If somebody told you that they would take your food, poison it or that farmers are not allowed to take the seed that comes from the plants on their crop to plant more crops, your reaction would likely be that of surprise and rightly so because the company that I am looking at for this research paper has constantly been suspected of involvement in dubious and unethical business practices that hurt all those who encounter it. Most people do not realize that the majority of the food they eat is tainted with pesticides (herbicides, insecticides and fungicides). Monsanto Company is the world’s largest and most recognizable corporation in the world of agrochemicals and agricultural biotechnology. Its two main products are genetically engineered seeds …show more content…
This chemical that most people are not aware of the existence of, is the primary ingredient in Roundup, an herbicide that is able to destroy just about any weed that exists (Hanzai). This chemical allowed farmers to eliminate weed competition, improve the growth and the yield of their crop, very vital in order to increase the production of food to feed an ever increasing population not just in America but also in other countries. The chemist behind the discovery of glyphosate, John Franz, was hailed by the scientific community, being awarded a position in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. This clearly shows the magnitude of this achievement. In order to capitalize on this development, Monsanto spent millions on a campaign to show farmers just how much their yield would improve upon the usage of this …show more content…
It has been found that there are inert ingredients in Roundup that are toxic to animals and can cause herbicide residue to build up in them. In birds, eggs were weakened and this caused the embryos to be damaged leading to reproductive failure. Not only this but the effects of glyphosate are suspected to not just be limited to animals. The World Health Organization stated that it believes that Roundup causes cancer in people based on some new data that came out in their research (Pollack). What this shows is that a supposedly harmless herbicide that was supposed to be better than DDT can still be harmful not just to animals but also to humans. Monsanto has demonstrated time and time again that they will continue to produce products that can harm humans and animals without any care for anyone simply to enhance their already strong bottom line. Monsanto has had detailed research about their products and the harmful effects of them in the past and still has not done anything about it and rather managed to avoid trouble mainly through their influence and trickery (Hanzai). This is a prime example of a company that shows no signs of corporate social responsibility and it is our duty to be educated as a consumer about what kind of food we ingest and what goes into making it as this is how we manage to