Let’s try to unravel a little bit about this Monsanto business. The rabid fervor it has managed to inspire in a small but vocal minority is surreal. I get it, I really do. Early in my activist days that was me behind a similar table passing out fish-strawberry anti-GMO fliers. But being outed for questioning the anti-GMO narratives shook me loose from the anti-Monsanto-ism. If this person was wrong about GMOs, maybe they were also wrong about Monsanto being evil.
Monsanto’s customers are farmers, and Monsanto does pretty well. Ya know why? Because their customers like their products and buy them. It’s as simple as that. Capitalism 1-0-freakin’-1, bro. Buying good products, we are all doing it.
Monsanto “patents life,” those monsters! Well, patents are a means to protect and encourage inventions. Whether it’s the best system is a fine debate to have. It sounds kinda scary to think that somebody could patent a seed, but breeders have been doing that since before GMOs were ever around. Sure Monsanto protects its products from piracy but so does every company. Frivolously suing the customers would make for bad business. Patents, we are all doing it.
Chemicals are scary stuff eh? Agent Orange is probably a good reason why too. Indeed the Monsanto from the 60′s was one of the companies who made the Agent Orange defoliant during the Vietnam war. But if the Monsanto of today is accountable so too are we. We (our government) contracted companies to make the stuff to our specifications. Is Monsanto evil for making Agent Orange or are you for paying and telling them how to make it? History, we’re all as accountable.
The worst of Monsanto’s offenses may be the sum of its parts and that’s always been a problem of big business. We should be wary and resolute in business ethics. Business, we are all doing it. Monsanto may be the patsy for the ills of business, society and/or history but it comes down to an inevitable conclusion for me. Monsanto, we are all Monsanto.
Read the full, original article: We Are All #Monsanto
