Episode
Monsanto: Playing God (Part 5)
- Podcast
- The History of Fresh Produce
- Published
- May 19, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3078
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://hfp.captivate.fm
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Summary
Who was Bob Shapiro, the guitar-playing Vietnam protester turned Monsanto CEO who genuinely believed genetically modified seeds could save the planet — and how did the same man who preached environmental salvation simultaneously bury a billion dollars of toxic human suffering in a corporate spinoff so that Wall Street would never have to look at it? Why did the most consequential revolution in the history of American farming arrive not with a manifesto but with a technology-use agreement that made it illegal for farmers to do what farmers had done for ten thousand years? And how does the story of Roundup Ready seeds open a window onto the hidden architecture of modern food; from a Vice President offering himself as Monsanto's Washington liaison in a company greenhouse, to the superweeds growing three inches a day that nobody in the marketing department wanted to mention? Join John and Patrick for the fifth episode of their Monsanto series — the GMO revolution, the monarch butterfly, the seed-saving ban, and the extraordinary gap between Bob Shapiro's vision and the contracts his lawyers were writing — in an age when the most powerful thing a company could own was a gene, and the most dangerous thing it could lose was trust... ---------- In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friends Give a 5-star rating Write a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffres…