Court records indicated that 226 plant workers became ill” (828). This quote from the doctors who observed the plant employees proves that Monsanto made chemicals not safe for human environments. By using this quote, the authors are able to uncover Monsanto’s past fabrication of harmful substances. It demonstrates how Monsanto was willing to create and sell chemicals that are known
In 2008 “Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear” was published in Vanity Fair. Penned by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, this exposition presents acts by Monsanto that may be considered questionable. Acts such as possessing a “shadowy army of private investigators” and the production of “two of the most toxic substances ever known”. The company was established in 1901 as Monsanto Chemical Works.
In the article entitled Monsanto's Harvest of Fear, Donald L. Barley and James B. Steele demonstrate that Monsanto already dominates the United States food chain with their genetically modified seeds. They are currently targeting milk production which is just as scary as the corporation's legal battles against the small farmers. This situation leads to a history of toxic infections or diseases. There were many disagreements between Gary Rinehart and a stranger about the innovative seeds. They were under surveillance and an investigator came in the picture.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to reveal that my family and all of my neighbors are row-crop farmers, and we raise both GMO corn and GMO soybeans. It is our attitude that we are stewards of the land and of our animals and we would not do anything to either one like Katherine Paul describes. So, I still agree with Caplan that we should be using GMOs to produce food such as Golden Rice that could save billions of people from going blind or
The three essays assigned this week had several common threads running through them. The strongest core theme is the rapid change in the food cycle in America and the vast changes that have taken place in the way by which we grow, produce, and process the food that average Americans eat. The food we eat now is drastically different from what our grandparents grew up eating and the three essays each examine that in a different way. Another theme is the loss of knowledge by the average consumer about where their food comes from, what it is composed of, and what, if any, danger it might pose to them. “Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear” by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele is a harsh look at the realities of food production in a country where large corporations, like Monsanto, have been allowed to exploit laws and loopholes to bend farmers and consumers to their
Personally, I believe the “seed police” is simply a distraction to the immorality instances committed by Monsanto. I visualize the “seed police,” like this: a police car pulling 2 cars over at once because they both were traveling above the speed limit. By Monsanto being accused of immoral acts, harming the environment, and causing unknown harm to the human body they carry a load of practicing negative ethics. The fact they would hold farmers accountable for mirroring their practices is like the pot calling the teakettle black. It seems to be more about a dollar then actually spreading advantages of genetically modifying seeds.
Monsanto is an American multi-national agrochemical and agricultural biotechnological corporation founded in 1901. Their main headquarters is located in Creve Coeur in St. Louis, Missouri and they are the leading producer in the world of genetically engineered seed and plant breeding. There are many other producers of these types of genetically engineered products whose names include: DuPont (US), Syngenta (CH), Groupe Limagrain (FR), Land O’ Lakes (US), Bayer Crop Science (DE), Sakata (JP), DLF-Trifolium (DK), Takii (JP). Monsanto is also known for being the manufacturer of the herbicide Roundup® and many of their genetically modified seeds are pre-treated with this herbicide.
Major companies, such as Monsanto and Syngenta, exploit genetically modified crops and other products. These companies, like any other company, have one main focus and it is to make money. Monsanto has a reputation of suing and harassing farmers with speculation of violating their patent, and in some cases, they have wrongly used their power. There are several cases, like that of a Canadian canola farmer named Percy Schmeiser, which Monsanto sued in speculation of patent infringement. Schmeiser had kept seeds from a previous year, which were determined to be Roundup Ready Canola seeds, and planted them without paying royalties to
New regulations, an enforced code of ethics and striving to be more socially responsible has led Monsanto to enhance their relationships with stakeholders. Monsanto wrote a pledge to inform all of their
On the other hand, proven that there is a possibility that it can cause cancer and other diseases. In North Dakota, they genetically modified sugar beets so pesticides would not ruin the crop, however they have the highest rate of stomach cancer in the U.S. Scientists have linked GMOs, used to modify the sugar beets, back to people having cancer. Notwithstanding, people try to deny that modifying the sugar beet was the cause of everybody parlaying stomach cancer. Proven as a fact, that the modified sugar beets caused the stomach cancer, so the company that came out with the genetically modified sugar beets, sued for not testing the chemicals for cancer and diseases.
A corporatist markets off what they know would put them in financial ruin if people found out the truth behind what they claim is bettering the world. Once gathering enough positive claims, they proceed anyway. This is the quintessence of GMO marketing. Now, as the newest generation, millennials are likely to have been fed these genetically modified foods growing up, but have the technology to research and make their own intelligent and informed decision on whether these foods should be continued to be produced and distributed throughout the world. It is not being overly suspicious to not believe a corporation such as Monsanto, the leading agrochemical company, when with minimal research they publicize that GMOs are safe to consume.
A corporation is a group of people authorizes to act like a single individual. There’re many corporations around the world, such as Nike Inc., McDonalds, Nestle, IBM etc., but Monsanto has triggered a lot of red flags among customers. Monsanto have been around since 1901 and is an agricultural biotechnology and multinational agrochemical corporation. This corporation has gain notoriety around the world with their genetically modified seed, cow hormones experiments, human stem cells and even patent human breast milk (collaboration with Nestle). All these experiment or “technological advances” often distress people in that line of work; in this case farmers are the one getting attacked.
Sixty countries such as Japan, the European Union, Australia, and Brazil restricted the usage of GMO’s and forced corporations to label their products. (The NON-GMO) E. Nonetheless, Global Change stated that GMO seeds are patented by corporations, therefore they can sue farmers for using their seed.
As Monsanto is a multinational company whose products are consumed by the food industry, it has to strictly emphasize on its moral obligations concerning the society where their products are being sold. Such moral obligation includes providing best quality of seeds to the consumers and betterment of farmer’s life (Stern, 2011). For this purpose Monsanto ensures high yielding properties of their seeds and it would prevent against insects eating their precious crops. This would ease the farmers in keeping their crops safe and reduce their hassle to sprinkle pesticides for crop safety. On the contrary these genetically modified seeds reported in causing health related issues on consuming the food grown from them.
Had he gone further into the report he would have found that organic fruits and vegetables are significantly closer in price to conventionally grown ones. We are all paying extra for the fallout from GMOs. This case indeed shows that food labeling issues are not only vital and extremely important today, but also that there is very hard to come to a solution. It would be very easy to label everything, require companies to let consumers know every single ingredient and in turn, hope to increase global health levels. However, it seems that opposing side has very strong arguments and companies are reluctant to sacrifice their profits in order to improve consumers health, which, very interestingly, is sometimes argued would not be achieved by doing so
