Monsanto Research Paper

The film begins with an introduction scenery of acres and large amounts of crops (corn and wheat), along with cattle and other forms of animals used in the production of the meat industry. During the agricultural featured scene, Mr. Schlosser elucidated how food preferences and the way we eat is evolving at a rapid speed, while others still perceive the food industry as an agrarian corporation. The film then makes its emotional appeal towards the audience by providing images and videos of chickens in multiple repulsive situations. The chickens were thrown onto conveyor belts by primarily African American workers, which now accounts for a fine percentage of employees in the food industry. Schlosser elaborates on the unseen dilemma of animal and worker abuse in these corporations. He then exemplifies his realization of how the abuse is enacted in numerous ways, one of which is implementing restrictions as to what workers are allowed to do and say. They use these restrictions as a way of controlling their workers and providers in such industries, because the workers/providers can’t risk losing the income they receive from these multi-billionaire companies. The above said scenes justifies how Schlosser uses emotional appeals to the viewers in order to enhance the initial

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.

American agriculture can produce more food on less land and at cheaper cost than any other nation. Did anyone ever wonder why or how? The documentary Food Inc., produced by Robert Kenner, is designed to put the spotlight on the unsafe preparation of food products, the inhuman treatment of animals being used, and the unethical treatment of workers in corporate farming. Robert Kenner uses multiple rhetorical analysis to get his aspect across to his viewers. Throughout the movie, there are several claims to appeal of ethos, pathos, and logos in order to uncover the true secrets of the American food during its journey to the table.

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.

Kenner uses the rhetorical strategy ethos by introducing important people of the food industry to the people of America. Kenner introduces us to Joel Salatin. He runs the farm called “Polyface farms”. He compares amd explains in the movie/documentary how his farm is ran and how the animals are fed and treated compared to corporations like Smithfield and Tyson. Kenner features the “Polyface Farm” from anywhere to what the animals eats to where the animals live. Salatin acknowledges that his animals do not eat corn or any product with corn involved. Salatin guides us through the process of killing chickens and how they are handled and packaged. Kenner also compared this process with with huge corporations like Tyson and how their chickens are killed. Tyson has their chicken coops packed with so many that the chickens are unable to move around so when chicken farmers feed the Tyson chickens they all keep gaining weight since they are big that they can con carry their own weight anymore. The chicken farmers emphasize that Tyson tries to make every chicken look alike so that when that chickens are packaged there will not be a huge size discrepancy. Another man interviewed in the movie/documentary is Moe Parr. Parr was a seed cleaner for local farmers around their town. Parr addressed that Monacello (seed company) was sueing him for cleaning seeds. Monasello’s argument was that they have a contract with every farmer who buys seeds from them; that when they save their seeds that they are expected to send those seeds back to the

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

Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMO’s, are organisms that have had genes from a different organism implanted into their own genetic code in order to produce a new result (“Genetically engineered foods”). This practice has elicited polar responses across the globe, for a multitude of reasons. Besides the obvious reason, being the morality of changing an organism's DNA for human benefit, one frequently noted problem is the monopolization of GMO’s by the company Monsanto, whose name is nearly synonymous with GMO’s due to their involvement with these crops. Monsanto has been at the center of many controversies regarding GMO’s, and is even considered to be ranked third to last for reputation among all major American companies (Bennett). Most

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

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.

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.

One issue the documentary highlights is the abuse of animals and workers by the food companies, in order to reveal how the companies hide

The film then travels to a hog processing plant that kills 32,000 hogs a day. They expose the strategy of the company to hire extremely poor and illegal immigrants who can’t afford to quit their jobs, despite problems with frequent infections of the hands and fingernails, a side effect of poor sanitation standards.

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

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 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.