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Monsanto: The World's Largest Seed Company

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Monsanto: The World's Largest Seed Company
Being the world’s largest seed company comes with great challenges, in which, Monsanto sought patenting to ensure profits annually. Having an image of being known for its expertise in Biotechnology, Monsanto has reformed the agriculture industry (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014, p. 341).
Patents signify ownership or invention of one’s property or product, and allows other to use the product. With seed companies, patents have given them significant power, which is hurting farmers (Peck, 2005, p.37). Monsanto is well recognized for Monsanto’s method in which it ensures that farmers abide by the patent law, seeming is done in a threatening and unpleasant manner. The terms of the patent do not allow farmers to harvest seeds from the plant for the upcoming seasons (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014, p.345). The “seed police” as farmers call them, are hired investigators, employed by Monsanto, that go out and pull crops that Monsanto suspects have violated the patent law (Pollack, 2013, p. B1). This reputation stems from farmers having to sign an agreement stating that they will purchase new seed each year, and after reviewing records, they can easily identify those who failed to honor the agreement. The “seed police” visit farms and physically take samples, by removing crop samples …show more content…
With a 70 to 100 percent market share on certain crops, Monsanto can stand to lower costs to ensure that farmers, no matter large or small, can benefit from the product. In lowering prices, if Monsanto does it in an effort to allow poor farmers access to their products, they should ensure that they are knowledgeable of the patent laws. If not, the company could soon have a reputation of manipulating this group of
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