Ethics Case 1: Monsanto Attempts to Balance Stakeholder Interests

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MONSANTO ATTEMPTS TO BALANCE STAKEHOLDER INTERESTS FEBRUARY 14, 2015 1. Does Monsanto maintain an ethical culture that effectively responds to various stakeholders? In order for me to consider Monsanto as having an ethical culture, they would address public concerns and invest in a proper, unbiased study of how their products affect human, animals and the environment instead of lobbying to change legislation in their favor. They also would not be involved in spending money on lawyers (investigators) to see if any of their customers are reusing their seeds. Monsanto claims they are continually researching and creating new and better seeds. If this is the case, then wouldn’t the demand increase naturally? This basically boils down to cornering the market and creating a monopoly. I think this is evident regarding their lawsuit against DuPont for trying to engineer seeds that included Roundup (a Monsanto product used as a pesticide and herbicide). Of course, this brought negative attention to Monsanto and to avoid any legal ramifications for their monopoly, they agreed to have the patent on their seeds expire in 2014. A good example of their unethical behavior is the numerous lawsuits against farmers where cross-pollination is cited as the cause by the farmers. Monsanto Canada Inc. sued Percy Schmeiser for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages because their GM crops showed up in his crop of non-GMs. "Whether Mr. Schmeiser knew of the matter or not, matters not at all", said Roger Hughes, a Monsanto attorney at the time. In the end, they won the case because they were able to prove that Mr. Schmeiser did know about their seeds being planted on his property. However, there are instances that aren’t so clear. Monsanto continually acted unethically by suing a people who weren’t aware of the cross-pollination of their product with their crops. The

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