Monsanto: Roots Of Genocide

Monsanto is a very prominent business that utilizes leading edge technology to create products that are appealing to customers and his/ her everyday farming career. The company focuses on biotechnology in order to produce products that are higher in yields and that will produce better plants in order to create more solid crops around harvest season. Monsanto utilizes a variety of chemicals and technology to produce these elements, and many critics suggest that the technology and chemicals used by Monsanto are harmful to the customers and create more harm than good. With that being said, Monsanto has to reassure customers that the moral obligation to customers is being fulfilled in a positive way to promote the sale of their products. Moral obligation takes into consideration the customers set

A final argument against genetically modifying foods is that the large agriculture conglomerates which are responsible for manufacturing them, like aforementioned Monsanto, ruthlessly destroy the environment, as well as smaller farming businesses. Take for example, a company like Monsanto, which owns 80 percent of genetically modified corn market, and 93 percent of the modified soy market. Monsanto is a perfect representation of the types of companies that sell genetically modified organisms. Monsanto is more commonly for a rather infamous previous product of theirs, called dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, otherwise known as the pesticide DDT. DDT was one of the most widely used pesticides in the 1960s, as it was sprayed almost everywhere mainly in an effort to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes. After being linked to mass animal reproduction and liver problems, it was banned in 1972 (Center for Disease Control). DDT residue is still being found thirty years later (DDT Residue in California Soil). Other Monsanto products include Agent Orange, a chemical weapon used in the

The authors of the article are very intentional in their choice of words, referring to Monsanto’s surveyors as “strangers” several times, to drive home the bizarre tactics that are employed on the people of the farming industry. The local farmers are even said to refer to the Monsanto investigators as “the seed police” or “Gestapo”, and the “Mafia”. (pg 162). Later in the investigation, it is explained that the stranger, “Investigator Jeffery Moore”, had spied on who he thought to be Rinehart, observing him planting soybeans from afar. The secret seed police gathered samples of the planted soybean seeds, and had them analyzed. They came up positive for the gene that Monsanto uses in their Roundup Ready seed, and a lawsuit ensued. It eventually

In recent years, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have made a significant change in our diet with the introduction of genetically altered foods, which have essentially affected human health as well as local communities. Anthropologists tells us that homo sapiens were hunter gatherers. Their “evolved behaviors helped them respond to the challenges of survival in unstable environments shifting them to live an agricultural lifestyle” (Homo Sapiens. Smithsonian ). Over the millennia, agriculture has made a huge gain in efforts to serve human preferences by domesticating crops and animals to improve production and make them resistant to diseases and pests. Genetic modification evolutionized domesticated crop plants in each crop generation. During this time, agriculture began to arise through applications of modern scientific breeding. Crop plants were the center of seminal research in genetics and scientist main focus. (Cereal Foods World 2007).

Genetically modified crops have been developed and harvested since 1996 on a wide scale in the world. Genetically modified crops are generally defined as the biotechnologically designed genes that are chosen and transferred from one organism to another, often unrelated, organism with the purpose to achieve certain results in harvest. According to Carton, Mochini, and Sheldon (2011), “[These] crops can survive under harsh conditions, costs are lowered, and yields are improved” (p. xxi). These crops are now widely grown worldwide. Naturally, corn is rooted in a 6000 year old history of South America (Wilkes,

The article raises a big question about GMO’s, an issue that we have covered in class and in readings. The issues facing the farmers in over twenty-five states is one of great importance. Farmers who do not use GMO crops are finding that their crops are being damaged by the pesticide even if they are miles away. It has damaged about 4 percent of all the soybean crops in the United States. Sadly, it has also affected vineyards, watermelons,

Monsanto can best fulfill this moral obligation while also protecting society and the environment from the potential negative consequences of its products is by paying special attention to their social, economic, and their ethical responsibility. Social responsibility is adaption by a business of strategic focus for fulfilling the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities expected of it by its stakeholders (Thorne, 2011). With Monsanto’s economic responsibility, the company has donated millions of dollars to help improve communities in developing countries. With sales over 8.6 billion which comes from mostly the biotechnology would satisfy any investors or stakeholder. Even though stocks had fallen 50% in 2003, Monsanto made

Lakshawn Yapa a professor in Geography Department at Penn State University; is a highly known for his article, “What Are Improvised Seeds?” The PhD professor believed that modern poverty is a form of development induced scarcity. According to Yapa’s well known article, he writes modification of crops and how now pesticides are becoming more powerful to withstand the GMO crops. Not only are they changing the crops and pesticides, but it’s also causing illnesses and diseases. In Asia, the groundwater and streams have been contaminated by the use of fertilizer and pesticide. Yapa writes,

The history of genetically modified organisms – GMOs – in agriculture authentically commenced afore recorded history. Prehistoric farmers have been culling the most productive plants and seeds from their domesticated crops for up to 10,000 years.

The Monsanto Corporation is an agricultural company that is split into four different categories: agricultural seed, vegetable seeds, weed control, and traits, technologies and partnering. They are a fortune 500 company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and has 21,183 employees at over 400 facilities in 66 countries around the world. I will be focusing on the agricultural seed market of Monsanto.

Geneticists continue to create GMOs solely for the monetary benefit. The Journal of International Affairs interviewed British biologist, science writer, and broadcaster Colin Tudge regarding his thoughts on GMOs. He begins the interview with a statement about the majority of people’s views on agriculture: “to produce food for everybody in the world.” Agriculture also critically employs many people. Tudge then points out the growing trend of agricultural services becoming completely money-driven in what he calls “the neoliberal economy”. This idea reflects people viewing everything selfishly as an opportunity to make money, especially the agriculture industry. Major GM crop corporations are few in number. Therefore, they compete with each other to output as much food as possible in order to maximize profit. Basically, these companies strive for great quantity rather than outstanding quality, and GMOs achieve this mission (Tudge in Journal, 2014).

The present builds upon itself in a never-ending fashion bringing about manifestations of the future and leaving a historic trail. The world is changing, the human population is growing, and mass production is inevitably putting small/local professionals and farmers out of business. Although Mother Nature was the sole provider in genetic adaptation throughout history long before humans walked the earth, humans can now manipulate Mother Nature’s most basic properties, the genetic makeup of plants and crops. Assisting Mother Nature in this way has, no doubt, brought forth argumentative conversation of acceptance. There are both, risks and benefits, of genetic plant/crop modification and the

The idea of a man-made world is an increasing reality. Scholars and scientists alike now discuss the emergence of a geological era marking the beginning of major human alterations to the planet —"our time." A growing amount of research suggests that environmental modifications have been severe enough to trigger species endangerment and extinction at rates unprecedented in human history. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), products of engineered alterations to plant and animal DNA, have come to exemplify human-induced environmental change in the past two decades. Although GM plants have risen to great popularity in the global agricultural industry, they have created a cloud of controversial decisions and evidence. Their recent expansion in the developing world has led to serious concerns about potential species endangerment in much of the planet 's arable land. Poised to occupy ecosystems previously closed to non-native agricultural species, GM corn variants are currently under scrutiny in Asia, Africa, and South America. The pressing urgency of their growth requires an understanding of the extent to which bioengineered crops drive species endangerment.

Genetically modified organisms have been subjected to outrageous opposition by activists and political officials because of false moral and religious beliefs. While manufacturers of genetically engineered crops face costly and time consuming regulations, leading to an interruption in production and reduction in innovation. This campaign waged against GMOs is fueled by false information and ludicrous “what if” questions that are aimed at a misinformed and easily manipulated public. Genetically engineered agriculture is not a threat to people or the environment and the use of such technology will benefit millions of people and help to improve the planet.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, only 11% of global land surface is considered suitable for agricultural production. With a surging global population and increased land degradation caused by human activity, higher yielding crops with resistance to various environmental conditions will become essential to maintaining an adequate food supply for the world. Monsanto’s technological innovations in biotechnology, and specifically genetically modified seeds, present a unique opportunity to capitalize on one of the world’s great challenges in the 21st century.