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The Ethical Solution

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This ongoing case represents perhaps the largest agricultural controversy in the U.S. ever. Despite the substantial evidence that strongly supports Roundup’s cause of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases, Monsanto still denies the relationship between the product and its damage to public health. Monsanto claims that Roundup has not been a cause for cancer and that adding a cancer warning label on their product is unnecessary. They have offered a class action settlement of $7.25 billion dollars to settle the thousands of current lawsuits against them, as well as future lawsuits over the course of the next 21 years (Bayer). This is less of a resolution and more of an out for Monsanto. So, what else can the company do? A perfect solution would be to have Monsanto remove glyphosate from their products to ensure future safety of people. However, this would not be possible and would likely lead to the company failing as a whole. Monsanto created a system where their seeds are purchased because of thei...
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Public Response

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What are other people saying about this issue? Recently there have been several new articles and reports on this situation from various sources. Many articles remain very fact based, providing minimal personal insight on the subject.  The Reuters International News Agency released a broadcast reported by Diana Jones, discussing the Monsanto settlement on February 17, 2026. This broadcast provides a very clear summary of the controversy, directly stating facts about the case, and does not hint towards having an opinion about the case at all. This was the case among several other broadcasts I reviewed from various news networks. The broadcast mentioned key points such as the $7.25 billion dollar settlement and the 65,000 plaintiffs. The report also mentioned a 7.7% rise in stocks for Bayer-Monsanto as a result of the case. It was also reported that the company had resolved other Roundup cases confidentially. Overall, it appears that broadcast reports, such as this one from Reuters, m...
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Monsanto's Response

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      So what is Monsanto’s response to these accusations? What do they have to say about their harm to public health? Monsanto has made their stance clear. Consistently throughout several cases, Monsanto has appealed to lawsuits, claiming that their product is safe. Their attorneys have argued that there is “no evidence that Roundup causes cancer” and Monsanto’s vice president in 2018 claimed that glyphosate is actually safe (CBS). It is stated on Bayer’s website that “Monsanto is taking the Roundup™-related actions solely to contain the litigation, and the settlement agreements do not contain any admission of liability or wrongdoing” (Bayer). This means that to this day, despite all of the evidence and the people affected by the company’s negligence, Monsanto still denies that their product is harmful or can cause cancer. The reason for the recently developing $7.25 billion dollar lawsuit is not because Monsanto feels bad for likely causing cancer and several other...
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The Ethical Dilemma

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          Throughout Monsanto’s time as a company, they have been the cause of several ethical issues, many of which have had negative effects on the environment and the health of the public. A big subject when discussing Monsanto is their frequency of polluting the environment. For example, from the years 1929 to 1971, Monsanto had been dumping toxic waste into the local waterways in Anniston, Alabama. They also buried contaminated soil which polluted Snow Creek, Choccolocco Creek (FarmstandApp).              Monsanto had also been one of the major suppliers of Agent Orange for the U.S. during the Vietnam War. This chemical agent caused detrimental health effects such as cancer, heart disease, and birth defects, on U.S. veterans and Vietnamese citizens, this also destroyed extensive amounts of farmland in Vietnam which has still not recovered to this day.                Ho...
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About Monsanto

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                 The Monsanto Chemical Works was founded in 1901 by John F. Queeny. Queeny was a purchasing agent for a drug company that manufactured saccharin, an artificial sweetener, which was at the time only produced in Germany. The company was headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and by 1902 the firm was capable of producing saccharin at a large scale, eventually adding vanillin and caffeine to its product range. A major customer of Monsanto was the Coca-Cola Company, this allowed sales to reach $1 million by 1915 (Britannica).                Queeny passed the company on to his son, Edgar M. Queeny in 1928 who eventually retired in 1960. During his time in control of the company, Edgar Queeny had expanded the company extensively. The company was renamed in 1933, becoming the Monsanto Chemical Company. Production expanded over this period, a major product added to the portfolio was styr...
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