Environmental for Food Justice

Moderator’s Note: I am presenting a “Letter to Monsanto” prepared by Jeff Nguyen, a Vietnamese American. Mr. Nguyen was a young child when the defoliant chemical known as Agent Orange was sprayed all over Viet Nam during the American War (1961-71). The Air Force code name for this assault on the people, wildlife, plants, and ecosystems of Viet Nam was known as Operation Ranch Hand , an ironic and somewhat foreboding reference given the subsequent history of Monsanto’s billion-dollar domination of the agricultural herbicide market. The targets on the ground were not the only ones that suffered from the effects of the use of Agent Orange and the pilots and airmen [sic] involved in the spraying missions – which were called trail dust missions – were misinformed about the hazards of the chemical they were spraying. One of these former airmen recalls: I remember the sight and the smell of the spray.    In the early morning low angle sunlight, it appeared to have an orange hue – at...