Last Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report linking glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup, to cancer. While this news might not surprise many of us, Monsanto are demanding a retraction of this damning verdict, claiming that the WHO 'have something to explain'.

The WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) had reviewed scientific literature and decided to classify glyphosate as 'probably carcinogenic to humans'. This is great news in the fight against Big-Ag, but it would be naive to expect Monsanto to lie down and take it on the chin.

"We question the quality of the assessment," said Monsanto's vice president of global regulatory affairs, Philip Miller, on Tuesday. No surprise there, then. Reuters report that Miller claimed the corporation had offered the IARC some scientific data showing that glyphosate was safe, but that it was 'largely ignored'.

A separate investigation into glyphosate's toxicity is currently being carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who have the power to ban the toxic chemical once and for all. Miller expressed concern that the destructive report by the IARC might influence the result of the EPA's findings, and he called for the WHO to retract their statement. However, the EPA will be taking the IARC report into consideration when making their decision.

All this sounds like a step in the right direction, but Monsanto have a reputation for discrediting scientists, experts, and even journalists who dare to speak out against them, so the battle isn't won yet. It's long been thought that the world's worst corporation has an entire department dedicated to silencing its critics, but up until now nobody has any conclusive evidence of this.

However, in a recent article by Natural Society, it was claimed that Dr. William Moar, a Monsanto employee whose job involves giving seminars to persuade people that Monsanto products are safe, has admitted for the first time that the company does in fact spend an incredible amount of time and money on discrediting experts who give the corporation bad press.