of the most controversial corporations in industrial history.  Since its founding in 1901, Monsanto has faced many a trial due to the toxicity.  One of its products, including Agent Orange (the defoliant used during the Vietnam War), PCBs (polluting chemicals used in industrial coolants until they were banned in the 1970s) and bovine growth hormones (unauthorized in Canada and Europe).

Today Monsanto has reinvented itself as a “life sciences” company, converted to the virtues of sustainable development.  It’s known for its agricultural products – notably its GM seeds, which are engineered to withstand Monsanto’s Roundup, the world’s best-selling herbicide.  Monsanto claims it wants to solve world hunger while reducing environment damage.  Yet amazingly Monsanto’s GM seeds have been approved by the US and other countries (including Canada)
without scientific testing.  The GM seeds are also a Monsanto patent, which disallows farmers to reuse the seeds another year.

Robin’s documentary is at times all over the place and contains too many scenes of her at her PC.  The google scenes get monotonous.  One wonders whether she realises that she has already made her point.  She could have also got a better narrator (she does her own narration) for her film.  But she has made one very, very angry documentary.  If her film has not convinced you to despise Monsanto, you must be one of the conspirators.  At the end, she records a phone call from the company refusing an interview with the filmmaker.  The voice claims that nothing good will come from the talk.  This is no doubt true as Robin has set up her agenda without moving her stand.  THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO is an example of a documentary that is so engrossing because of it subject - that it really does not matter the flaws it contains.