Roundup and War I Monsanto
Business 307
Professor Cunningham
April 5, 2013
Monsanto Case
For our case presentation I was given the case dealing with Monsanto attemping to balance stakeholder interests. This case was rather interesting to me because for starters I had no idea about what Monsanto does or even who they really were. I learned a lot about the organization from reading through this case. At the beginning of this case it breifly explains when Monsanto was founded which was in 1901 by John F. Queeny in St. Louis, Missouri. He grew this company to be one of the world's largest seed companies today. They first started out producing artificial sweeteners called saccharine, which was sold to Coca-Cola back when Monsanto was still becoming big. Monsanto also sold caffeine extract and vanillin, which was an artificial vanilla flavoring that Coca-Cola also bought from them. During World War I Monsanto saw an opportunity to grow into the chemical industry and started specializing in plastics, its own agricultural chemicals, and synthetic rubbers. A few years later, Monsanto created its first ever Roundup herbicide that would later take the company to the top. Although Monsanto has found a way to keep crops from becoming eaten or killed from insects by their Roundup herbicide, it has also become a huge consumer issue. With Monsanto genetically modifying seeds to insure they grow quicker and healthier than standard crops, people are starting to wonder whether or not these seeds are bad for our environment or even the people and animals consuming them. Monsanto has had a lot of lawsuits against them consisting of one from Dupont, which is another leader in the seed distribution industry. The alligation was brought up from the American Antitrust Institute for alleged anticompetitve activities. The instution had argued that Monsanto was hindering competition due to the patent on their seeds and limiting seed inovation. This is just one of the lawsuits or problems that Monsanto has
Professor Cunningham
April 5, 2013
Monsanto Case
For our case presentation I was given the case dealing with Monsanto attemping to balance stakeholder interests. This case was rather interesting to me because for starters I had no idea about what Monsanto does or even who they really were. I learned a lot about the organization from reading through this case. At the beginning of this case it breifly explains when Monsanto was founded which was in 1901 by John F. Queeny in St. Louis, Missouri. He grew this company to be one of the world's largest seed companies today. They first started out producing artificial sweeteners called saccharine, which was sold to Coca-Cola back when Monsanto was still becoming big. Monsanto also sold caffeine extract and vanillin, which was an artificial vanilla flavoring that Coca-Cola also bought from them. During World War I Monsanto saw an opportunity to grow into the chemical industry and started specializing in plastics, its own agricultural chemicals, and synthetic rubbers. A few years later, Monsanto created its first ever Roundup herbicide that would later take the company to the top. Although Monsanto has found a way to keep crops from becoming eaten or killed from insects by their Roundup herbicide, it has also become a huge consumer issue. With Monsanto genetically modifying seeds to insure they grow quicker and healthier than standard crops, people are starting to wonder whether or not these seeds are bad for our environment or even the people and animals consuming them. Monsanto has had a lot of lawsuits against them consisting of one from Dupont, which is another leader in the seed distribution industry. The alligation was brought up from the American Antitrust Institute for alleged anticompetitve activities. The instution had argued that Monsanto was hindering competition due to the patent on their seeds and limiting seed inovation. This is just one of the lawsuits or problems that Monsanto has