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Monsanto impact on society
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Monsanto had definitely created a bad reputation for itself. First and foremost, they have been know to hide the harmful effects of their products and just focus on the positives. They play any card they can get to get people on their side. Monsanto has even invited past presidents to their labs in order to gain trust.(Robin) By just focusing on the positives and pulling publicity stunts they can mask themselves as a safe company, when in reality they do more harm then they do good. One example of them doing harm is them knowing deadly effects of their products and not making it known to the public. They later was forced to release documents showing the deadly effects in court. The reasoning behind not wanting to release the documents was,
Barlett and Steele’s “Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear” interpretation of Monsanto Company’s affect on the agricultural industry, its communities, and on consumers in the course of its aggressive expansion is both aggressive and unfair. Through the use of narratives and evidence, they reiterate and reinforce aliases composed by affected communities
Monsanto is for a lot of people the great evil in the agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology because of the genetically engineered (GE) seeds, field where the company is the leader worldwide. The number in this industry has been growing pretty fast and the expectations for 2020 are very positive, with a 250 Billion US Dollars industry.
Monsanto Company are a public American multinational agricultural and agrochemical biotechnology corporation who leads in the production of genetically engineered seeds. Founded by John Queeny in 1901, the organization initially produced industrial chemicals such as sulphuric acid and plastics, including polystyrene and synthetic fibres. It was not until 1983, where the company was among the first to genetically modify a plant cell and conduct field trials of genetically modified crops. This scientific breakthrough shifted the company 's corporate focus towards the agricultural industry with the implementation of biotechnology. The company’s primary line of products consist of herbicides and genetically modified seeds.1
Maintaining an ethical culture has been a struggle for the company for decades but when Hugh Grant took over as CEO, he the reformed the companies ethical culture. Before Grant, Monsanto was knowingly polluting a creek in Alabama with toxic waste, as a result, the polychlorinated biphenyls levels were outrageously high and many fish became deformed. The company had been doing this for forty years, “Once the cover-up was discovered, thousands of plaintiffs from the city filed a lawsuit against the company” (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2017, p. 383). Consequently, trust amongst stakeholders was broken, the companies stocks was impacted, dropping nearly by 50 percent. Grant worked to turn the company around and did just that by focusing on GM foods. “Today, Monsanto employs approxi- mately 22,000 people worldwide. It is recognized as one of the 100 best corporate citizens by Corporate Responsibility Magazine”. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2017, p. 384) Despite all the legal battles the company has faced and ethical blunders, the company today now does maintain a better ethical
Now they know. They also know that for nearly 40 years, while producing the now-banned industrial coolants known as PCBs at a local factory, Monsanto Co. routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills. And thousands of pages of Monsanto documents -- many emblazoned with warnings such as "CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy" -- show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew.
Monsanto is the world 's leader on bio-technology and was found in St. Louis Missouri. Monsanto was not known as an agriculture company at first as it is now rather a chemical company of the 20th century. They are also responsible for growing 90 percent of the world 's GMO’s. On Monsanto’s website it states their goal is to help farmers around the world to produce healthier foods, conserving more, and better animal feeds while reducing impact on our environment. Monsanto 's GMO has been effecting our environment for years but have not yet brought to justice according to this video. The question is why? According to this documentary Monsanto created many hazardous chemicals for example PCBs, Agent Orange and recombinant
These are only few examples of the many lawsuits that have been filed against Monsanto since its creation in
Monsanto is a Saint Louis Chemical manufacturer that is a major player in the weed killing business. Monsanto has quite a portentous past. They developed and produced the notorious defoliant "Agent Orange" used in the Vietnam War, they invented the controversial recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), and they were the inventors and world’s main producer of polychlorinated biphenols (PCB’s) which are now banned but still linger in our soil and water (Arax, 1997).
From a pipe dream of the son of two immigrants comes one of the largest chemical engineering companies of our time. John Francis Queeny was born in Chicago in August of 1859. It is hard to believe that a man with only six years of public school education created such a vast empire. In 1871 the Queeny family was devastated by the Great Chicago Fire, the buildings that his father owned and rented out were, of course, totally destroyed, thus ending the rather comfortable life of the Queeny family. John was forced to drop out of school and find a job. After little avail he finally found employ at the drug Firm of Tolman and King for 2.50 a week. (Forrestal 12).
Challenges facing the Monsanto Company have been many. This company has been engaged in unscrupulous undertakings that have resulted in innumerable lawsuits against the company. In many countries, Monsanto Company’s products continue to be banned while others face law suits on their viability and safety of the public.
On the other hand, Monsanto has fared worse off. Expectations have plunged over the past three months and are now 16% lower on the bottom line and 7% less on the top. Chemically and genetically modified products continue to be phased out in favor of organic products, leaving Monsanto in a predicament.
According to Monstano’s website they are an agriculture company that helps supports farmers. They claim to do this by producing seeds that help farmers increase yield while saving the environment. This is a great business model as they produce seeds that are resistant to herbicides, which eliminate weeds from farms. This is such a great business model as they also produce the product that eliminates the weeds. In order to eliminate seeds from a farm, a farmer must buy Monsanto’s seeds, as well as their herbicides. However these seeds do not occur naturally in nature, like many bacteria who have evolved to acquire antibiotic resistance, these seeds are genetically modified by humans. A genetically modified organism (GMO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques such as recombinant DNA technology. Recently GMO’s have come to the forefront after many years, as people are starting to learn more from independent studies. However Monsanto has tried to cover up these studies in order to stop laws about GMO labeling to save the company. Monsanto has been linked to many different acts of corruption over the past decade, including using bribery to pay a politician from another country to try to stop legislation over GMO labeling. After clearly taking part in acts of corruption over a long period of time, Monsanto needs to be punished for their actions that are hurting the American public and environment.
Above figure shows Monsanto is a monopoly in the Market. It is one of the fortune-500 companies whose annual turnover is greater than GDP of some small companies. Such is its power in lobbying governments of various countries. Also all these giants were once chemical companies who then bought seed companies to market their seeds. They either buy away their opponents or make their existence economically unfeasible due to their minuteness.
When you eat a cheeseburger, you might know that you are eating a beef patty with cheese, lettuce, and ketchup on a sesame seed bun, but do you know what you are really eating? According to the documentary GMO OMG, “approximately 85% of all processed foods contain GMOs”, yet most consumers are unaware that this secret ingredient is included in most of their food. Although Monsanto believes their product is safely feeding the world, consumers should be aware of the hidden horrors of genetically modified food because research indicates that GMOs could drastically affect their health as well as cause environmental damage, all while violating the rights of consumers and farmers.
Although Monsanto Company took some social implications like charitable programs, it failed to uphold ethical culture many times over the years. Some of unethical practices the company had done so far were bribery, anticompetitive activities and harassing behavior towards infringer of patent. Notably, during the Vietnam War, Monsanto had been strongly criticized by producing toxic chemical named Agent Orange which had detrimental effects on not only human-beings but also the environment. Nowadays, genetically modified (GM) seeds produced by Monsanto remain controversial. Because of GM seeds’ unknown influences, it is