A company like Monsanto, the giant, all controlling hand of the food industry, is reliant on one thing for its power. Consumers. Despite the massive and out of control degree of power that these companies appear to have, as consumers of their product, we have the power to pull the rug out from underneath them. While this sounds very idealist and somewhat revolutionary, it is completely true. Consumers determine the profits of a business, and by refusing to buy their products and spreading the word about the negative things they do as a company, a shift in their regard to human health and the environment would be essential. Currently, there are "Destroy Monsanto" movements in the works, and that movement would be infinitely more important and useful to society than all the "occupy" movements that still elicited huge turnouts of supporters. This shift in attitude of society is key to change the current paradigm that Monsanto has toward its consumers, that we are merely puppets here to consume their products and put money in their pockets.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Stuck in the middle
Our presentation on GMOs last Thursday went a lot better than I had expected. Through doing this project I have learned a ton about genetically modified organisms and the science, politics and rhetoric that surround it. Although to everyone who was viewing the presentations on Thursday I probably appear to be adamantly pro-GMO 100%, this is not quite the case. Despite the fallacies I find within the negative semantics regarding the phrase "Genetically Modified Organism," my beef with GMOs is not the science of them, but rather the pockets that fund them. Monsanto. Monsanto is an evil company, and as my dad would say "run by the greedy globalists who want to control our lives." They are a bunch of control freak pigs, who, if we as a society are not careful, could gain full control of our most important commodity. Food. The science of genetically modified organisms, the aspect of GMOs that I enjoy learning about, could not even be learned about in a lab without violating a multitude of their patents. Genetically modified organisms NEED to be labeled, not because I personally believe that, without a doubt, they are necessarily "bad' for you, however, having knowledge about what is in our food is essential. It is a seeing device into the workings of the company, they should be required to have full disclosure of what they put in their products.
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I really enjoyed your poster project this past week, it was very informative! Being involved in the industry you describe above (kinda) I am always interested in the targets that public views as the problem. As you stated above: Monsanto. Monsanto wouldn't have their ability to produce the way they do if it wasn't for a Supreme Court ruling allowing people to patent life. This changed the game and allows companies like Monsanto, Cargill, ADM, and more to profit. Is it possible to argue that Monsanto just happens to be the name of a company that is the poster child for corporate greed? Lets say the company that did more seed development was Dow, would the emotions simply remain and the names just change? If companies strive to maximize profits, then Monsanto is not doing anything wrong. They are simply living within the world that was created around them. When it comes to the conversation of GMOs and anti-company XYZ it is interesting, to me, to look at who is protesting and typically it is developed world protesters and not many protesters from developing countries who, perhaps, value their product most.
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