Essay on Roundup

A product manufactured by Monsanto is the weed killer Roundup Ready 2 Xtend. The Roundup Ready 2 Xtend is used to by soybean farmers and claims to provide growers with an outstanding performance with their efforts to produce the best crop possible. However, the product is not currently approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. Farmers will like the new roundup ready plus because it will give them a higher yield on their crops. Monsanto claims that the farmers can expect up to four bushels of soybeans per acre (Monsanto, 2016). In order for the new Roundup Ready 2 Xtend to be used in the United States, each state has to approve the use of the product. The product is used by spraying it onto the crops in order to combat pests.

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.

Monsanto manufactures and produces a Bovine growth hormone known a Posilac. Posilac is a transgenic hormone that’s injected into cows increasing dairy production by 20 % these hormones threaten our health. In 1985 Posilac was submitted to the FDA for approval. Richard Burroughs was the FDA veterinarian at the time he stated the data submitted by Monsanto was missing a lot of information. Monsanto failed to mention the diseases and reproductive system that Posilac causes. Mr. Burrough was later fired when he requested further testing off Posilac. He was threatened by Monsanto’s lawyers and FDA files were stolen after request for further testing. No one investigated the lab results, claims and studies of Monsanto. It seems that once Monsanto is involved in something everyone turns the other way proving that Monsanto is in control of everything food related.

The main ingredient used in Monsanto produce is glyphosate. Companies are injecting the plants’ seeds with glyphosate, which alters the plants’ DNA. Glyphosate is an herbicide, the same chemical used in Roundup. It is toxic to plants. Glyphosates’ purpose is to kill off unwanted weeds. Companies are injecting chemicals, whose main purpose is to kill plants, into the DNA of our foods (Hamblin). The World Health Organization (WHO) cancer agency has declared that glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen” (Hamblin). Research conducted by WHO shows that glyphosate increases breast cancer cell growth. Researchers determined that Monsanto’s Roundup is an “exnoestrogen,” which is an unknown estrogen that imitates real estrogen in our bodies. This manipulation of estrogen can cause several problems within our bodies, such as “increased risk of various cancers, premature puberty, thyroid issues, infertility, and more”

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

“Bowman raised patent exhaustion as a defense, arguing that Monsanto had no right to the soybeans that were the subject of a prior authorized sale from local farmers to the grain elevator.” (2) Many farmers like Bowman have been caught trying to reuse the seed instead of buying new seed each yearly season and each time, leaving the farmer in debt or struggling. Now, farmers try not to argue about the seed and just deal with Monsanto’s ways of running their

Monsanto is an American agrochemical corporation which manufactures pesticides and GMO crops. One of the most well recognized herbicides is Monsanto’s Roundup, which contains the carcinogen glyphosate. To prevent from killing the crops when farmers apply Roundup to their fields, Monsanto invented GMO versions of many staple crops such as corn, soybeans, and cotton which resist Roundup. Like the weeds, these GMO crops still absorb glyphosate, however the crops are able to stay alive through changes in their genetic makeup which make them herbicide resistant. The herbicide tolerance of certain crops has been adopted because it, “simplifies weed control to the use of a single herbicide and a flexible and easy management strategy” (Labrada, 2003), as well as decreasing the cost of weed control programs. As a result, Monsanto bought out most small farms and now owns 80% of the U.S. market share of corn and 93% of the U.S. market share of soy, which are then sold to modern food processing. Upwards of 75% of the processed food on American supermarket shelves contain genetically engineered ingredients. Not only are Americans consuming massive amounts of GMOs, which pose a huge health risk themselves, they are also consuming massive amounts of glyphosate, a chemical known to cause cancer and birth defects (Kruger, 2014). If society stopped consuming carcinogens, the cancer epidemic will be

Monsanto is notoriously known for partaking in the industrial production of herbicides and chemical warfare for militant use. Specifically, Monsanto is infamously known for the production of Agent Orange, a defoliant/herbicide used during the Vietnam War. Since its use, one of the many chemically adverse effects Agent Orange has been responsible for to this day are birth defects specifically among children related to veterans who have serviced in the Vietnamese and Korean military. Although Monsanto has moved away from the production of chemical warfare to the production of GMOs for human consumption, it is ethically debatable for Monsanto to be the leading industry to specialize in GMO production. The ethicality of Monsanto's contribution and influence in GMO production is also questionable due to Monsanto's economic position in domineering the seed market and GMO market, raising the possible risk of Monsanto's monopoly in both markets. Due to the intersectionality of GMO technology in socio-political private and public spheres, it is important to further research the credibility and ethicality of GM produces before its consumption and technology begin to raise problematic economic, environmental, and medical

The Monsanto Co. was the first company to introduced GM foods into the market. These foods had built in herbicides

Monsanto’s is an agricultural biotechnology corporation. They are the producers of Roundup ready seeds, which are seeds that are not affected or killed by weed killer. Not only do they produce the seeds but they produce the herbicide Roundup as well that kills unwanted weeds and grass. These things seem like something every gardener would want. What could be better? Well Roundup is not all is thought to be. The herbicide Roundup has been linked to damaging liver and kidneys.

Monsanto is one of the largest conglomerates in the world with ties to the food industries in most countries. Their GMO corn and soy have been at one time planted on

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

“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.

The Glycine max (L.) Merr soybean is an important legume crop (Zhang et. al. 2013). Soybeans are used to produce oils, proteins (Zhang et. al., 2013), and soymeal (Cherubin, 2008). Soybean oil is largely produced and consumed globally (Cherubin, 2008). Soymeal provides 70% of an animal’s protein (Cherubin, 2008). Canada is a top producer of soybeans worldwide (Cherubin, 2008). The Roundup Ready (R.R.) gene is often incorporated into the soybean seeds (Villela et. al., 2014) and is sold by licensed seed companies such as Monsanto, Pioneer, and Novartis (Bullock et. al., 2004). The Roundup Ready solution is a glyphosate compound, which is a low cost yet effective herbicide (Bullock et. al., 2004). The R.R. gene is incorporated