Monsanto Argument Paper

Monsanto was founded in 1901 in St. Louis, Missouri, but it did not begin its industrial and chemical research until the 1920s. Monsanto’s pledge states, “We want to make the world a better place for future generations.” (Monsanto) Monsanto is pretty bad in the sense that it harms the environment. However, there have been several claims against Monsanto and its use of harmful GMOs. Vice’s Monsanto article titled: “GMOs Aren’t That Bad But Monsanto Is the Worst;” approaches this claim from a everyday person perspective and breaks down the companies main advertising points. (Vice) The article argues that Monsanto values corporate greed over the health of the society and its practices have been proved to be unethical. So how is Monsanto still

Vice has been known to write thought provoking pieces that inform the masses about worldwide situations that they believe need attention. My analysis is strongly based on the “Harvest of Fear” article , written by Barlett and Steele, two investigative journalists that delve strongly into the tactics and words that Monsanto employs.(Barlett and Steele) The Vice article was published on June 6th, 2013, which was around the time that Monsanto has tried to move its businesses into Europe. The expansion failed because of Europe’s strict regulations on food and the use of chemical agents. The biggest sources of protests against Monsanto however have been the people. As soon as Monsanto began considering moving into Europe, citizens began people started protesting on the streets and writing petitions. The article informs the public about the “March Against Monsanto” and several other protests. As written in the Harvest of Fear, the most significant protest against Monsanto is the “March Against Monsanto” and the authors’ inclusion of it

Monsanto is a very confusing company because of its conflicting views. The group that is strongly against Monsanto consists mostly of farmers. The farmer group against Monsanto is very strong and the Vice article matches with the investigative journalists analysis of Monsanto being the bully. When read about for the first time, the reader can’t help but feel emotion for the farmers and the use of ethos evokes the human action of helping those in need. Because Monsanto has also been in the news fairly often, the term “Monsanto” is familiar to most, if not all individuals. As mentioned previously, the famous DDT pesticide scandal is still not forgotten. Farmers have been hurt by Monsanto with several law suits and a system that has been compared to the ancient “sharecropping.” The article analyzes both sides, but leans slightly towards the farmers’ point of view. The place where it’s bias is mostly shown is the tie to the chemical agent that was proved to hurt thousands of Vietnamese citizens. There is a picture in the article of a mother and her disfigured child and the caption states, “Some Vietnamese people would argue that Agent Orange was a bad thing.” This caption adds a sarcastic insult towards Monsanto. The picture and several of the controversial headings used in the article have a strong effect