Pros And Cons Of Monsanto

Monsanto positions itself as a relatively new agricultural company having formed in 2002, and focused on supporting local farmers around the world. They also promote themselves as a guardian of the environment with a mission “to produce more food while conserving more” (Monsanto.com). Today’s Monsanto conglomerate also promotes itself as the “New Merchants,” a leading research company in the field of agriculture-crop production, as well as a strong supporter of public and private research through its grant, donations and University scholarship programs.

In 2009 a movie by the name of Food Inc. was released that challenged the production of food we eat. The movie examines everything from the science of seeds all the way through the consumption of the food, the food’s often negative effects on the body. The movie ends with the line “You can change the world with every bite”. This quote embodies the heart behind movie that change starts with the individual, and how they make food choices. This sort of change that Food Inc. invokes implies that top down change that the consumer can bring about change to the seed level. Food Inc. challenges the processes that allow companies like Monsanto to feed the world. We must understand how media like Food Inc. effects this mission to feed the world by examining the movie, the history of Monsanto as a company, and looking at the response from both sides to these challenges made in the public square to better combat and address issues brought forth.

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

Monsanto is a known name in America correlated with the farming industry, but most people do not even scratch the surface in researching the company. The name appears in colleges and in many articles. Monsanto is an international corporation based out of the United States of America. They are accredited with most of the genetically modified crops in the country today. In 1996, Round Up Ready soybeans were introduced to the farming community. (Brown) This was main introduction of GMOs into agriculture. By 2003, Monsanto already

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

Approximately 795 million suffer from hunger each year, and if the bee population was to rise, less people would suffer (Grossman, 2013). The decline of the population is going to decrease crop production, which would have terrifying results such as price increase on food. That increase in price would end up making food not affordable, therefore implying nationwide hunger. Hunger has been increasing over the years, globally but especially in America ,and if these pesticides are banned, it will not only help the decline stop, but the bees may be able to reproduce more and become a larger population. Then, with the cheaper prices, more people will be able to buy food, and therefore more people will be

Monsanto is involved in a variety of ways,“The company produces the herbicide RoundUp, and also seeds whose genes have been engineered to survive RoundUp's active plant-killing ingredient. Now the vast majority of this country's soybeans, corn, sugar beets and canola possess those engineered genes,”(Boyle). Initially, this seems quite innocent, however, there’s no telling what kind of chemicals are being introduced into the food supply in order to allow these plants to survive. Also, sugar and corn are contained within almost every non organic product Americans consume, which means virtually everyone is ingesting these potentially harmful chemicals. Monsanto’s RoundUp resistant seeds should seem to be a farmer’s best friend, but it’s not always so simple, “As Rinehart would recall, the man began verbally attacking him, saying he had proof that Rinehart had planted Monsanto’s genetically modified (G.M.) soybeans in violation of the company’s patent. Better come clean and settle with Monsanto, Rinehart says the man told him—or face the consequences,”(Barlett). Simply dogmatic in his manner, the mysterious Monsanto man would not take no for an answer, even though later in the article Mr. Rinehart states that he isn’t a farmer and they have the wrong guy. Commonly referred to as seed police, even gestapo or mafia, this elite force of Monsanto maniacs are lifeless and drone-like in the sense that they will stop at nothing in order to obtain a profit, and if it’s the wrong person they’ll still use scare tactics to weasel cash out of innocent civilians. Saying that Monsanto is heavily involved in the production and distribution of genetically modified crops and seeds is a massive understatement, to demonstrate this,“In 1996 when Monsanto introduced RoundUp Ready Soybeans, the company controlled only 2% of the U.S. soybean market. Now, over 90% of

Monsanto has neglected to do their due diligence to protect the American people. Currently, they supply a weed killer called Roundup, that is poisoning both the environment and the American people. Monsanto is not required to disclose what ingredients are in Roundup, but one of the known ingredients is glyphosate, a possible carcinogen. While plants may be ready for this chemical introduction, humans are not. This chemical is potentially dangerous to people as it often ends up in our water sources, poisoning the fish in our food chain. While the potential dangers of Roundup are not known, that of previous Monsanto products are known. Monsanto helped to create the Atomic bomb that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There are no other words to describe the outcome of that bomb but devastating.

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

According to Natural Society, people like Hugh Grant, and Bill Gates who own millions of shares in Monsanto stock are not the real owners of Monsanto. The main owners of Monsanto are institutions. The leading institution for Monsanto is a company is called the Vanguard group. Vanguard owns 3 trillion dollars in investments in different companies like Monsanto. Additionally, they own such companies as Bank of America, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, and others. Employees of Monsanto seem to be interested in agriculture. Most of the employees are scientist, and agricultural experts. Employees enjoy working with farmers, and enjoy generating new ideas. Every project that is worked on inspires innovation allowing Monsanto, to stay on the cutting edge,

“Monsanto Company started off its chemical business in 1997, Monsanto traces its roots to John Francisco Queeny, a purchaser for a wholesale drug house, who formed the Monsanto Chemical Works in St. Louis, Missouri”(Barboza). In the mid-1990s, it became the first to widely market genetically engineered

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

Monsanto is a Saint Louis Chemical manufacturer that is a major player in the weed killing business. Monsanto has quite a portentous past. They developed and produced the notorious defoliant "Agent Orange" used in the Vietnam War, they invented the controversial recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), and they were the inventors and world’s main producer of

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,