Have you ever wondered what exactly it is that you’re eating? Well, unfortunately, you wouldn’t be very happy if you knew. The major agrochemical and agricultural corporation, Monsanto, decides all that. From the fruits and vegetables that you eat, to breakfast cereals and cattle, they decide what you are actually consuming. They genetically modify these foods in ways that, according to a peer survey, said they wouldn’t exactly be ecstatic about. In the US they also have a certain political power and no matter what the people think of them, they are not held accountable. They’re allowed to poison food; as a result this company is banned in other countries and spoken against. Monsanto is an evil corporation because they feed us foods and pesticides that are dangerous for us and have been outlawed in other countries, and they ruin farmers without receiving any consequences.

For starters, Monsanto genetically modified food by adding pesticides in the food’s genetic makeup. They do this to practically all fruits or vegetables. From apples to oranges, from celery to eggplant, they put pesticides in the genetic makeup of the food. You can’t simply wash an apple and have confidence that you’re not consuming any chemicals because you’re eating pesticides that are actually inside the DNA of the food. You’re practically forced to eat these pesticides in every food. According to the Huffpost article, “Pesticide Use Proliferating with GMO Crops, Study Warns,” it states, “Many agricultural pesticides, involving Roundup, don’t limit their harm to the target insects and weeds. Research has pointed to health risks for animals, beneficial insects, and people exposed to pesticides via air, water, and food. More chemicals, experts warn, mean more hazards.” The chemicals that are put in foods and weeds travel, not only through food, but through air and water. Our air and drinking water supply is polluted by these chemicals. They cause illnesses and health hazards in not only people, but also animals and cattle. Some of the illnesses that can be developed from these pesticides are diseases including visceral anomalies such as dilation of the heart, developmental malformations, deformities, endocrine disruptions, the death in umbilical, embryonic, and placental cells, and cancer.

Another one of Monsanto’s wrong-doings with their crops is that they take millions of small, family owned farms’ crops and claim them as their own. They can do this by examining the crops of these farmers, and if their crops happen to breed with the genetically modified crops that Monsanto made, then they have ownership over these crops. This is enormously unfair because these farmers don’t decide to crossbreed their crops. Monsanto’s crops just naturally pollinate through the air as plants normally do, the seeds flying with the wind and coincidentally landing on these farmers crops. Most farmers don’t even want anything to do with these crops because they know all of the horrible atrocities done to GMO seeds. Monsanto is putting millions of these small farmers out of business by doing this. Farmers that have been doing this for decades, even centuries with their family, are going bankrupt because of this company’s greed. Hundreds of American farmers are going bankrupt, and according to “The Daily Mail” 100,000s of Indian farmers have committed suicide by drinking Monsanto’s pesticides after a massive GMO crop failure bankrupted them. Monsanto has sued over 400 farmers and over 55 small farm business for alleged seed plant violation, and the number is growing. Over 4,500 farmers can’t even afford legal representation to defend themselves. “As early as 2003, Monsanto had a department of 75 employees with a budget of $10 million for the sole purpose of pursuing farmers for patent infringement,” The Center for Food Safety stated in a report called, “Seed Giant vs US Farmers.” “Agrochemical companies earn billions of dollars each year, and farmers cannot possibly compete against such resources.” Millions of farmers are being forced out of business and have no choice but to let companies like Monsanto win.

Monsanto also practically has diplomatic immunity! The “Monsanto Protection Act” passed in the US prevents any court action or intervention to Monsanto, even if health risks occur. The people are heavily criticizing Barack Obama and the US Congress, who they say failed to scrutinize the language of the bill which was reportedly opaque. When Monsanto was asked to send a representative to join the program, they declined. The people are trying to at least force companies to label their products if they have any genetic modification in order for people to know when they are eating these foods. However, these companies aren’t having it. According to the Al Jazeera article “As Oregon voters weigh GMO initiative, ‘Big Foods’ puts thumb on scale,” by Anna Lekas Miller, it states, “Last week, Measure 92, the mandatory GMO labeling initiative in Oregon, became the costliest ballot measure in state history when Coca Cola donated $468,000 to the opposition campaign. Including the largest donor, agrochemical behemoth Monsanto in flooding the airwaves with $11.1 million worth of attack ads leading up to the election.” This also includes companies such as Kraft Foods and PepsiCo. These companies would spend millions to not have to label their products GMO. The same article also states, “The opposition side (Big Food corporations) claims that labeling will confuse the consumer, and unnecessarily raise costs. [...] particularly after a recent study found that Measure 92 will only cost consumers an extra $2.30 per year.” Labeling food products in this way would only cost the buyers an extra $2.30 per year, which is $0.006 cents per day. Less than a pennie! Yet they claim that it would be “too costly.” Not only that, but these companies have spent thousands, millions of dollars on preventing the law from labeling their products, while at the same time claiming it would cost too much.

In conclusion, Monsanto is an evil company, and is not to be trusted because they ruin foods by putting pesticides in the genetic makeup, endanger all of our health, take millions of farmers’ crops and put them out of business, cannot be beaten in the courts, the courts can’t intervene in their activities, and they refuse to label their products with GMO. There’s probably numerous amounts of hideous abominations that they are doing that we obviously know nothing of and that they are hiding. They have a corrupt system in place and are ruining people’s lives. This injustice needs to be protested and fought against, and a boycott is necessary to put them out of business. A boycott would prevent the corporation from making any more business and causing any more harm. First we must force them to let us know which products have these poisons in them. After, we must strictly not purchase or consume these products, not only for our personal benefit, but for those who are having their lives ruined by these actions. People must take it into their own hands to know what we’re all eating, to control what we are eating, and to make sure that we aren’t letting this continue.