Monsanto Stakeholders Essay

Identify the various stakeholder groups of the Monsanto Company. Update any facts in this case with more current information and explain how those facts affect current stakeholders. Monsanto is a company known for their genetically modified plants. Scientist at the company inserted new genes and adapted existing genes to create a plant seed that would yield greater output and was an insect repellant (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2018). All companies have stakeholders. A stakeholder is a person or group of people that affect business in a positive or negative way. Monsanto’s stakeholders would include: customers or farmers, employees, suppliers, governmental agencies such as the FDA, USDA, and EPA, the environment, and communities everywhere the modified plants are used.

Monsanto sells seeds for four major crops: corn, cotton, soybeans, and canola. Their statistics for 2012 are amazing. Monsanto had 76.1 million acres of soybean, 94.6 million acres of corn, and 1.77 million acres of canola (Hango, 2015). One major conflict for farmers is their right to keep the seeds from the plant and replant them the next year. This is a planting technique that farmers have used for years. Since Monsanto sells bioengineered seeds, they have a patent for the seeds. Monsanto is known for suing farmers who use the second-generation seeds for patent infringement. Monsanto also has private investigators that sample farmers seeds to ensure compliance. If the farmer is found to have used a second-generation seed, the farmer must pay Monsanto or be sued. This appears to be a renting or leasing Monsanto seeds instead of a purchase. If the farmer isn’t allowed to plant second generation seeds, they don’t own the seed. In 2014, Monsanto agreed to allow some of their old patents to expire but would strictly enforce patents for new