No April Fool's Joke: Monsanto Voted Biggest "Corporate Fool" With the Worst Business Practices for 2012

U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Chevron Are Runners-Up in Facebook Balloting

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Just in time for April Fool's Day, Green America announced the winners of its online contest to determine the biggest "Corporate Fool":  Agricultural and chemical giant Monsanto came in first, followed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Chevron. To honor Monsanto as the nation's biggest corporate fool, a donation was made in the name of Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant to Navdanya, an organization in India that has worked with 5,000,000 farmers to create seed sovereignty, food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture over the past two decades, and helped set up the largest direct-marketing fair trade, organic network in the country.

The contest, which began in early March, tallied votes for nine companies and related organizations based on their worst corporate practices.  

Monsanto's legacy includes Agent Orange, DDT, and massive aerial spraying of Round-Up as a drug-war tactic, as well as unlabeled and untested genetically modified crops. Their practices enable factory farming and put small farmers out of business. They continue to push genetically modified crops in the developing world, which results in locking farmers into cycles of debt and dependence on chemical crop inputs. 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has benefited hugely from the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. It regularly spends millions of dollars for television and radio advertisements for or against candidates and is not required to disclose its donors. As a result, corporations can spend unlimited money on political advertising through the Chamber of Commerce without meaningful disclosure to shareholders or the general public.

Over three decades of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Chevron has dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the rainforest. As a result, locals have suffered a wave of cancers, miscarriages, and birth defects. Last year, an Ecuadorian court ruled in favor of local communities and ordered Chevron to pay $18 billion in cleanup and restoration efforts.

(For the full text of this news release, go to http://www.greenamerica.org/about/newsroom/.)

ABOUT GREEN AMERICA

Green America is the nation's leading green economy organization. Founded in 1982, Green America (formerly Co-op America) provides the economic strategies, organizing power and practical tools for businesses and individuals to solve today's social and environmental problems.   

SOURCE Green America, Washington, DC