Monsanto's Synthetic Hormone: Posilac

Monsanto’s started to use the synthetic hormone, Posilac

I used these stakeholders because they were directly affected by Monsanto’s use of Posilac. It helps cows produce more milk but may cause health problems that affect other stakeholders.

=secondary stakeholders =primary stakeholders

Questions about your application of the Stakeholder Model of Organizational Decision-Making to the Monsanto case:

1. Why did you decide on the decision that you did for Part [2]? (Write a couple of sentences offering your reasons.)
I decided on the decision about Monsanto’s use of Posilac, because it seemed to affect many people and caused many problems. It helped farmers but put other stakeholders in fear.

2. Explain why you chose the criterion you decided to use for stakeholder inclusion/exclusion and how you distinguished between
primary and secondary stakeholders. (Write a short paragraph of explanation in response to this question.)
I chose the criterion for my stakeholder inclusion/exclusion by determining how each decision affected each stakeholder. It seemed to me that the farmers were the only ones who liked their decision. Every other stakeholder refused the idea which caused much turmoil. I distinguished between primary and secondary by finding out which stakeholders were actually a part of the decision and how it affected Monsanto in the long run.

3. Write about two paragraphs evaluating Monsanto’s decision in terms of the consideration of the stakeholders that you included in your map.
When Monsanto made the decision to use the synthetic hormone Posilac it was under heavy scrutiny.
The drug contained the recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBST) that causes cows to produce more milk. A problem that helped many farmers but put every other stakeholder in fear. The reason it put people in fear is because the hormone may cause health issues with humans that drink the milk and in the cows it is given to. Although the FDA did tests and found that it is just as safe as drinking milk from cows without the hormone stakeholders were still in fear. The more critics, customers, media, and special interests groups questioned the use of the hormone the more suppliers started to take milk with the hormone of their shelves. Doing so didn’t deter Monsanto at all. Monsanto proceeded by bringing the issue to the government because they thought that claims against them were misleading. The government was mostly in their favor and Monsanto ended up with an FDA claim on all rBST-free milk stating there’s no significant difference between rBST-free milk and milk with the
hormone.