Monsanto Case Study

The farmers then give their products to the manufacturers, who represent the bottleneck of the food system (21). “The ten largest companies control half of the world’s seed supply. …Ten firms control 90% of the nearly $38.6 billion pesticide markets (111-112).” Monsanto, being one of the ten companies that controls the world’s seed supply, is a company that has patents on all of its seeds and products. It produces genetically modified crops that are resistant to its own pesticides and herbicides, so that when a pesticide or herbicide is sprayed and it destroys all plants, the Monsanto seed survives because of its resistance. The reason that Monsanto is able to stay in business is because of the economic benefit it poses for the farmers. They are able to produce their crops at a much higher yield because they are losing less of their crops to pests. This higher yield results in lower costs for the consumers as well (Planes). As discussed

You may not have heard about Monsanto but you’ve probably eaten genetically modified foods. What do the two have in common and how are they killing us? Here are some hard facts. Monsanto is an international agriculture company whose history dates back to the early 20th century. They began by creating the artificial sweetener saccharin. Later they moved on to carcinogenic chemicals like Agent Orange, used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. After receiving numerous environmental violations and lawsuits, today Monsanto is involved in biotechnology and the agriculture business. Monsanto suggests that they help farmers grow bigger crops, faster, while using fewer resources. But what they leave out is how they

When seed farmers sign a contract with Monsanto, they are required to use their engineered seeds. Monsanto sues the farmer if they do not use the seeds that they require them to use. The regulations of these companies cause

Monsanto makes money by selling their genetically altered seeds to farmers. The farmers sign an contract that says they are not allowed to save and replant those seeds sold to them next year. Sometimes, a farmer might save some seeds for next year, in which case Monsanto finds out, and sues them (Why Does Monsanto Sue Farmers?). Sometimes, genetically modified material from Monsanto accidentally ends up in a farmers field. Regardless of intention, Monsanto will still sue. This is because of a law that allows companies to patent genetic alterations. With its patents, Monsanto and companies like it basically own these small business farmers. If there were no genetic modifications, the farmers would be free to farm normal seeds, without having to sell their soul for debatably better

In a poll in 2014 measuring the reputation quotient of major companies, Monsanto ranked the third-lowest, above companies like BP, Bank of American and fell just behind Halliburton. For the better part of Monsanto's history, it has been a chemical company which produced compounds used in electrical equipment, adhesives, plastics, and paint. They also produced chemicals like DDT, Agent Orange, Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Monsanto is best known for genetically modified organisms, or GMOs (Bennett, 2014).

Monsanto has dominated the seed market, controlling the price. For economic reasons, farmers have no choice but to continue to buy Monsanto seeds because if they don’t, they will be forced to pay extremely high prices for non-GMO seeds. Farmers are also dependent on Monsanto because the company is influential in the subsidized food market as they have enabled farmers to save more money when buying Monsanto brand

It doesn’t help that Monsanto also has power in politics, one of the Monsanto chiefs for food safety, Michael Taylor was actually appointed by Barrack Obama himself. Barrack Obama also appointed his Supreme Court judge: Elena Kagan, who happens to be the chief defender of Monsanto and GMO’s. Whether Republican or Democratic, Monsanto wields a strong power within politics that helps give them an edge in keeping their company going. (Obama). There are good aspects of Monsanto, like the efficiency of cheap seeds, and crops that can withstand the harsh behaviors of weathers, and the ability the crops have to survive a longer time. But not even the cheapest crops can cover up Monsanto’s long history of evil, from polluting the environment with PCB’s, the chemical Agent Orange, and the weed killer “Round-Up Ready”, to Monopolizing itself to being the owner of 90% of the seed industry and shutting down small

Monsanto Company is the world’s largest seed company. They specialize in genetic manipulation of organisms.

Bogeyman and the face of corporate evil according to farmer’s digest are terms to describe Monsanto’s reputation. The company has received intense negative media criticism, such as protest, bribery scandals, cover up of environmental pollution are items that contributed to the companies negative reputation. According to (2014) since the exposure of the company's alleged unethical customs, Monsanto has developed a poor reputation as being a greedy, unethical, and arrogant monopoly. Consequently, they have lost the trust, business, and support of many people.

Additionally, big business controls the farmers by capitalizing on widely used commodities. For example, the company Monsanto which is based in St. Louis, Missouri protects its dominance over the genetically modified crops such as the soy bean with the use of a patent law. Because of this, Monsanto’s patented genes “account for 95 percent of all soy beans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S.,” (Associated Press). Although genetically modifying the soy bean crop has made it more readily available and more sustainable, this comes at a high price to farmers. Monsanto continues to raise their prices, which forces farmers to accrue even more debt, and there is no sign of the rise in the seed prices stopping. Since a lot of the farmers are under contract with Monsanto, there is nothing they can do about this unethical policy in fear of losing their job.

In her online video, "Talking about food safety," Monsanto 's lead toxicologist, Shawna Lemke says that, "In recent years people have become increasingly interested in where their food comes from, and how it is produced....there is still conflicting and confusing information about Genetically Modified Foods, but because of the intense work the scientists that work here do, we all feel confident in feeding them to our kids." Monsanto is a Fortune 500 "sustainable agricultural" company that started in 1901, introducing their first product, saccharin. They move on to produce agricultural chemicals in 1945, and by 1982 they were genetically modifying plant cells (DNA). They now have 404 facilities in sixty-six countries, and supply 76% of the world 's seeds. It seems Monsanto has a stronghold on the world 's genetically modified seeds. Although Monsanto claims that genetically modified food is safe, there are conflicting studies claiming they are unsafe and cause harm to humans, plants and animals. However, there have not been any scientific research done concerning this in the United States. How would these studies affect our supply of genetically modified food here in The United States? What about the farmers? How does this stronghold affect the farmers here in the United States? The United States Government needs to perform their own scientific research studies to assess the health risks of Genetically Modified Food, and

1 am not surprised of the outcome of your meeting with Mr. Smythe-Jones (CFO). However, I cannot answer your request until I heard from local management. As it was agreed on the last meeting, we were precluded ,from doing any work without first getting approval from management at the headquarters and we were instructed by local management from doing anything until they finalized what was required from us. It appears to me to be a Catch 22 game! 1 believe we (your Firm and ours) should not fall in the game of passing the ball to someone else before getting a clear understanding of what is going on. We have had several meetings with local management where the issue has been raised and were responded that other priorities were established by the headquarters (on my end I thought they tell you everything they have been instructed of locally, unfortunately it does not seem to be the case). In my opinion it looks very easy that you accept from management at the headquarters to hold us accountable from something we are not responsible for, and this does not mean I do not understand the pressure you are receiving on your end. However, we are not the enemy. 1 am not sending copy of this message to our client because I believe that internal issues have to be

The objective of this report is to analyze the differences in Monsanto’s experiences in the United States and Europe and the reasons of opposition in Europe, despite that, why Monsanto pushed ahead so hard.

Monsanto is a company that some people may not be explicitly familiar with on a first name basis. However, the work that the company has done over the last century, with a larger emphasis on its most recent ventures, have been deeply engrained in our lives, our food, and our economy. Monsanto has those who advocate on their behalf in addition to their naysayers. While Monsanto has made huge strides in terms of biotechnology over the last couple of decades, their accomplishments, and the relevant methods, have not been free of criticism and controversy. In order to analyze Monsanto’s corporate environment, it is important to first explore their Strengths, Weaknesses,

Monsanto structured the agreement to give the company greater access to research results and a greater ability to direct the research process