What Neil Young and Pope Francis Have in Common

I imagine top executives at Monsanto are not huge fans right now of Neil Young or Pope Francis. The two might seem to lead very disparate lives. One is a life-long Canadian rocker and the other leads a flock of 1.2 billion Catholics. But lately the two have drawn the ire of corporate giants, particularly Monsanto, all over the world.

Neil Young’s album, The Monsanto Years, was released June 29 and it’s already causing quite a stir. Ahead of the album’s release, Monsanto issued a statement criticizing Neil Young for perpetuating myths about the company.

According to Pitchfork, the album “fixes its crosshairs on the GMO-pimping agribusiness behemoth that has a stranglehold on the world’s seed (and, by extension, food) supply, forcing farmers to comply their strict terms or be litigated into destitution.” To be fair, Young doesn’t just single out Monsanto. He takes on Wal-Mart, Chevron, Citizens United and Starbucks, just to name a few.

Last fall, Young made a very public boycott of Starbucks over its (and Monsanto’s) alleged support of the Grocery Manufacturers Association’s lawsuit to prevent Vermont from accurately labeling food. In April, a judge upheld Vermont’s GMO-labeling law while the case continues.

And unless you’ve been living in an off-grid community in the middle of nowhere (if so, that’s awesome), then you are probably aware that Pope Francis released an encyclical earlier this month. In that encyclical, the religious leader did not mince words when it came to the dire need for immediate action on climate change.