Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Ethics and sustainability in business
Ethics and sustainability in business
Monsanto's ethical culture
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Ethics and sustainability in business
Executive Summary
Monsanto¡¦s downfall could be attributed to several reasons. The passion of Alan Shapiro¡¦s vision blinded the Company into making rash decisions and the large amounts of money spent pursuing the objective prevented any U-turns later. The company¡¦s unshaken beliefs that it was correct had made it arrogant and not listen to the outrage all around. Monsanto underestimated consumer resistance.
There was no obvious benefit in the products introduced. It may have been a different story if the products were introduced in developing counties where transport is poor or people starving from crop failures.
Monsanto also ignored cultural differences. Canada and US were indifferent to genetically modified products but there was anger in Europe and the UK. Recent blunders by government handling the BSE and ¡§Mad Cow¡¨ outbreaks dampened people¡¦s confidence in genetically modified products.
Selling the idea of genetically modified crops is not easy. The industry needs to persuade people of the benefits and the companies must be seen to be socially responsible, socially responsive and ethical. Companies mission statements must not seem to be solely profit driven.
Introduction - Monsanto and Alan Shapiro's Vision
"It's about the earth, it's about the environment, and it¡¦s about food. It's about health and nutrition. Those are deep, ancient things for civilisation, and they are for the people." - Alan Shapiro
The Monsanto Company in 1995 led by Alan Shapiro was involved in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, food and chemicals. Shapiro's passionate vision was the application of biology to food, nutrition and human health. He believed that people would want the products offered by Monsanto. The products themselves are protected by patents, thus restricting competition. All Monsanto needed to do was dominate and position all their products as either number one or two in their respective markets.
Consolidation started in the seed market that was already concentrated in the hands of a few companies. By 1999 Monsanto spent more than $8 billion making acquisitions. Four corn seed companies had controlled 87% of the US market in 1996. Monsanto acquired two of them, Holden's Foundation Seeds and DeKalb. Delta & Land Pine controlled 75% of the cottonseed market and Monsanto made a bid for that company too.
It was a simple winning strategy preac...
... middle of paper ...
...d user safety. Figure 3 shows a suitable process where products are assessed prior to introduction and results evaluated.
It is important for organisations operating in this area to be ethical. The organisation must be socially responsible, i.e. monitor social developments, forecast potential problems and even conduct surveys to determine social requirements. The organisation must have special departments, taskforce or committees e.g. DuPont that are responsive to the changing social sentiments.
The company must persuade people of the benefits of biotechnology and genetically enhanced products listen to all stakeholders and not underestimate consumer resistance.
Bibliography
Byrne, J. ¡§How Jack Welch runs GE¡¨ ¡V Business Week 8 June 1998
Genetically Modified Crops: The Ethical and Social Issues - www.nuffieldfoundation.org
Batalion, N. ¡§50 Harmful effects of Genetically Modified Foods¡¨ - www.cqs.com
Specter, M. ¡§Food that Bit Back¡¨ - Good Weekend 10 June 2000.
Hewett, J. ¡§DuPont turns into a green crusader¡¨ ¡V Sydney Morning Herald 4 June 2001
Adventa Home Page - www.advantacan.com
Sygenta Home Page - www.syngenta.com
Pioneer Hi-Bred Home Page - www.pioneer.com
Homeschooling offers flexibility and can be a stress reliever for many. Home school gives children the opportunity to learn when they learn best, whether that be in the morning or in the afternoon. Some children prefer to work alone others with their peers. The parents will determine what their child’s learning style is. If the child need more or less time on a subject then they will have the chance to go over the subject as many time it is necessary for the student to learn it, or in the other hand if they completely comprehend the subject they can make a decision to skip it. A flexible schedule gives these options and many more to students compared to public or private schooling.
Challenges facing the Monsanto Company have been many. This company has been engaged in unscrupulous undertakings that have resulted in innumerable lawsuits against the company. In many countries, Monsanto Company’s products continue to be banned while others face law suits on their viability and safety of the public.
Everyone has likely already heard the name Monsanto, the largest seed distributor in the world. Nearly fifty percent of all seeds in the world are owned by only three corporations. These companies account for trillions in fertilizer, pesticide, seed patents and herbicide sales annually. These companies have been building a seed empire within the food industry for over thirty years now and they have plans to patent every seed with biotechnology. Thoreau wrote in his book, “The condition of the operatives is becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that the corporations
In schools the children are made to learn the syllabus which the school follows , they have to learn this along with all the students even if they are interested or not . At times it might happen that even the student who has knowledge of subjects outside the school syllabus may stick to the school syllabus, whereas that is not the case with the children who are homeschooled , these children are mostly taught those subjects in which they have interest along with that they have flexible schedule so they have ample amount of time to progress with their ideas and being creative giving them a better learning experience. When a student starts progressing with his/her ideas they would develop the ability to think on their own for their ideas rather than depending on their peers this case makes them being self-dependent. To support this we can take many real time examples of famous Einstein, who had difficulty in school had dropped out and learnt what he liked and now everyone in school 's study his research work. Since the children have better learning experinces they even have higher score achievements than other 's we can conisder this from the Lyman 's writing where she tells us that " David and Micki Colfax gained national attention when three of their four home-schooled sons attended Harvard" , this clearly states that homeschooled children can outperform the other
Homeschooling is often portrayed as an overprotective mom - unwilling to let her kids leave her for a day at school, and a large number of children, all unable to hold a conversation, let alone function normally in society. As someone who was homeschooled from kindergarten through eighth grade, I can attest that my homeschool experience was the exact opposite of this confining stereotype.
Considering an argument as valid requires critical analysis of several aspects and providing strong evidence. Robin Mather, a journalist who “has passion for food and its sources, has worked at major metropolitan newspapers (the Detroit News, the Chicago Tribune)”(86), argues that GMOs have risks and hazards to human health and threats to wildlife and environment in her article “The Threats from Genetically Modified Foods”, whereas Entine, a colleague at the Genetic Literacy Project, and Wendel, a science writer(82), claim that GMOs are safe to eat and no harm to people or animals in their article “2000+Reasons Why GMOs are Safe to Eat and Environmentally Sustainable” Both articles’ authors state their ideas clearly for whether GMOs could be eaten or not. However, Mather provides more solid
Food is an essential part of everyday life without it one could not survive. Every day we make choices on what we put in to our bodies. There are countless varieties of food to choose from to meet the diverse tastes of the increasing population. Almost all food requires a label explaining the ingredients and the nutritional value allowing consumers to make informed decisions on what they are consuming. However, many may not be considering where that food is coming from or how it has been produced. Unfortunately, there is more to food than meets the eye. Since 1992, “ the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled, based on woefully limited data, that genetically modified foods were ‘substantially equivalent’ to their non-GM counterparts” (Why to Support Labeling). GM food advocates have promised to create more nutritious food that will be able to grow in harsh climate conditions and eventually put an end to world hunger in anticipation of the growing population. There is very little evidence to support these claims and study after study has proven just the opposite. GM crops are not only unsafe to consume, but their growing practices are harmful to the environment, and multinational corporations are putting farmers out of business.
Values determine what is important in decision-making. Ethics involves conduct, the ability to determine right and wrong. All organizations face ethical dilemmas. Organizations develop corporate social responsibility in reaction to the values and expectations of society. Corporate social responsibility initiatives aim to protect public health, safety and the environment (Joyner, Payne, & Raiborn, 2002)....
Barlett and Steele’s “Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear” interpretation of Monsanto Company’s affect on the agricultural industry, its communities, and on consumers in the course of its aggressive expansion is both aggressive and unfair. Through the use of narratives and evidence, they reiterate and reinforce aliases composed by affected communities
You may not know it, but in the United States GM foods are quite prevalent. Approximately 65% of foods in the U.S. contain some variation of genetically altered ingredients (Ulrich 9). And of that portion, 89% of soybeans and 61% of corn is transgenic (Powell 529). This technology came to prominence in the 1990’s and since then has been a subject of much controversy. Proponents preach the undeniable health and growing benefits of this new development. Critics rail against biotech companies for the ambiguous safety status and ethical grounds of altering natural plant growth. The center stage for this conflict is Europe. While generally similar to the U.S., this region of the world is much more outwardly suspicious and hostile towards crop alterations.
Federalism has a very important impact on american history, it 's based on the relationship between the u.s. government and the each government in our fifty states. That 's very important because we have laws that need to be enforced everyday. The separation of government between state and federal laws can help give us an understanding of what both mean and how big of an impact it has on us as a nation.
How many of you hear the words “genetically modified food” and immediately think “BAD”? How many of you scorn the idea that genetically modified foods are useful? How many of you have been manipulated by the media to think that all biotechnology is evil? Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are organisms that have been genetically spliced to achieve a certain trait. As the demand for a larger food supply is increasing due to population growth, the benefits that GMO foods provide are being hailed as the only solution to the food crisis. However, many people are making inadequately informed decisions, and are pushing them to the back shelf. I will inform you on why genetically modified organisms may be the only way to a stable, safe future for the less fortunate.
"Monsanto uses patent law to control most of U.S. corn, soy seed market." Cleveland National News. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2009. .
The demand for non-GMO foods is on a great rise all around the world. "Non-GMO products accounted for $550 billion of the 5 trillion global food and beverage retail market in 2014". Many people, in today's times, are being offset by negative perceptions of GMO products. Numerous consumers have pre-dispositions and attitudes when it comes to their intentions of purchasing GMO foods. Consumers believe that "scientifically altered crops could be unethical and unsafe".
A company has an economic obligation. It must earn a favorable return for its stockholders in the restrictions of the law. But, corporate social responsibility means that organizations have also ethical and societal responsibilities that go past their economic responsibilities. CSR needs organizations to develop their documentations of their responsibilities to include other stakeholders such as workers, customers, suppliers, local societies, state governments, international organizations, etc. Ethics could be seen as a fundamental component of individual and group activities at the heart of organizations’ errands.