Busi 472 - Efficacy of Monsanto’s Ethical Culture

Case Assignment 1

BUSI 472

Liberty University

Efficacy of Monsanto’s Ethical Culture

In 1901, John F. Queeny in St. Louis, Missouri founded the company known as Monsanto. To fulfill the needs of today’s society, this company has renovated its products and services throughout the last century. Monsanto is a huge corporation, beginning as a chemical company at the turn of the twentieth century. From the “old” Monsanto’s foundation, they believed that chemicals manufacturing and scientific inquiry into chemical engineering was beneficial for humanity. They tried several times to apply the same techniques to different products throughout their history as a company. They started to manufacture these chemicals that did anything from sweeten your drinks to desolating Vietnam. The effects of these products were harmful to their stakeholders. Since the effects were so high, they has to pay 180 million in 1979 and 700 million in 2003, because the products harmed about 20,000 stakeholders ( ). Due to the corporate culture that has been created, they believed that science could solve all the problems. Since this culture was produced for over a century, Monsanto has regularly twisted its data, moved through scientific testing faster than was expected by the stakeholders, and is currently being investigated for anti-trust issues relating to the company’s practices. After the disaster in 2003, the company has tried to regain their image and change their products (Ferrell et al., 2015).

Since Monsanto is one of the world’s largest agricultural corporations, they have been expected to help out the world by creating a plentiful amount of food and water supply. This cannot happen now because of the effects it had on previous stakeholders. Although they try to make their products better, the uncertainty of it all is terrifying. The potential consequences of their products can cause human deformity and weakened sustaining resources such as water and food. It would be a risk to have this company sustain our society with so many possible risks involved (Ferrell et al., 2015).

Monsanto is unable to maintain an ethical culture that can effectively respond to various stakeholders. This company has faced several problems and continually gets statute regarding their products passed in countries through unethical means. The products they have produced are harmful and have affected many stakeholders in both indirect and direct ways. They have weakened the life support systems of the planet, endocrine disrupting, birth effects in children, and cancer effects. If this company wants to be a part of an ethical culture, they need to start making ethical products that will not be harmful to the life on this planet (Ferrell et al., 2015).

Costs and Benefits of Growing GMO Seed

        There are several benefits of growing genetically modified seeds because it could create an abundance amount of resources for humanity. Scientists are representing a product of hundreds of years watching life and studying it, and then breaking it down to fully understand it. With time, any gene could be used in any organism to help enable change to new, developing conditions. However there are some major problems with this kind of development. There are still several unknown factors of this technology that could be a risk to humanity. The policies created to protect human health and the environment is still widely accepted. As time has gone on, the evidence of negative impacts from GM crops has declined. Due to the regulatory policies within the European Union, most GM crops are forbidden to leave the lab setting. They are very cautious about this approach because the public is still afraid of these GM crops. If GM crops started to begin more widely accepted, they would put a lot of people out of business. “There would be lost revenue for farmers, breeding companies and consumers, brain drain and lost technology innovations, reduced agricultural productivity and sustainability, foregone health benefits, especially reducing malnutrition, and many more realized or expected virtues of GM crops (Fagerström et al., 2012).” The Codex Alimentarius Commission develops specific guidelines that test the risks of these genetically modified organisms. Any country or organization that wants approval for an edible GM crop has to provide extensive scientific documentation that shows that the food or feed originated has no harmful effects on human and animal health or even the environment. It also cannot mislead consumers and cannot replace food that would be nutritionally damaging for the consumer (Fagerström et al., 2012).