Monsanto Attempts To Balances Stakeholder Interests Environmental Sciences Essay

Monsanto Attempts To Balances Stakeholder Interests Environmental Sciences Essay The Monsanto Company is the worlds largest seed, with sales of over 10.5 billion. It specializes in biotechnology, or the genetic manipulation of organisms. T he worlds 90 percent of the seeds today are sold by Monsanto or by companies that use Monsanto genes. Monsanto also holds 70-100 percent market share on certain crops. Yet Monsanto has to meet its share of criticism from sources as diverse as government, farmers, activists, and advocacy groups.  There have been allegations of intimidating farmers, using hostile tactics to monopolize the market, false advertising, and producing large-scale international pollution.   In addition, they manufactured Agent Orange for the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. Farmers who buy seeds from Monsanto could not save for future plant. Otherwise, Farmers will have to pay for Monsanto when they find out. Furthermore, Monsanto produced products that involved in the risk of animals and human health. Some of Monsantos actions should considered moral temptation. The moral and safety implications of GM food are of great concern to many stakeholders. Many sceptics see biotech crops as unnatural, with the Monsanto scientist essentially playing God by controlling what goes into the seed. The other concern is toxicity, particularly considering that many Monsanto seed are equipped with a gene to allow them to produce their own Roundup Ready herbicides. Some stakeholders are concerned about the detrimental effects on the consumers by ingesting such herbicides, even in small amount. In addition to concerns over the safety of GM seeds and environmental issues, Monsanto has had to deal with concerns about organizational conduct. Organisations face significant risks from strategies and also from employees and also from employees striving for high performance standards. Such pressure sometimes encourages employees to engage in illegal or unethical conduct. All firms have these concerns, and in the case of Monsanto bribes and patents have resulted in leg al, ethical and reputational consequences. When Hugh Grant took over the CEO of the Monsanto Company in 2003, scandals and stakeholders uncertainty over Monsantos GM product had marked the companys reputation. The price of Monsantos stock had fallen by almost 50 percent, down to $8 a share. There was a loss of $1.7 billion the previous year. Grant knew the company was delicate; yet through a strategic focus on GM foods, the company has recovered and is now prospering. Monsanto is trying to expose itself as a socially responsible company dedicated to improving agriculture. The insights from Monsanto critics about biotech food have not yet come true, but that has not eradicated fears of stakeholder. The company used the concept of Social Responsibility and Business Ethics to create a reputation value to various stakeholders. For instance, in 1974 the Monsanto Company established the Monsanto Fund. This fund contributed $30.2 million to projects across the world between 2008 and 2009. One receipts of the Monsanto Fund was Africare, which received a $400,000 grant from Monsanto to fund a two-year food security project to study the availability of food and the access people have the food. Monsanto also supported the youth programs. Monsanto gave fifteen million dollars to Donald Dan forth Plant Science Centre to do crop research in Africa. Also, the fund helped Brazilian children to maintain good health and basic hygiene. Additionally, Monsanto support ed students who want to study agriculture. However, Monsanto Companys regulation had become financial burden to many farmers. In fact, Corporate Responsibility Magazine ranked Monsanto number 31 on its 100 Best Corporate Citizens list of 2010, a jump from number 88 the previous year. Compare the benefits of growing GM seeds for crops with the potential negative Consequences of using them. Monsanto has a sale equivalent to $10.5 billion in sales to biotechnology, specifically to its sales of genetically modified (GM) plant seeds. These seeds have revolutionized the agriculture industry. The GM seeds introduced to the United States and across the globe since 1990, many farmers stopped complaining disappointment of crops. This had helped farmers spent little expenses, but gain as triple profits. Farmers using GM seeds highly praised the existence of Monsanto Company, because with the same acre of land, they are able to double the crops. Thus, as far as the farmers are making profits, they will continue buying the GM Seeds. For this reason, there is a major concerned for consumer that the GM seeds could affect human and animals health for using it. Genetically modified (GM) crops are not without their critics. Opponents believe that influencing the gene pools of the plants could result in negative health consequences. Whereas others are worried about the health effects on beneficial insects and plants, fearing that pollinating GM plants could affect nearby insects and non-GM plants. Huge Grant was able to reduce some of the opposition by deciding to curtail the tide of criticism by focusing biotechnology on products that would not be directly placed on the dinner plate, but instead on seeds that produce goods like animal feed and corn syrup. Farmers who purchase GM seeds can now grow more crops on less land and with less left chance. GM seeds have saved farmers billions by preventing loss and increasing crop yield. Monsanto predicts higher yields in the future, possibly up to 300 bushels an acre by 2030. As agricultural productivity increases, farmers are able to produce more food feed fuel and fibre on the same amount of land, helping to ensure that agriculture can meet humanitys needs in the future, said Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant about the benefits of Monsanto technology. The revenues of the farmers in the developing countries have increased as a result of higher yield. According to statistics, the cotton yield of Indian farmers rose by 50 percent, doubling their income in one year. The income level in the Philippines has raised above the poverty line because of the insect-protected corn. At the mean time critics argue that these numbers are inflated; they say the cost of GM seed is dramatically higher than that of tradi tional seeds, and therefore they actually reduce farmers net profit. As well as GM crops being relatively new, critics maintain that the health implication of biotech food may not be known in near future. They also contend that the effective standards have not been created to determine the safety of biotech crops. Even the FDA clarified that biotech crops are safe to use, but critics doubt about the short-term period of GM seeds which unable to determine the long-term effects.   According to some studies, the Roundup herbicide, which is used in conjunction with the GM seeds Called Roundup Ready, can be harmful to animals, insects and particularly amphibians. Such studies have revealed that small concentrations of Roundup may be deadly to tadpoles, which is a major concern, as frog and toad species are rapidly disappearing around the globe. Other studies suggest that Roundup might have a detrimental effect on human cells, especially embryonic, umbilical and placental cells.The other potential negative consequences of GM seeds in general is the threat of environmental contamination. Sometimes the crops seeds are carried away to fields containing non-GM crops by wind, bees and other insects to other areas. These seeds and pollens might then mix in with the farmers crops. Organic farmers are complaining that genetically modified seeds from nearby farms have contaminated their crops. Monsanto Crops are resistance to pesticides and herbicide. That is another envir onmental problems which gives fear to the critics that continual use of the chemicals could result in super weed and super bugs, much as overuse of antibiotics in humans has resulted in drug resistance bacteria. AS early as 2003, significant numbers of Roundup resistant weeds had been found in the United States and Australia. . How should Monsanto manage the potential harm to plant and animal life from using products such as Roundup? Monsanto Co. Should change its advertising for glyphosate- based products, including Roundup, that are misleading. The advertising inaccurately portrayed Monsantos glyphosate-containing products as safe and as not causing any harmful effects to people or the environment. According to the state, the ads also implied that the risks of products such as Roundup are the same as those of the active ingredient, glyphosate, and do not take into account the possible risks associated with the products inert ingredients. According to an ecology center fact sheet, glyphosate exposure is the third most common only reported illness among California agriculture workers, and glyphosate residues can last for a year. In the first nine months of 1996, Monsantos worldwide agrochemical sales increased by 21% to US$2.48 billion, due largely to increased sales of Roundup There is a great deal of controversy surrounding Monsanto and their Roundup Ready products. Many environmentalists are concerned that Monsanto is not being responsible enough about their products. The United States Government and Monsanto are both viewed as being too careless in their regulation of genetically engineered crops. The government should Many farmers have begun to use Roundup Ready crops. A recent study suggests that farmers have becoming so reliant on Roundup as a herbicide that they may be weakening Roundups ability to control weeds. Monsanto, manufacturer of Roundup, funded the study. Few farmers consider resistance an issue until it affects them directly. Farmers are now being encouraged to use multiple herbicides. It is unclear how this will impact the use of Roundup Ready crops, as these crops are only resistant to Roundup. A recent study has found that genetically modified food is linked to organ damage in rats.   The  study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences found that genetically modified corn produced by Monsanto induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity. The company manufactured an alfalfa resistant to the Monsanto produced  Roundup  herbicide.   Bees will pollinate the genetically modified alfalfa and then cross pollinate it with organic crops adding the genetic modification to the organic alfalfa.   Organic farmers will then lose their USDA organic certifications.   Since Monsanto also has a patent on the genetic modification, the company can sue any farmer for stealing their property, and they do. Although the study only indicated that genetically modified corn was linked to organ damage, this is the first study to link genetically modified food to toxic reactions.   Further studies may indicate other genetic modified food may have an impact on human healt h.   Considering alfalfa is a main source of cattle feed and the genetic modification has a potential to spread quickly and dominate the alfalfa market, if the genetically modified alfalfa is hazardous to human health, the Supreme Court decision may be fundamental to public health.

Playdough, Paperweight, Snowball: An Analysis of the Bell Jar Essay

â€Å"I saw the years of my life spaced along a road in the form of telephone poles, threaded together by wires. I counted one, two, three †¦ nineteen poles, and then the wires dangled into space, and try as I would, I couldn’t see a single pole beyond the nineteenth.†(Plath 123) This quote fully embodies the whole mood of the book, The Bell Jar by Silvia Plath. The main character Esther is constantly at war with herself, she can’t figure out what to work towards or where her life is going. She is unable to see past the nineteenth post in her life, it’s as if her life was never supposed to move on. This mind set pushes Esther into a deep depression and drives her to attempt suicide many times. In the novel Ester Greenwood, a young aspiring writer, battles a war within herself everyday. She starts out high on life; she was one of the winners of a writing contest so she is living in New York experiencing a very affluent lifestyle. Her life is as colorful and wonderful as brand new Play Dough. Then one day she realizes she is no longer herself, she is trapped in an image that others have molded. She stops and thinks, who am I? Where am I going? What am I doing with my life? Much like that wad of Play Dough she too wore out, she was now dull, hardened, and futureless. Though it is still called Play Dough, it no longer serves the same purpose or is anything like its old self. Simply a shell of the girl she once was she no longer has her old friends, she didn’t make it into her college honors writing class, and she cant even bring herself to write anymore. Battling a civil war daily wore Esther down farther and farther until there was nothing left of her soul. For Esther the troubling question was no longer just who am I? It was a much more serious question of why am I here? Why am I alive? She has a very hard time getting through each day, â€Å"I couldn’t see the point of getting up. I had nothing to look forward to.† (Plath 117). She doesn’t know what to do with herself, she tries to learn new things, but she can’t stay focused for more than a few mere minutes. She is convinced that she will amount to nothing, that her life is going nowhere, and she will be a paperweight for the rest of her life. She is so disgusted with who she is and her life she can no longer stand to live in her own skin, she always feels as if there is something inside her that she wants to kill. â€Å"But when it came right down to it, the skin of my wrist looked so white and defenseless that I couldn’t do it. It was as if what I wanted to kill wasn’t in that skin or the thin blue pulse that jumped under my thumb, but somewhere else, deeper, more secret, and a whole lot harder to get.† (Plath 147) She attempts many times to end her life, but she always makes it out alive and well. Nobody knows what to do with her so they try some treatments, but those don’t work so she is placed in a special facility. Stuck in this asylum she goes up and down, she gains freedom but then has a relapse and it right back to square one all over again. After many hard years of wanting to die and hating herself, she finally finds people she trusts and it starts to get better. â€Å"All the heat and fear had purged itself. I felt surprisingly at peace. The bell jar hung suspended a few feet above my head. I was open to the circulating air. † (Plath 215). In this quote Esther speaks about the bell jar lifting above her, throughout the entire book it was on her, suffocating her, but finally it had lifted and she could start living again. She starts over like a rolling snowball, starting small yet gaining more trust and confidence by the second; before she realizes it she is a huge snow boulder rolling gaining speed, size, and confidence. A major theme in the novel is places of entrapment. Whether it is Esther feeling trapped within her own body, or if she is trapped in a hospital she is always under something. â€Å"The more hopeless you were, the further away they hid you.† (Plath 160). At the beginning Esther is forced into going to many events at various places whether it’s a luncheon or a fashion show. From there she goes back home which ends up being almost like solitary confinement. She is bounded in a lifestyle that is very different from her own. Her mother was constantly trying to teach her shorthand, a skill which Esther has no wish to learn. Also when at home she finds herself unable to sleep. This traps her in the world of thinking, which works against her because of where her life is. This is where her depression first starts, and it takes he life on a downward spiral. After many suicidal attempts Esther is put into a psychological hospital. She moves from hospital to hospital, but for years she is always under rule of doctors in nurses. Plath used many things to convey the feeling of suffocating under pressure throughout the book. Though Plath wrote an entire book through the eyes of a depressed young woman, she still kept the book easy to read. The book flowed well from scene to scene. It kept the reader wondering if Esther was going to break out of her depression or if she was finally going to succeed and end up ending her life. She uses complex yet easy to understand wording that a wide range of readers can comprehend. â€Å"I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy.'† (Plath 90). This quote not only shows how Plath created a novel easily read but it shows how there was hope; Esther did have the capacity to feel happiness, she was capable of living a happy life. The struggle through the book was if she was going to overcome her illness, or be consumed by it. Plath wrote an in depth story about a young woman suffering through depression. Though the topic was no happy in any way, Plath kept it light and hopeful. Keeping the reader always wondering if she was going to get better. Also, she it was so descriptive with her writing that the reader felt like he could relate with Esther. Overall, The Bell Jar is a very well written book that can be read easily. It leaves one with the feeling of hope, and believing any situation can heal. â€Å"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.† (Plath 243).

Brief history of IHG: Essay

The history of intercontinental is rooted in an unlikely industry that traces back to 1777. William Bass was the visionary of a brewery company, Bass, that was based in the UK, and had acquired a number of well-known brewery companies up until the 1960s. These additions made Bass one of the largest brewers and pub owners in the UK. It was not until 1988 that Bass decided to move into the hotel industry with its purchase of Holiday Inns International. A stroke of luck and timely business interests made this acquisition more opportune than ever envisioned. The following year legislation passed the â€Å"Beer Orders,† that limits the number of pubs major brewers can own. Consequentially, Bass limits their number of Pubs and focuses on further hotel developments. The ensuing decade significantly shapes Intercontinental as it is recognized today. In 1990 Bass buys North American Holiday Inn business and launches Holiday Inn internationally. Holiday Inn Express is developed in 1991 to serve the limited service segment and Crowne Plaza was branded in 1994 to appeal to the upscale market. Bass takes another journey in the field of hospitality in 1995 with its purchase of the Harvester restaurant chain. Late in 1996, Bass again tries to reemerge in the pub industry, but was met with unwavering barriers. Franchising becomes apart of the business outline of Bass in 1997 when it decides to sell their North American mid-scale properties to private owners flying under the same Bass branded flags. 1998 brought forth the most noteworthy change in Bass’s purchase of the InterContinental hotels. This was the first addition that brought a Bass brand to an upper-scale market. In 2000 it sells Bass Brewers and changes the company’s name to 6Continents and in 2001 acquires the European Posthouse Chain. It later purchases InterContinental Hong Kong and with these acquisitions 6contienets develops a strong hold on the Asian Pacific travel market. In 2002 the company divides into two separate entities, one for hotels and the other for soft drinks. On April 15, 2003 the name of the hotel sector is officially changed to the InterContinental Hotels Group. In 2004 the addition of Hotel Indigo is made and Staybridge Suites UK launches in 2005. 2006 was another year for IHG’s Global expansion to Asia with its joint venture with All Nippon Airways, which is the largest hotel operator in Japan.

E Commerce Business On The Internet - 1520 Words

Katrena Smith Dan Curtin Principals of E-Commerce 2 May 2015 Final Project Regular retail stores are almost becoming obsolete today because so many customers are shopping online. Stores that have been apart of our lives for years shutting down operations, some for good and others are only conducting business on the internet. Whatever the case may be more and more people are turning to the internet to fulfill their needs. E-commerce is a multi-billion dollar industry now, when at first some thought it would fade away like most technology when it first started. Consumers are not the only people who do business online either. Big companies use the internet to do business with other companies; this is called business-to-business transactions†¦show more content†¦This site does not use many ways to reach their target audience. The only way that I know of is that they occasionally send out catalogs to potential customers. If you do not know about this company previously you might not even look them up at all. But the catalogs do reach the a udience they are trying to attract and that is an older age group. When I visited the site there was one an advertisement for some cookware at the top of the page with an offer for credit where you could pay so much money a month on a purchase with their credit card. The site had lots of information about several products and it was very easy to use. Across the top of the page there were a few tabs that were categorized for different areas of your home like bed bed, furniture, home store, electronics, health beauty, outdoor, gift toys, jeweler, women, men and sales. There was also a tab that helps you apply for their credit cards. When you click on one of these tabs they have tons of items you can buy. 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