Open Letter
Dear Monsanto Food Corporation,
There
is no easy way to say this Monsanto, but I think that you are evil. Pure evil
actually. The way that you run your agrochemical, agricultural biotechnology
corporation is wrong. I am a consumer of food like every single human being
living on the planet, because if you forgot, food is actually something that we
need live and stay alive. I'm not sure if you have forgotten this simple fact,
you never were taught this concept, or if you really just don't care. The
reason I bring this up is that you definitely
do not run your food business in a way that shows that you are grasping
the gravity of what you are claiming to have "control" over. Your
genetically modified organisms, and your excessive use of pesticides actually
do have an incredibly negative side affect that you are willfully ignoring.
Come on, there is no way that you are that oblivious.
I'm
writing to you in the first place to not only tell you how much I hate your
guts, but why I hate your guts, and to explain to you just how wrong you are
going about doing things. Someone needs to. You seem to be completely oblivious
of your actions and their consequences, and frankly, it's disgusting how little
you care.
Here's
the lowdown Monsanto; you are messing with things that ethically should not be
messed with. Do you remember what I was saying about the human race? The fact
that everybody alive needs to eat to live, and that they have the right to do
so? Yeah, food is kind of an essential thing to life. The fact that you are
taking this food, these seeds and these products and genetically modifying them
for your own selfish gain isn't right. You own 282 million acres of farmland in
the U.S., which act as you selfish empire of 1,676 seeds and other types of
genetically modified organisms, GMO's that you own the patent for (Organic
Consumers Association). This monopoly that you are creating has some grim
consequences if you continue running your business in the way that you
currently are.
Answer
this question for me: What's going to happen when all of the original seed,
plant, and animal organisms are completely wiped out by your patented and
modified seeds and organisms? You have the ability to do your ethical part and make
your products affordable to everyone, so that no one goes hungry. My guess is
that this won't be the case. You won't be the hero of the day by lowering your
prices on these GMO's and the foods that they go into, the only food that will
be available in this scenario (Karlin Hauter). No, I know that you are just
waiting for that day to come, and as soon as it does, bam, your GMO seeds and
food products will skyrocket in price. You will have what people need, but they
can only have it if they pay the right price. You need to stop before you take
this too far. You have more control than anyone should in regards to such an
ethical dilemma.
I
want to address for just a moment your complete and utter obsession with
Round-Up weed killer. I honestly think that if you could, you would marry that
stuff. It's really sad. What's more sad about your obsession is the affects
that it has on far more than just your ability to grow more crops without the
weeds getting in your way. By genetically modifying your seeds to be
resistant to this pesticide, farmers are
able to spray as much Round-Up as they please. They can spray acres and acres
of this poison all over their crops and be completely content with doing so. I
can't picture exactly what you will be saying out loud right now; "What's
wrong with that? Our crops are able to grow more than our competitors because
we have solved the weed problem!" This is where I am honestly surprised at
how obtuse you are about any type of issue that you cause. I can think of three
major problems that this excess Round-Up causes. How can you not see these?
Over
spray of crops does go elsewhere Monsanto. It doesn't just stop at the crops
while they are in the fields. Take a second to think about how much of that
poisonous residue is coated on your agricultural products that leave the
fields, and are now being sold in grocery stores to be purchased and then eaten.
Now think about what happens to the excess spray that either drips off of the
crops, or is sprayed directly onto the soil. That poison sinks down through the
soil and is then carried away by the water in the ground, and the irrigation
systems that are set up around these farming fields.
You
are literally putting poison into the water system like a traditional super
villain from a comic book. Want some proof? Our good friends from the USGS
(U.S. Geological Survey) took some samples from a few different water ways in a
38 states and found Glyphosate, Round-Up's main chemical ingredient in all
samples of water. 70% of rain samples they took during their study contained
this chemical as well. Those aren't small numbers, how can you not acknowledge
that?
I
guess that there is only one backlash of your evil doings that has the
potential to upset you at least a little bit. You know those weeds you are
working oh so hard to keep from your selfishly used crop yields? Yeah, here's
the thing... they are beginning to gain a resistance to the pesticides used to
kill them. Pretty soon, your loved Round-Up probably won't even work and you
are going to be faced with a problem that you finally won't be able to ignore.
Not
only are you causing the extinction of organisms, but you are also causing all
consumers to suffer from the wrath of your love affair with Round-up.
Monsanto,
you're a jerk.
Sincerely,
Disgusted
Reflection
I feel
like I have learned a lot more this semester in English 2010 then I have in my
past English classes, and they definitely have helped me improve as a writer.
I'm not just saying this because this is an assignment and I'm trying to write
exactly what my professor is looking for. I honestly and truly learned a lot of
valuable skills this semester through my writing assignments. Some bigger
things like how to correctly format and write a works cited page and how
important good in depth research and sources are to being able to write an
effective persuasive piece. Some smaller things, like the importance of
creating a proper rough draft to work from and make revisions to, as well as
taking the time given to write assignments to actually write and not wait until
the last minute.
The works
cited activities and lessons we had in class helped immensely in my
understanding of how to make sure you are citing things correctly and not just
trusting an online citation generator to do a perfect job. I was surprised at
how much was left out when I would rely on the online generator to do the whole
thing for me. It was also helpful to not only learn the correct formatting, but
to also learn why you arrange things in certain orders for different types of
citations like MLA and APA.
From
the very first assignment to the very last assignment, I feel like I gained a
greater understanding of the importance of finding good reliable sources for
research. My first assignment, I feel like I ran out of things to talk about,
as well as that my information really didn't come together very well as a
whole. As I did each project, I found out how to weed out different sources and
really stick to ones that I could work with and that really had information
that pertained to my subject. For my "look back affect" project I
decided to revise my very first assignment, the open letter, so I could rewrite
it with the knowledge that I have now regarding sources and reliable useful
information. It made it a lot easier to revise, and I even ended up taking out
a whole paragraph and replacing it with new information from sources that I
found when doing my information project.
Doing
this look back project gave me the opportunity to learn for myself just how
important creating a proper rough draft to revise and analyze is. Throughout
the semester, my rough drafts were quite rough looking, and resembled more of a
bulleted list or outline of what my plan would be. It took a lot more effort to
work from that than to just type up a rough draft to fix, but I didn't really
understand until I revised my open letter for this look back project. I took
the time to work from a hard copy of my original assignment, and made markings
with pen areas that needed to be clarified, and even wrote out an entire new
paragraph to replace the one that didn't fit well with the original. It also
made a huge difference working on the revisions in my spare time at work, and
not waiting until the last day to get it all figured out. It not only helped my
assignment turn out nicely, but I also didn't have the stress that I usually
have when I have to work with a very minimal amount of time to do a lot of
work.
I would
have to say that my biggest accomplishment during this class was that I wasn't
afraid to get feedback from people and put it towards my work without being
offended or scared. I have always hated peer reviews. Always. I didn't look at
them with the right mindset, and I took it as a personal attack on my work
instead of as constructive feedback like I should have. I made it a goal at the
beginning of the semester to really try to change my attitude about the whole
feedback thing. At first it was super hard. I was really proud of my first
draft of my open letter until I read it out loud and didn't feel like I got any
positive feedback whatsoever. I thought to myself that this goal of mine was
going to be a lot more difficult than just making up my mind to feel
differently about feedback in general.
I made
a plan to give feedback in a way that I would want to get feedback myself if it
was intended to be given constructively. So during peer reviews I really
focused on the giving aspect. I then took that feedback from the open letter
and really tried to utilize on my information project which came next. I didn't
have the right perspective on the whole thing. Instead of trying to just
improve a little bit, I almost felt like I was working to make the next
assignment cover all of the areas that I was told I was lacking in the first
project, and that I was trying to prove people wrong. That wasn't the best
approach, and I learned that afterwards. I finally figured out by the third
project that it was about taking this feedback and just trying to do your best,
and that it was a learning process, not something that happens overnight, or
even on the very next assignment.
Working
on the look back project gave me the chance to really apply all of these
things, and finally use the very first peer feedback in a positive way on my
revision. I came out a lot more patient with my work, as well as gained a
better perspective on taking my time to write a higher quality paper instead of
just bashing it out last minute.
Works Cited:
Dill, Gerry, Ph.D.
"OK, Here Is a Real Question: What Percentage of American Farmland Is Actually Owned by Monsanto?". GMO
Answers. n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. https://gmoanswers.com/ask/ok-here-real-question-what-percentage-american- farmland-actually-owned-monsanto-opposed-land
Forbes. "Monsanto on Forbes Global 200
List." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, May 2016. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
Grossman, Elizabeth.
"What Do We Really Know About Roundup Weed Killer?" National Geographic. National Geographic Society,
23 Apr. 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150422-glyphosate-roundup- herbicide- weeds/
Karlin, Mark, and Wenonah Hauter. "Our Food Is
Being Hijacked by Monopolizing Corporations."
Truthout. N.p., 27 Feb. 2013. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
Kucinich, Elizabeth. "Monsanto: The Enemy Of
Family Farmers." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 Feb. 2014. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
Monsanto. "Who Is
Monsanto | Discover Monsanto." Discover Monsanto. Monsanto, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. http://discover.monsanto.com/
Organic Consumers
Association. "U.S. and Monsanto Dominate Global Market for GM Seeds." Organic Consumers Association, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. https://www.organicconsumers.org/essays/us-and-monsanto-dominate-global- market- gm-seeds
