The Biotech Brotherhood

A.K.A: The Monsanto Company or "Mon-satan". Formerly known as the "Chemical Clan"

Hugh Grant, leader of the Biotech Brotherhood

Powers: The Biotech Brotherhood believes that nobody should be denied the opportunity to ingest chemicals or genetically modified foods and, to achieve this end, they have been hard at work over the past century making sure that the world has all the polystyrene, saccharin, caffeine, Bovine Growth Hormone, Agent Orange, Roundup, and "Frankenfoods" it needs. The Biotech Brotherhood masterminds its nefarious plots and implements them with the use of over 16,500 employees who are "just doing my job". The Brotherhood's most successful tactic has been to employ a legion of lawyers to defend its "business practices", "proprietary information" and "patents". Limitations: Though a small army of activists is actively working to oppose them, nobody is too big or too small to be sued by the Biotech Brotherhood. Status: Evil Organization Interesting Facts:

• The Biotech Brotherhood's first product was the artificial sweetener, saccharin, which it sold to the Coca-Cola Company. It also introduced caffeine and vanillin to Coca-Cola, and became one of that company's main suppliers.
• In the 1920s, the Biotech Brotherhood expanded into basic industrial chemicals like sulfuric acid.
• In the 1940s, it became a leading manufacturer of plastics, including polystyrene, and synthetic fibers. Since then, it remained one of the top 10 US chemical companies. Other major products have included dioxin (in the herbicides 2,4,5-T and Agent Orange), aspartame (NutraSweet), bovine somatotropin (bovine growth hormone; BST), and PCBs.
• In the 1940s, the Biotech Brotherhood operated the Mound Laboratory in Dayton, OH for the Manhattan Project, the development of the first nuclear weapons.
• In 1947, an accidental explosion of ammonium nitrate fertilizer loaded on the French ship S.S. Grandcamp was responsible for the Texas City Disaster in Galveston Bay. The explosion destroyed an adjacent Biotech Brotherhood styrene manufacturing plant, along with much of the port. It is considered the largest industrial accident in US history, with the highest death toll.
• In 1954, the Biotech Brotherhood partnered with German chemical giant Bayer to form Mobay and market polyurethanes in the US.
• In the 1960s and 1970s, the Biotech Brotherhood was the leading producer of Agent Orange for US Military operations in Vietnam.
• In 1982, Biotech Brotherhood scientists become the first to genetically modify a plant cell. In 1987, the Biotech Brotherhood conducted the first field tests of genetically engineered crops.
• Throughout 2004 and 2005 the Biotech Brotherhood filed lawsuits against many small farmers in Canada and the U.S. The lawsuits have been on the grounds of patent laws, specifically the sale of crops containing the Biotech Brotherhood's patented genes as a result of wind carrying seeds from neighboring crops. The instances began in the mid to late 90s, with one of the most significant cases being ruled in favor of the Biotech Brotherhood by the Canadian Supreme Court. In late May of 2004, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the Biotech Brotherhood, stating that "by cultivating a plant containing the patented gene and composed of the patented cells without licence, the appellants [canola farmer Percy Schmeiser] deprived the respondents of the full enjoyment of the monopoly." With this ruling, the Canadian courts follow the U.S. Supreme Court in its decision on patent issues involving plants and genes.
• In February of 2005, the Biotech Brotherhood has filed patent claims on common breeding techniques for pigs which would grant the ownership of any pigs born of such techniques and their related herds. Patents have been filed in 160 nations.