A woman who moves heaven and earth. 

Marie-Monique Robin is one of those women who never stop… fighting. While she finished the shocking documentary The World According to Monsanto back in 2007, she continues to promote the movie as well as the eponymous book - an investigation into the disastrous results of pressure directed towards the growing of genetically-modified wheat by the American corporation Monsanto.

Dynamic, enthusiastic, persevering, this journalist is invited everywhere to debate on her pet subject: the stakes of biodiversity. She reaches her public with simple words, concrete and terrifying examples. This strength of conviction, this faith, animates a woman who is a role model for investigatory journalism. As a reporter she has travelled a lot, particularly in Latin America, and has always unearthed hot potatoes such as organ theft.

Marie-Monique Robin is the author of numerous documentary-reports, three of them dealing with the stakes of biodiversity (Argentine, le soja de la faim, Les Pirates du Vivant and Le blé: chronique d'une mort annoncée). Coming from an agricultural family, she knows the value of the land. Her book The World According to Monsanto is signed to her parents, “who gave [her] a taste for beautiful things of the earth and thus of life”.

As she was preparing a documentary on bread she became interested in wheat, in the diversity of seeds and the industrialisation of cultivations. Today, Marie-Monique Robin denounces the harmful tendencies of this system of agriculture: “the consequence of the disappearance of biodiversity is the reinforcement of food insecurity. The one who controls the seeds controls the world.” That’s what Monsanto wants to achieve by getting full control of soya crops. With the help of numerous lawyers, the corporation combed through every single sentence of Marie-Monique Robin’s book. They did not find anything to bring before the courts, because of the great rigour with which she led her investigation.Her journalistic career leads her now to denunciate a true public health problem. Her next movie will deal with the dangers of industrialized food, said to be the origin of numerous cancers. “Stop poisoning us!” she says during a debate.

Cancer is in our plates is a title that speaks volumes. And she sure knows what she is talking about, since three of her uncles died of stomach cancers while they were cultivating apples. The link? The apple is the fruit with the most pesticides. These products used to increase yields are said to be the cause of numerous deaths among farmers. That’s why Marie-Monique Robin obviously recommends her audiences to eat organic food. But she does not stop there: “I will keep on putting all my energy in my work so that journalism does not go astray and so that the press deserves its nickname of ‘the fourth power’ ”.

Joanna Gallardo