Exposing the Monsanto Conspiracy, our latest video ad-free!
Added 2025-09-01 08:10:57 +0000 UTCThis is the history of Monsanto’s herbicides…
Comments
Thank you for this informative video. It left me with one question, though. If Monsanto has moved from glyphosate to 2,4-D, then is there still any use for GMO crops, and if so, what?
Robin
2025-10-15 16:23:04 +0000 UTCBTW, credits don't include legal folk.
Kevin Walters
2025-09-11 13:06:21 +0000 UTCI knew a little bit about Monsanto but not all the details, an interesting video and a brave one given potential legal broadside from large (US) firms. I agree with the others, using RT is very unwise even if the content is accurate. It lends a state-sponsored/controlled channel known for propaganda and misinformation respectability which it does not deserve.
Kevin Walters
2025-09-11 12:54:02 +0000 UTCGreat video as always. I do wish you had discussed what it would have taken to filter the Dioxin from the original herbicide. I know side products are common in chemistry and getting a pure product is just a matter of cost. I'm very curious if this whole issue could have been avoided with just a bit more initial cost.
Brad Hallisey
2025-09-09 03:24:50 +0000 UTChey, this isn't directly related, but I also don't know where else to ask: how do you decide what things to do videos on? I keep wishing someone would make a video about how Microsoft destroyed the world economy by popularizing the concept of "intellectual property", but no one ever does, and I don't have the resources to make the video myself 😕
Danielle Church
2025-09-03 21:11:54 +0000 UTCCorn is the only major crop in the US that is a hybrid. The history of Corn’s hybridization by Pioneer Hi-Bred is interesting, but different. (Has a future VP of the US!) What could be relevant is Monsanto buying over a dozen seed companies in the late 90’s forming a monopoly over most seed varieties.
Lee Redden
2025-09-03 13:36:18 +0000 UTCYour new title you gave this video on YouTube shows some ignorance for how agriculture works in the first place. The title is something like "Exposing Why Farmers can't legally replant their own seeds," but Farmers wouldn't want to replant their seeds even if they were legally allowed to. Farmers have more important reasons for why they don't replant their seed from the previous year. For instance in corn and many other plants seed companies sell hybrid seed which just means that the seed has been produces by crossing two homozygous plants. The first generation (F1) is 100% heterozygous and is more vigorous, higher yielding, and more disease resistant. The seed harvested from this F1 generation is way more homozygous and therefore makes weaker plants. If you were to just keep collecting your corn seed from the previous year that you harvested, your corn would be weaker and weaker as time went on. Seed companies like Bayer are well equipped to produce cutting edge hybrid varieties that continue to push yields higher and higher.
Thaddeus Paul Hatfield
2025-09-03 04:53:29 +0000 UTCThis was also my feeling. Thanks for sharing!
Riley Murray
2025-09-03 01:00:16 +0000 UTCOne thing to note, is many say that "Finished" wheat is safe because it is within the regulatory limits While this is true, it's also typically has >10x increase in glyphosate
Lee Redden
2025-09-02 22:08:23 +0000 UTCGlad to see some this topic get some more air time! I spent ~12 years trying to reduce the amount of herbicide used by building a product that detected every plant and sprayed just the weeds. I co-founded this company: https://www.bluerivertechnology.com/ which eventually became this product: https://www.deere.com/en/sprayers/see-spray/ Could be a cool next chapter story about how technology can help reduce some of these issues too. I also think there is a largely untold story about “Finishing” wheat, barley, other grains with glyphosate (sometimes called pre-harvest desiccation) when farmers spray glyphosate a short time before harvest—not to control weeds during the season, but to dry down the crop uniformly and make harvest easier. This practice became much more popular the same time many diseases such as celiac disease increased.
Lee Redden
2025-09-02 21:53:57 +0000 UTCHi thanks for bringing this up, here are a few points about the resources you provided: 1. The first piece of evidence (http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/does-glyphosate-cause-cancer/) which claims that the IARC study is an outlier is actually funded by Monsanto, so it is in line with our claim from the video that Monsanto tried to manipulate academia and has a bias. 2. The big research that said it found no correlation is not conclusive (the paper itself says "There was some evidence of increased risk of AML among the highest exposed group that requires confirmation.") AND the claim that it had negative correlation has also been controversial among the scientific community due to its methodology which could render any study look like null (see https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6376901/) 3. Also, it is important to note that IARC's classification describes the danger associated with the substance and not the actual risk to which people are exposed. That means that they just give information about the potential carcinogenicity, which does not mean that consumers around the world are at risk of developing cancer as a result of eating products containing glyphosate residues. And the video does mention how glyphosate is in the same category as red meat and smoking. Many thanks again for this and we hope this answered your question! - Hyo, researcher for this video.
Veritasium
2025-09-02 16:08:36 +0000 UTCI always appreciate your videos. It is unfortunate that you used clips from RT (Russia Today) a notorious propaganda outlet. There is not necessarily anything false in the clips that you use. However, RT promotes divisive views; should be avoid as it is not a credible source and quoting it tarnishes your credibility by association.
Gordon Garmaise
2025-09-02 15:27:34 +0000 UTCEither that or 'I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more' (for fear of Roundup)! - Matt, Publishing Lead
Veritasium
2025-09-02 12:00:30 +0000 UTCJeez, it’s so embarrassing to have a reaction encapsulated by a lyric from a Bob Dylan song, but I'm old enough to have lost most of my pride anyway: "Money doesn't talk; it screams."
Paul Weiss
2025-09-02 05:02:00 +0000 UTCIt weirded me out that so many of the news broadcast clips used RT. It's well-known that RT is a state-controlled (not just state-sponsored; state-controlled) media outlet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network). Is there some reason why such much RT content was used?
Riley Murray
2025-09-02 04:46:21 +0000 UTCThe fact that this is all public knowledge and our government haven't yet banned glyphosate is both maddening and a testament to how broken our system is the whole western world needs a hard reset
Matt
2025-09-02 02:41:50 +0000 UTCNitro, which is in the kanawha valley, still hasn’t recovered fully from the . There’s a poorly understood illness related to the remaining residue of this incident called the “Kanawha valley drip”
Daniel Tolbert
2025-09-01 22:15:48 +0000 UTCAppreciate the sordid history of Monsanto, which I didn't know. Re. the IARC assessment, I'll point to this column at the Neurologica blog, https://theness.com/neurologicablog/glyphosate-not-associated-with-cancer/, which points to a large study that came out in 2017, after the IARC report, and that did not find a correlation with NHL (https://academic.oup.com/jnci/article/110/5/509/4590280). The suggestion is that the earlier positive correlation cited by IARC is noise in the overall studies and likely won't replicate. (I haven't read the books cited in the video and can't speak from any authority myself; just pointing to a source I respect.) BTW, in general you guys do a great job with these videos, I really enjoy them; thank you! This one is the only one I've ever had problems with.
MCzigler
2025-09-01 16:36:42 +0000 UTCIs it really a Monsanto Conspiracy or does that just make a good title?
Kat Seibert
2025-09-01 16:07:28 +0000 UTCBracing for the youtube takedown notice, but at least I watched it already (GamersNexus recent takedown notice on their GPU black market investigation is still in mind). Poke a big problem with enough truth, and something will probably take a swipe at you. After this, you might be seen as big enough to justify a "higher level" of legal conflict. If your video does _not_ get a takedown notice, I'm not sure if that's a sign of good fortune, or a slight that you aren't important enough to bother. Good luck!
chromicacid
2025-09-01 15:46:19 +0000 UTCGreat question! We thought the same before some further research: The removal of glyphosate was only for domestic products (the "spray bottles") -- this totally aligns with what Gregor and Derek were talking about at this point in the video, so it's by no means a mistake. That said, I can see where someone would get the impression that it applies across the board, but in reality glyphosate is still used in agricultural herbicides. Bayer actually gave an incredibly cynical reasoning for this move: 'To further reduce future litigation risk, we have transitioned the manufacturing of our glyphosate products for the U.S. residential L&G market to new formulations that have different active ingredients starting in 2023. We have taken this action exclusively to manage litigation risk and not because of any safety concerns. The vast majority of claims in the Roundup litigation have come from residential L&G users, so this step largely eliminates the primary source of future claims. This action does not impact any of our glyphosate-based agriculture or professional products, or Roundup products available worldwide.' Regarding patents, many of the original roundup ready patents have already expired. - Callum, researcher for this video.
Veritasium
2025-09-01 14:37:59 +0000 UTCI watched this on YouTube last night. I had always been under the impression that Monsanto’s GMO’s were created as insect resistant plants not round up resistant.
Anne Herrington
2025-09-01 13:35:18 +0000 UTCWait a minute, If there is no longer any glyphosate in roundup, does that mean that the special glyphosate resistant seeds have become useless? Does that also mean that the monopoly position that Monsanto / Bayer had is now severely weakened?
Roderick
2025-09-01 12:34:02 +0000 UTC
