Cho, 1
David Cho
Topic Paper 2
Monsanto
April-12-2019
Cho, 2
When it comes to large scale agricultural food production, it seems that monetary gain is
the biggest drive. Agricultural companies are following the route of monopolizing of most
products in the market in order to obtain controlling the product. In “The Future of Food,” the
director, Deborah Garcia remarks that for the past decade, unlabeled and patented genetically
engineered food have made their way to grocery stores in USA. In the film farmers from
Saskatchewan, Canada to Oaxaca, Mexico speaks of how they have been negatively impacted
due to this genetically engineered patented food.
1A.New technologies that can yield higher volume of food at cheaper cost and abundance
is mentioned by Garcia (Cinema, 2004). Monsanto goes about placing patents on their lab
created organisms, and one of the examples is the Roundup-ready which are seeds that resist
herbicides.
Roundup Ready Soybeans
is the first bio-engineered crop that was approved by the
USDA in 1996 (Robin, 2008). In this film, it addresses that patents issue depends on
Ethics of
Egoism by Monsanto. The ego of Monsanto company is to have their patent seeds to be
purchased by farmers, which fulfils their own self-interest, of monetary gain. Andrew Kimball
who is the Executive Director of Food Safety brings light on the topic of patented seeds in
agriculture. For over two-hundred years, patents of life forms were not allowed and ironically
article one of the American Constitution of rights is granted (Cinema, 2004). One of the classical
example is, Dr. Chakrabartii who attempted to patent a live creature but rejected.
1B.
Ethics of
Utilitarianism is portrayed by Andrew Kimball for he believes patented seeds are unfair for all
and outcome to be benefit most people. The ability of GM technologies to produce genetically
modified crops allowed significant saving in cost and time to reduce weeds that can harm the
crops (Philip, 2017). While on the other hand Monsanto purchasing seed companies and
monopolizing patent seeds shows the
Ethic of Egoism. Monsanto controls over ten-thousands of
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patent species and they even jeopardize small farmers for patent even though their crops can be
contaminated in the nature, thus Monsanto can generate monetary gain from these issues.
1C.
Ethics of Egoism can be seen by Monsanto in the action of monopolizing seed companies. This
is shown by Monsanto purchasing the seed companies and convert them all into GMO seeds,
which allows them to control the market flow. There are cases where Monsanto take legal action
against farmers who used Roundup ready GMO seed and goes against patent.
1D. Monsanto’s
action of suing farmers for infringement of patent seeds shows
Ethic of Egoism. Monsanto’s only
sole purpose is to the benefit of the company of monetary gain. In the documentary, “The Future
of Food,” a farmer by the name of Percy Schmeiser retaliates against Monsanto due to
accusations of infringement of patent rights (Cinema, 2014). Percy Schmeiser was just a regular
