I. INTRODUCTION
The fact that Monsanto was so easy to penetrate Vietnamese agricultural market not only question a huge number of social activists but also surprise many Vietnamese citizens including me. Monsanto was one of the main suppliers of Agent Orange - a military herbicide used in America - Vietnam war from 1965-1969, which has been causing millions of hectare deforesting as well as thousands of deaths and millions of malformation cases in Vietnam (Monsanto, 2009). Now Monsanto changed their business to agriculture sector, who “focus on agriculture working to find sustainable agriculture solutions” (Monsanto, 2009) and are selling genetically modified (GM) seeds to Vietnamese farmers. The problem is that a reliable conclusion on GM seeds’ benefits and hazards are still of highly controversial topic.
In fact, although Monsanto said GM seeds would help to solve the problem of food shortage, a great deal of people believe they have the potential risks of causing fetal diseases to human beings and spoiling the environment (British Medical Association, 2004). Combining with its bad history and reputation in Vietnam, no one has found a complete answer to how and why they could enter Vietnamese agricultural market without
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Particularly, Oliver (1991) argued that organisations using co-optation as a key tactic in strategy of manipulation in order to “neutralize institutional opposition and enhance legitimacy”. Likewise, Geddes (2003) used co-optation as the “alternative strategy … neutralise the opponents by co-opting them into the institutional structure of the regime” while Trumpy (2008) defined co-optation as a corporate capability to ‘‘bring the interests of a challenging group into alignment with its own
However, the use of the GM seeds for food production can quickly render a harmful impact to the user. Lee & Burrell (2002) stated, “Intense concerns about the uncertain health and environmental of GM farming have been the subject of high profile debate. The effects of GM farming on existing forms of agriculture, raised by the prospect of cross-pollination by GM seed, provoke similarly polarized views” It is common that genetic engineering process often takes place by joining different genes of plants together to come up with a whole species of the plant. Unfortunately, this process can easily result in coming up with plants with genes that are harmful to the consumers. Most of the genetically modified food staffs can
the seed, they decided to redesign our legal system as well. The FDA is stuffed with
In prehistoric times, the cultures that flourished were those who grew grains, rice and corn. Now one of those very cultures face cultural genocide as Monsanto works to destroy its roots and replace ancient maize with GMO corn. The film SUNÚ documents this struggle, from the halls of government to the hills of southern
GM foods are in the middle of many controversial issues; primarily these are addressed by conflicts over the relative pros and cons of GM foods. Major biotech companies like ‘Monsanto ' and ‘Cargill ' are promoting GM foods by focusing only on their beneficial aspects, giving least importance to their negative effects on safety, environment and biodiversity. On the other hand, governmental regulators and nongovernmental organizations, along with some scientists, are strictly opposing this type of blind promotion of GM food by enlightening the people on their negative effects The controversies associated with GM foods include issues such as safety, environmental benefits and risks, biodiversity, and ethical and social considerations.GM foods are implicated for adverse human health risks like people being allergic to it, environmental hazards such as development of super weeds, and pesticide and antibiotic resistance in disease causing organisms. On the other
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
Monsanto’s introduction of GM foods in Europe faced serious challenges. As a fundamentally new type of food product, GM’s had no historical experience that people could rely on. Many at Monsanto just
As a independent investigator I would make sure that Monsanto is complying with good manufacturing practices as they are dealing with agricultural biotechnology. The FDA wants to ensure that the food is safe for consumption. Nothing is more important than what people put in their mouths which is why creating an ethical culture is so important. Their increase in the use of biotechnology (general environment) makes is easier to produce yields with smaller plots of land. This in turn makes their consumers (farmers) happy and creates a better income for the customers. While Monsanto’s seed is more expensive some would say it offers more yields and, therefore, money for the company and the people who sale the items produced by its seeds.
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.
Today’s world is all about how we can be seen as helping others, or how one county is offering support to those in need of it. When Jeremy Seifert starting his work on his film GMO-OMG (Seifert, 2013), the film started by asking people the simple question do they eat GMO. The film goes through the first 2 min of just people responses to that question and it is amazing how people were so unware of what they were eating. GMO are genetically modified organism which as the movie explains there are two primary categories of GMOs, the pesticide producer, and Herbicide resisters (Seifert, 2013) which help farmers to grow crops by making them resistant to bugs or weeds that would have destroyed crops in the past. Monsanto is one of the largest GMO producers of a corn seed that would allow for crops to grow with natural resistant to herbicide and insects. When Jeremy went to Africa to research why some of the locals were rejecting the Monsanto seeds because they said that you could only plant them once and then you would be forever in need of the replace seeds rather than just reusing seeds from the fully grown plants. The Haitian people believed that the seeds of life are a common inheritance of all humanity (Seifert, 2013).
“We forget that we humans are animals, inextricably connected to the world and everything in it. In the rush to bring GMO food to the world because it was good for us, nobody had asked the question whether it would be good for the world.” ― Kenneth Eade, An Involuntary Spy. “In the year 1988 Scientists inserted genes into soybeans, ultimately creating what would become the most common GMO: glyphosate-tolerant soybeans. Making a crop that was resistant to herbicide made it much easier, and cheaper, for farmers to control weeds while producing high yields. Soon, other GMO seeds were developed — including potato, cotton, rice, sugar beets, sugarcane, and tomatoes — with the intention of making these crops resistant to insects, antibiotics, diseases,
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,
1 am not surprised of the outcome of your meeting with Mr. Smythe-Jones (CFO). However, I cannot answer your request until I heard from local management. As it was agreed on the last meeting, we were precluded ,from doing any work without first getting approval from management at the headquarters and we were instructed by local management from doing anything until they finalized what was required from us. It appears to me to be a Catch 22 game! 1 believe we (your Firm and ours) should not fall in the game of passing the ball to someone else before getting a clear understanding of what is going on. We have had several meetings with local management where the issue has been raised and were responded that other priorities were established by the headquarters (on my end I thought they tell you everything they have been instructed of locally, unfortunately it does not seem to be the case). In my opinion it looks very easy that you accept from management at the headquarters to hold us accountable from something we are not responsible for, and this does not mean I do not understand the pressure you are receiving on your end. However, we are not the enemy. 1 am not sending copy of this message to our client because I believe that internal issues have to be
Monsanto, the sustainable agriculture company has undergone many changes since its beginning in 1901. According to the mission statement the company is currently “committed to supporting research with academic and USDA scientists who have complementary areas of expertise (Monsanto, 2014).” The company has evolved and diversified its product line from chemical products, such as sweeteners and plastics to petroleum, packaging, and other materials. A few years later, Monsanto developed an herbicide that would soon cause trouble for the company. Monsanto has faced many legal problems due to its produced chemicals. The majority of Monsanto’s existing revenue is drawn from biotechnology sales. The genetically modified (GM) plant seeds generate most of these sales. These seeds were developed with the ability to kill insects that could harm the plants, along with containing herbicides that rid the crops of weeds Although Monsanto believes these plant seeds to be the innovative answer to solve the problems faced by farmers, the company has endured a great deal of criticism from the public regarding negative health effects caused by genetically modified plants and food. Critics have also voiced a concern of potentially harmful environmental effects in relation to Monsanto’s herbicide. Because of various legal, bribery, and patent issues, the company’s ethics have been questioned (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2013, p. 313). In order to determine the efficacy of
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
Controversies and public concern surrounding GM foods and crops commonly focus on human and environmental safety, labeling and consumer choice, intellectual property rights, ethics, food security, poverty reduction and environmental conservation. (Bawa, 2012). Safety concerns for genetic engineering can cause various regulations intended to prevent environmental and health problems (Bawa, 2012). Concern from consumers has been expressed for GMOS because several agricultural practices, such as the widespread use of DDT in past decades, have caused serious problems that were unintended and unexpected (Old Citation: Brill, 1985).