Monsanto and the Moral Challenge Surrounding Genetically Modified Products

Ethics and Humanity: Company Case Briefing

Monsanto and the Moral Challenge Surrounding Genetically Modified Products

The “good company” operates with four pillars in mind, each a different level for the firm to exhibit its corporate social responsibility. First, the company must ensure its commitment to the health, safety, productivity and profitability of its own employees. Second, the company must be actively customer-focused, establishing clear and open lines of communications and trust, while also demonstrating a duty of care in their operations. Third, the company must be globally-oriented towards the industry as a whole. And fourth, the company must display an investment in their own community. At each of those levels—the individual employee, the customer, the industry and the community, the “good company” should endeavor to uphold its own corporate pledge to deliver results while also taking responsibility for its activities. Applying this framework to Monsanto is a precarious task, but below we will examine the moral challenge that the company faces currently, identifying key stakeholders, and discerning the possible moral outcomes to its many challenges.
Monsanto Company provides agricultural products for farmers in the US and abroad. With nearly 23,000 employees, the company has a history of producing and marketing agricultural chemicals. In 1982, Monsanto scientists were the first to genetically modify a plant cell, and two decades later the company was providing farmers with in-seed herbicides with tolerance to Roundup and other pesticides. Clearly their resources and products touch millions of lives around the world, and Monsanto as a provider and conduit of agricultural products also has a