The Monsanto Company's Relationship and Performance in the Market Amidst Ethical, Social and Legal Odds

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

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.

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

“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

Ethical issues remain relevant aspects for businesses operation and competitiveness. The elements aforesaid ensure that every firm has what it takes to connect well with the community to provide consistent market and productive relationship with other stakeholders. Monsanto Company that was in a tussle with the community over the production of the genetically modified products that seemed detrimental to the society responded by creating awareness to the people about the need for sustainable farming practices (Carroll, 2015). The company notified farmers that the world population was increasingly going up thus a need for sustainable agricultural practices. The company

According to Monsanto’s web page, the company understands the growing debate of how agriculture should work, and believes it is a good thing that consumers are becoming more interested in where their food comes from. They said it is the first step in aiding the public on how agricultural systems function.

Putting small farmers out of business, a history of paying lobbyists to block government regulations on genetically modified organisms, destroying the environment, lacking testing on their products; these are all characteristics of Monsanto’s company. Monsanto is a company that provides the largest producer of genetically engineered seeds (Neuman). Monsanto’s corporation is a danger to our health and environment.

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

pushing Roundup Ready Soybeans – a crop system that is no tastier, no healthier, and

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.

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,

Big businesses have a major influence towards American agriculture. Large capital investments have contributed to the success of American agriculture. Monsanto is the world’s leading agricultural biotechnology company that has used fundamentally changed the way many