- Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey filed a 47-page complaint against Monsanto, accusing the company of selling polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) despite being aware of their dangers to human health, wildlife and the environment
- He claims he has copies of Monsanto internal memos verifying his claims — that the company was aware of the risks of PCBs, but chose to turn a blind eye for the sake of profit
- PCBs have been associated with various adverse effects and may put humans at risk of cancer and other health concerns, according to many studies
- There are certain measures you can take to reduce your exposure. Maine residents, for example, are warned of PCB contamination in fish and shellfish, allowing them to make the smart choice to avoid these contaminated products
(Mercola)—Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are chemical compounds that were produced by the biotech company Monsanto and were used in a wide range of products due to their capacity to withstand high temperatures and pressure. However, they were banned in 1979 after their carcinogenic potential and toxicity were revealed — although, apparently, Monsanto has known about their toxicity for decades.
Now, the biotech giant (now under Bayer) is being sued once again, this time by Aaron Frey, the attorney general of Maine. “I am taking action to demand that Monsanto pay for the harm it knowingly caused our state,” he said.1
Monsanto Accused of ‘Decades-Long Campaign of Misinformation and Deception’
On April 11, 2024, Frey filed a 47-page complaint2 in Cumberland County Superior Court, accusing Monsanto of selling PCBs despite being aware of their dangers to human health, wildlife and the environment. According to an article published on Maine Wire:3
“The complaint alleges that Monsanto, despite ‘early knowledge of the grave dangers associated with PCBs,’ ran a ‘decades-long campaign of misinformation and deception’ to increase their rate of manufacture and sale of PCBs in Maine and elsewhere.
‘From 1960 to the mid-1970s alone, Monsanto sold at least hundreds of thousands of pounds of commercial PCB mixtures to customers in Maine,’ the suit reads.”
PCBs have caused extensive damage to the state’s resources, polluting over 400 river stream miles and over 1.9 million ocean acres, classifying them as “impaired” due to the presence of these chemicals.
The lawsuit claims that PCB-specific fish and shellfish consumption advisories have also been issued by the state because of contamination, and the public is advised to either avoid consuming fish or to severely limit the consumption of certain fish.
PCBs: One of Monsanto’s Most Toxic Legacies
PCBs are manmade chemicals consisting of hydrogen, carbon and chlorine atoms. They have no taste or smell and have a liquid structure that’s either oily or waxy. They were first produced in 19294 by the Swann Chemical Corporation.5 During that time, PCBs were sought-after chemicals because of their extreme resistance to high temperatures and pressure, making them valuable for use as fire retardants and insulators.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website lists some of the uses of PCBs in industrial and commercial applications, such as:6
- Electrical and hydraulic equipment, as well as heat transfer applications
- Paints (as plasticizers), plastics and rubber products
- Carbonless copy paper
- Pigments and dyes
After Monsanto purchased and absorbed Swann Chemical in 1935, they continued to manufacture and commercialize PCBs (sold under the brand name Aroclor), licensing these chemicals to other companies as well. Up until its ban, overall global production of PCBs was estimated to be between 1 and 1.5 million tonnes.7 The Maine Wire reports:8
“Monsanto manufactured and sold PCBs from about 1935 to 1977, during that period accounting for 99 percent or more of all PCBs used or sold within the U.S., and used PCBs in a wide variety of products, including paints, caulks, inks, dyes, lubricants, plastics, and other applications.”
Frey says that he has copies of Monsanto internal memos verifying his claims — that the company was aware of the risks of PCBs but chose to turn a blind eye for the sake of profit.
There Are Dozens of Lawsuits Concerning PCBs’ Dangers
Frey’s complaint adds to the growing list of lawsuits against Monsanto over their PCB products. In December 2023, the biotech giant was ordered to pay $857 million to students and parents from a Washington state school who claimed that the PCBs from fluorescent light fixtures triggered brain damage, autoimmune disorders and other health issues. In a CBS News article, Keri C. Hornbuckle, a professor and environmental engineer at the University of Iowa, said:9
“Although they were banned in 1979, they’re still present in the environment. PCBs are called forever chemicals because they break down so slowly — PFAS compounds are also called that for the same reason.”
In July 2023, 90 school districts in Vermont also sued Monsanto citing toxic PCB contamination of the indoor air in their educational buildings. According to an article from the Associated Press,10 students and school staff can be exposed to PCBs when they breathe in or inhale contaminated dust and vapors. Touching surfaces with their hands, then using them for eating or drinking can also lead them to ingest PCBs.
A year earlier, Vermont became the first state in the country to require older schools to test their indoor air for these chemicals. The lawsuit11 states that removing PCBs can be expensive, as it could require demolishing buildings and building new ones. This could potentially cost hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars.12
Monsanto Responds, Claims Allegations Are ‘Meritless’
The Maine Wire reports that Frey is also seeking damages for the injuries and contamination Monsanto’s toxic chemicals caused to the people and the environment. This will cover the costs needed for cleaning, monitoring and mitigating the state’s waterways that have been polluted by PCBs.13
In response to the Maine lawsuit, Monsanto issued a statement, claiming that they have “strong defenses and will vigorously defend against these claims.”14 According to their press release:15
“We will respond to the complaint in greater detail in court at the appropriate time, however, we believe this case is meritless as Monsanto never manufactured or disposed of PCBs in the State of Maine, and any PCB-containing products that could be the source of any impairments in the state were manufactured and disposed by third parties …
Under applicable law, a manufacturer of component parts is not responsible for the downstream, third-party uses of a product that it lawfully introduced into the stream of commerce and over which it has had no control for nearly five decades …
Monsanto discontinued its production of PCBs nearly five decades ago, conducted hundreds of studies about their safety, and provided warnings to its customers based on the state-of-the science at the time.”
PCBs Have Been Linked to Cancer and Other Health Concerns
Despite being banned for decades, PCBs are still pervasive in the environment, mainly because they “resist degradation, rather than breaking down over time.”16 As a result, they are found all over the world — every one of us has been exposed to these toxic chemicals. The EPA website explains:17
“PCBs do not readily break down once in the environment. They can remain for long periods cycling between air, water and soil. PCBs can be carried long distances and have been found in snow and sea water in areas far from where they were released into the environment. As a consequence, they are found all over the world. In general, the lighter the form of PCB, the further it can be transported from the source of contamination.
PCBs can accumulate in the leaves and above-ground parts of plants and food crops. They are also taken up into the bodies of small organisms and fish. As a result, people who ingest fish may be exposed to PCBs that have bioaccumulated in the fish they are ingesting.”
PCBs have been associated with various adverse effects and several studies18,19,20 have confirmed that they can put people at risk of cancer and other health concerns. A 2022 review21 published in the journal Toxics notes that they can target your nervous, endocrine (thyroid, thymus, pancreas and gonads), reproductive, cardiovascular and immune systems.22 The more they accumulate, the more dangerous they become.
In Utero Exposure to PCBs May Lead to Autism in Children
What’s alarming about PCBs is that they can even affect unborn children. According to a 2021 meta-analysis23 that looked at 12 previously published studies, being exposed to PCBs and pesticides during pregnancy can put your unborn child at a higher risk of autism. The researchers noted:24
“We evaluated the association between pesticide and PCB exposure during pregnancy and the risk of developing ASDs among different children according to available evidence from case-control and cohort epidemiological studies.
The results of the present study indicate the significance of the association between pesticide and PCB exposure during pregnancy and the risk of ASDs among children.”
One Way to Reduce Your PCB Exposure: Choose Safe Seafood
Despite the ubiquitous nature of PCBs, the good news is that there are certain measures you can take to reduce your exposure. In Maine’s lawsuit,25 for example, they noted that residents have been warned of PCB contamination in fish and shellfish, allowing them to make the smart choice to avoid these contaminated products.
The fact is that most major waterways in the world are now contaminated with PCBs and other toxins like mercury, heavy metals, dioxins and other agricultural chemicals that wind up in the environment. However, certain marine fish species are at a lower risk of carrying these chemicals. Your best choices are small, cold-water, fatty fish, which are an ideal source of omega-3s with a low risk of contamination.
- Anchovies
- Sardines
- Mackerel
- Herring
- Wild-caught Alaskan salmon (certified)
There is a low risk of authentic wild-caught salmon accumulating high amounts of mercury and other toxins because of its short life cycle, which is only about three years. Additionally, bioaccumulation of toxins is also reduced since it doesn’t feed on other, already contaminated, fish.
- 1, 3, 8, 13, 14, 16 Maine Wire, April 12, 2024
- 2, 25 State of Maine PCBs Complaint, 2024
- 4, 6 EPA, Learn about Polychlorinated Biphenyls, April 2, 2024, What Are PCBs?
- 5 Triumvirate Environmental, October 5, 2021
- 7 UN Environment Programme, PCBs – a forgotten legacy? PCBs production and uses
- 9 CBS News, December 19, 2023
- 10, 12 Associated Press, July 6, 2023
- 11 State of Vermont, PCBs Complaint, 2023
- 15 WMTW, Apr 12, 2024
- 17 EPA, Learn about Polychlorinated Biphenyls, April 2, 2024, Release and Exposure of PCBs
- 18 Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Volume 31, 2013 – Issue 2
- 19 Chem. Res. Toxicol. 1996, 9, 8, 1285–1292
- 20 Environment International, Volume 88, March 2016, Pages 133-141
- 21 Toxics 2022, 10(7), 365, Introduction
- 22 Toxics 2022, 10(7), 365, Conclusions
- 23 Clin Exp Pediatr. 2021 Jun; 64(6): 286–292
- 24 Clin Exp Pediatr. 2021 Jun; 64(6): 286–292, Discussion
Two Storms, One Harvest
Every food crisis in living memory has been a one-shock event. The 2008 price spike was a commodity bubble. The 2020 shortages were a logistics failure. The 2022 grain scare was a war on one exporter’s ports. Each time, the system bent, adjusted, and recovered, and each time the experts assured us afterward that global markets are simply too big and too diversified to fail.
What nobody in Washington seems eager to discuss is that 2026 is shaping up to be something the modern food system has never actually faced. Two independent shocks, one climatic and one geopolitical, are converging on the same harvest cycle at the same time. Not sequentially. Simultaneously.
Start with the weather. The Pacific Ocean is currently building toward what forecasters now openly call a record event. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center puts the odds of at least a strong El Niño near 88 percent, with roughly two in three odds it reaches “very strong” status, the tier reserved for perhaps three or four events in the entire satellite era. Every major global model now projects a median peak in Super El Niño territory, and most of them project it exceeding the 2015-16 event, which until now held the modern record. Sea surface anomalies were already brushing the super threshold in mid-July, months before these events normally peak. The atmosphere has already shifted into El Niño mode, and the event is forecast to crest in late fall and early winter.
This is not about “climate change.” It’s about the standard cycles of weather, and the cycle we’re currently in is one that has likely devastated societies in the past. We’re better prepared as a society today, but not all Americans are equally prepared.
Serious households have started doing the quiet math on their own. Grocery bills tell part of the story, and the forecast maps tell the rest, which is why long-term food storage has moved from fringe hobby to mainstream line item in the family budget, with established suppliers like Heaven’s Harvest seeing demand from people who five years ago would have rolled their eyes at the idea. That instinct is not paranoia. It is pattern recognition, and the pattern is worth walking through carefully.
Editor’s Note: Heaven’s Harvest IS a sponsor, but the warnings of this article are real and would be written even if we didn’t have a survival food sponsor. With that said, those who take advantage of what they offer can use promo code “Patriot” for 15% off.
The Fertilizer Clock Is Already Running
While the Pacific warms, the second shock has been unfolding in the Strait of Hormuz. The conflict with Iran turned the world’s most important energy chokepoint into a contested waterway, and the consequences reach far beyond the gas pump. Roughly a third of global fertilizer trade moves through Hormuz, and the disruption sent urea prices up 86 percent year over year by March, with a 53 percent jump in a single month.
The World Bank projects energy prices rising about 24 percent in 2026 and fertilizer about 31 percent. By its own accounting, fertilizer prices ran 35 percent higher in the first five months of this year than the same period last year.
Here is the mechanism the nightly news will not explain. Fertilizer is not a grocery item. It is a time-delayed input. The nitrogen a farmer in Iowa or Punjab could not afford to apply this spring does not show up as a problem this spring. It shows up as a thinner harvest six to twelve months later.
The World Bank’s own food security brief concedes that the effects of reduced applications earlier this season “are likely to become visible only later in harvest outcomes.” Translate that from institutional language into plain English and it means this. The damage is already done, it is already in the ground, and we are simply waiting for it to arrive on the shelf.
Now check the calendar. Six to twelve months from the spring planting season lands us squarely in late 2026 and early 2027. Which is precisely when the strongest El Niño in the instrumental record is forecast to peak, bringing its signature droughts to Southeast Asia, Australia, southern Africa, northern Brazil, and South Asia, the very regions that grow the world’s rice, sugar, and oilseeds.
The World Bank warns openly that a strong El Niño “could disrupt multiple crop belts simultaneously” on top of the conflict-driven input costs. Their baseline projection assumes the Middle East disruptions ease by autumn. What in the last two years of Middle East history suggests that assumption is safe?
The System Has No Slack Left
The comfortable answer is that global markets always adjust. But adjustment requires slack, and the slack is gone. Global cereal production is expected to decline from last year’s records even before El Niño does its work. The UN World Food Programme, hardly a den of right-wing preppers, is calling this the most significant disruption to its supply chains since Covid and the invasion of Ukraine, and its supply chain director put the stakes bluntly.
Today’s supply chain challenges are tomorrow’s hunger crisis.
There is also a political dimension that markets cannot price. When food gets scarce, governments do not behave like economists. They behave like politicians. Export bans, hoarding mandates, and panic buying at the national level turned the modest rice shortfall of 2008 into a global crisis, and analysts are already warning that import-dependent nations are the first dominoes.
The 2015-16 Super El Niño, a far weaker event than what is now forecast, threw tens of millions into food stress across Africa and Asia. This one is projected to be stronger, and it arrives with fertilizer already rationed by price and shipping lanes already contested by missiles.
What Joseph Knew
Scripture does not treat preparation for lean years as faithlessness. It treats it as wisdom delivered in advance to those willing to act on it.
Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt.
Joseph did not respond to that warning with a hashtag or a committee. He stored grain during the years of abundance, and when the famine came, Egypt stood while its neighbors begged. The lesson is not that famine is certain. It is that the time to prepare is precisely when preparation still looks optional.
Nobody who filled a pantry in a year of plenty has ever regretted it, and nobody standing in an empty aisle has ever been glad he waited for certainty.
None of this calls for panic, and panic is the enemy of sound judgment anyway. It calls for the same unglamorous prudence our grandparents considered ordinary. Keep some cash margin, know your local growers, and put real food in deep storage while it is cheap and available, because the entire arc of this story is that cheap and available is a closing window.
Families looking for a straightforward place to start can visit Heaven’s Harvest and use promo code Patriot for 15 percent off long-term storable food. The forecasts may yet soften, the strait may yet reopen, and we should pray they do. But hope is a fine thing to hold and a foolish thing to eat.
