Monsanto's Presence In Western Countries

The social and environmental interests are not adequately accounted for. By putting patents on their seeds, farmers are forced to buy new seeds each year. In India most farmers have to take out loans to be able to afford seeds and they are not protected by government subsidies. The weather has a huge influence on their income and unpredictable weather can wipe out their entire crop, whereas in the past these farmers would save their seeds as an insurance policy against the weather but now Monsanto does not allow them to do this. The Indian government directly links the introduction of Monsanto’s GM seeds as the root cause behind the sharp increase in farmer suicides. The Indian farmers are figuring out that the biotechnology revolution has a huge effect on their crop lands and personal debt levels. This all started in 1998 when the World Bank underwent structural adjustments and changed some of their policies which forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations like Monsanto, Cargill and Syngenta (www.counterpunch.org., 2016). These global corporations changed India’s agricultural economy because Monsanto’s seeds require Monsanto fertilizers and pesticides which adds costs on top of being unable to save seeds. Monsanto does not meet the characteristics of this paradigm with the lack of social and environmental responsibility due to the corporations’ business structure and board intentions.

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

In my opinion, we should be most concered about India's privitized agriculture and Indian farmers. I believe this because in the last decade more than 250,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide due to the expense put on Monsanto's seeds and pesticides. A problem with the seeds can also be so they are not bred for that area, so they fail more fequently, causing even more stress on farmers. The bigger organizations also use biotech cotton seeds which gives them a higher yeild but also requires higher amounts of water, which they have the funds for. However the smaller companies don't have acess to suitable irrigation and have mainly rain-fed crops, which means they fail more often and the farmers suffer even more. Monsanto's high cost of

Today’s world is all about how we can be seen as helping others, or how one county is offering support to those in need of it. When Jeremy Seifert starting his work on his film GMO-OMG (Seifert, 2013), the film started by asking people the simple question do they eat GMO. The film goes through the first 2 min of just people responses to that question and it is amazing how people were so unware of what they were eating. GMO are genetically modified organism which as the movie explains there are two primary categories of GMOs, the pesticide producer, and Herbicide resisters (Seifert, 2013) which help farmers to grow crops by making them resistant to bugs or weeds that would have destroyed crops in the past. Monsanto is one of the largest GMO producers of a corn seed that would allow for crops to grow with natural resistant to herbicide and insects. When Jeremy went to Africa to research why some of the locals were rejecting the Monsanto seeds because they said that you could only plant them once and then you would be forever in need of the replace seeds rather than just reusing seeds from the fully grown plants. The Haitian people believed that the seeds of life are a common inheritance of all humanity (Seifert, 2013).

“According to a 2008 analysis by the United nations, Monsanto only accounts for thirty percent of seed market globally” (Gregory 765) Unlike the United States government who works cooperatively with GMO industry, the European approach has a suspicion of science and mistrust of both government and industry. (Gregory 765)

Companies, like Monsanto will come after small farms and sue them for more than they can pay if they find out they are using even a small portion of GM crops in their fields, even if by accident” (Fitzgerald). Approximately 2,400 farmers in 19 states through 2006 were sued and spied upon for alleged “seed piracy”, Monsanto has an annual budget of $10 million dollars and a staff of 75 devoted solely to investigating and prosecuting farmers who are caught with different seed. (Monsanto).

If a local farmer has fields near a big industrial farm that uses spray pesticides that helps benefit their crops and overspray gets on the local farmer's field, the industry farmer can sue him due to patents (“GMOs”). With that being said, genetically modified organisms affect farmers in all sorts of ways (“GMOs”). Recent polls from New York Times and CBS state that fifty-three percent of people would not buy food with genetically modified organisms in them (“GMOs”). What people do not realize is that farmers have to modify food so it will grow faster to feed our population, because we have a very large population, and local farms are not able to grow enough crops much less quick enough to feed the people in their

Because GMOs are not always put through proper testing, there are two common GMOs that are harmful to the world. One of these GMOs are called pesticide producers. These pesticide producers are created by transferring a gene from a bacteria into the crops in order to become resistant to insects. Complications are occurring from these pesticide producers. Over 500 species of bugs have become resistant to these pesticides (GMO OMG). Not only are crops genetically modified to be resistant to insects, but also weeds. The other most prominent type of GMO are herbicide resisters. These crops are also known as roundup ready crops due to their ability to survive from weed killing chemicals. Yet again, there are some major drawbacks to these roundup ready GMOs, such as the adaptation of roundup resistant weeds. Secondly, the 5.1 billion pounds of chemicals used each year across the world with these GMOs are causing severe ecological damage. The process of growing GMO crops emits nearly 40% more greenhouse gasses compared to organic processes. Likewise, the USDA says that in Iowa for every bushel of GMO corn

Due to mass urbanization the world has experienced in the past decades, farm land is decreasing and being replaced by cities and subdivisions. This urbanization forces farmers to increase crop yield for each acre they have. Thankfully, the use of GMOs has allowed farmers to maintain pace with urban development. If GMOs had not been used in 2012, an additional area equivalent to 9% of the U.S. would have had to be farmed around the world to gain the same amount of yield with GMOs (Brookes). Without the use of GMOs and additional burden would be felt by not only on farmers but also on the average consumer due to price increases on produce.

Dr. David Suzuki, a well-known Canadian geneticist, had a powerful message when it came to genetically modified organisms: “Anyone that says, ‘Oh, we know that this is perfectly safe,’ I say is either unbelievably stupid or deliberately lying” (Smith). Agricultural companies have spent several years and millions of dollars displaying GMOs on a pedestal made of deceitful promises. Because of this, the general public has adopted several misconceptions as facts, believing that these altered organisms will increase crop yields and reduce the use of pesticides. World citizens must open their eyes to see past the positive claims of large corporations because genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, have an undeniable dark side.

The Earth Justice Organization explains the disasters of having GMOs in the environment, consumers and farmers do not want Monsanto to control their diet and are unwillingly force. It continues to explain that Monsanto has domination in food industry and genetically engineered seeds can get accidently mixed with non GE seeds. For example, “a discovered trace amounts

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

Imagine a future of fresh produce and large amounts of meat, being able to feed millions of americans. Now instead imagine widespread diseases and death among Americans, too. Monsanto has developed many products including Roundup to prevent crops from pests and other insects. The product and the GMO could cause problems in the long run with this pesticide being ingested with the crops. The GMO’s are also making things hard for the farmers because of the patent Monsanto put on their GMO seeds. Monsanto claims to be a sustainable agricultural company, but the chemicals and GMOs they are using to achieve that goal are affecting farmers and could be potentially harm humans. Is Monsanto a true sustainable agricultural company and how will the affect the world’s farmers and society in the long term? Well the main thing that makes Monsanto 's a sustainable agricultural company is their GMO crops and how they are non resistant to their other product Roundup. Roundup appears to be good for Sustainable agriculture and keeping products alive when there is no bee’s to pollinate them or when harmful weeds attack them (Hanzai, E). This could be good because the environment has been making it hard to produce crops naturally these days. This also includes, the high demand for produce in large quantities and big sizes, these gmos are the only thing keeping these big amounts of produce available for consumers. That’s great but these products are also known to be really dangerous for human

Genetic engineering or biotechnology can be applied to different fields such as animal biology, agriculture, or in microorganism. [8] Ever since the first genetically modified food (GM food)- Flavr Savr tomato- was invented in 1994 [16], genetically modified food has been at the center of controversy in terms of its suitability for human consumption and its effect on the biodiversity of naturally evolved organisms. Monsanto is the largest GM seed producer in North America to the extend that “80 percent of U.S. corn and 93 percent of soy grown from Monsanto patented GMO seeds.” [17] Monsanto has a tremendous influence and control over the marketing and production of global seed industries. [17]

It’s well known since 1994, genetically modified crops were introduced to U.S. markets. At first, scientists thought GMOs will create revolutionary remarks. GM crops are genetically fixed to be resistant against pests, disease or harsh weather conditions. They may sound like one of the greatest inventions. However, don’t let all the alleviating word deceive you. There has been several researches showing negative impacts that GMOs are capable of potentially. They are significant that majority of people think. Moreover, the reason that people don’t hear negative things about GMOs is that they are rather smaller scale researchers and government suppresses them. However, on the other hand, GMOs could be our key to resolve universal conflicts such as food shortages or hunger in third world countries. This continuing debate over GMOs once and for all.