Monsanto Research Paper

One good example of how the people are affected by the investigation techniques of Monsanto comes from an article called “Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear” written by Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele. Gary Rinehart is the owner of the Square Deal store on the fading town square of Eagleville, Missouri. In 2002, Rinehart was behind the counter in what he calls his “old-time country store” when a man entered and asked for him by name. Rinehart says after telling the man who he was, the investigator began verbally attacking him, stating that he had proof of Rinehart illegally planting Monsanto’s soybeans. The investigator then tells Rinehart that he better come clean and settle with Monsanto, or face the consequences. Rinehart says he and all of the customers in the store were struck with the same puzzled look. The problem with what this man had just done was that Gary Rinehart was not a farmer, he just owned a small store in a town with a population of 350. Even after telling the stranger who approached the counter that he had the wrong guy, the investigator persisted. Eventually Rinehart escorted him out, but in his fit of rage, the man continued to say things like “Monsanto is big. You can’t win. We will get you. You will pay.” Scenes such as these are becoming more and more common in the United

The movie/documentary Food, Inc. came out in 2008, directed and starred by Robert Kenner. Kenners’ goal for this movie was to show the people of America the food they are eating and how there food is being processed, feed, treated, and killed. Kenner uses a very serious and

We do not take in consideration on where our meat comes from and how they treat the animals. People do not know how the process is from slaughtering a cow to the meat that you buy in your neighborhood market. In the book Foodopoly, Wenonah Hauter argues that there is a misrepresentation on what truly happens in the meatpacking industry, hog industry, the impact on small farmers, and how the working conditions are for the meat packing industry workers.

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 have done a great job explaining this week’s assignment for Perdue Farms. This case is interesting and a little disturbing to me as well. When I started watching the film, I was taken back on how they treated chickens. I knew a little bit about raising chickens since my family has a farm in Texas. I remember that I used to like visiting the farm and it was kind of neat to see how they operated for the locals; it was nothing like Perdue Farms.

In the prestigious documentary film, Food Inc., produced by Robert Kenner and founded upon an Eric Schlosser’s book, Fast Food Nation, Mr. Kenner has an intriguing impact on the American consumers of many food products and industries. Throughout the film, viewers and everyday consumers of these various products, visualize what takes place behind the scenes in food factories, contrary to what they may see through forms of advertisement. The documentary generates an image of an “Agrarian America” in a naturalistic way to convey the message of what food production truly consists of. The film uses ethos, pathos, and logos as rhetorical devices to enhance the horrendousness of food production to its audience in multiple ways. Food Inc. provides not only a visual effect on the audience's emotion to portray its message, but uses a variety of commentary scenes from several experts and members within the food industry.

In the documentary, Food Inc., we get an inside look at the secrets and horrors of the food industry. The director, Robert Kenner, argues that most Americans have no idea where their food comes from or what happens to it before they put it in their bodies. To him, this is a major issue and a great danger to society as a whole. One of the conclusions of this documentary is that we should not blindly trust the food companies, and we should ultimately be more concerned with what we are eating and feeding to our children. Through his investigations, he hopes to lift the veil from the hidden world of food.

Food Inc is a documentary film created by director Robert Kenner with the purpose of exposing the real facts and hidden secrets of the

We then discover that it has been legal to patent life since the 1980s, and learn about the company Monsanto’s round up resistant soybean that now makes up 90% of the soybean market. Monsanto

In addition to his solutions, Pollan’s modern narrative sheds light on the façade of our food industries; asking us to rethink what we know. Despite the mention of certain inhumane acts in All Animals are Equal, Pollan takes us one step further to uncover the reason for which we continue to purchase our corrupt food. We all know animal abuse exists, but the average consumer like myself is more worried about the best price and the fastest way to get a burger rather than how fairly the animals are treated in the process. Whether it be the confined living space of chickens or the mental and physical torture of pigs, we continue to blind ourselves from reality. Is it purely out of selfishness? Or are we too ignorant to come to terms with our wrong doings? Like Pollan explains, it takes seeing the abuse before the shame of our disrespect can be felt (pg.6). After seeing Pollan’s truth, I might now think twice before eating out and the choice to support organic produce can make a dramatic difference for those farmers who promote the ethical lifestyle.

Biotech companies including Monsanto do not allow the farmers to reuse seeds from their own crops. These companies have put a patent on these seeds and plants, a patent on actually life. They own the living organism.

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

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.

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.

The movie that I chose to watch is Food Inc. The reason I chose this movie is because I think not a lot of people do not know what’s in the food that they are eating. The film is an American documentary which examines the manufacturing production of meat, vegetables and grains. I think the main idea behind the documentary is do you know about the food that you are consuming? The food that we eat has a lot more history to it than we know. The way we eat has changed drastically in the last fifty years than in the previous 10,000 years. The embedded energy required for plant based foods is very low compared to meat based foods. Meat based foods requires a lot of machinery which in turn requires electricity. The workers are also being ill-treated by the owners because they work long hours for a very small salary. The farmers have no choice but to work for these large meat companies because they are bounded by debt to the companies. The film shows how fast food places are hiring workers to do one task over and over again for the minimum wage; the result was the fast food wonder that flounced the United States.