1. PRECURSOR TO HELTHWYZER AND
ORGANINC?
Presented by: Livier Clark, Leann Lyons, Katie Turner, and Franklin Zafires

2. Who or what is ?
 Monsanto was founded in 1901 by John Francis Queeny
as a chemical company that would produce the chemical
sweetener saccharin.
 Over the years Monsanto began to produce other
products like vanilla, and eventually moved on to focus
on biotechnology. Today Monsanto states they are a new
company that only shares the name of the old company.
 In the 1980’s they were the first company to make the
first genetically modified plant cell.

3. What are GMOs?
 GMOs are genetically modified organisms. A
genetically engineered animal is one that contains a
recombinant DNA construct producing a new
trait. Through genetic engineering, organisms are
given new combinations of genes and therefore new
combinations of traits that do not occur in nature
and, indeed, cannot be developed by natural means.
Such an artificial technology is radically different
from traditional plant and animal breeding.

4. Patenting Life
 In 1980 the Supreme Court ruled that modified life
could be patented, and thus Monsanto patented their
Roundup ready seeds – seeds that were resistant to
their weed killer called Roundup. This includes
alfalfa, corn, soybeans, and sugarbeets.
 In Oryx and Crake, just as in our current world,
GMOs can be patented. Examples of these are the
ChickieNobs patented by the students at Watson-
Crick, NooSkins at HelthWyzer, and the pigoons at
OrganInc. Even Crake’s BlyssPluss.

5. Protecting GMOs – Monsanto’s Contracts
 Monsanto has come under a lot of criticism due to
their practices of protecting their patents.
 Before buying and using GM products from
Monsanto farmers must sign an agreement that gives
Monsanto permission to freely examine and test
their crops, and access to all records and receipts the
farmers have.

6. Protecting GMOs – Monsanto Contracts
 Within the contracts that Monsanto has are
stipulations that farmers can not save seeds for the
next season, thus farmers must buy new seed every
season.
 Some farmer’s are unaware of this restriction or do
not agree with it, and thus run into trouble with
Monsanto.

7. Protecting Genetically Modified Products in Oryx
and Crake
 In Oryx and Crake there aren’t contracts, but
physical barriers are put in place to try to protect
GMOs.
 The pigoons are kept in special buildings with high
security to prevent theft, and the ChickNobs at
Watson-Crick are also kept in a secured facility until
the students are able to patent the product and work
out deals with companies.

8. Monsanto’s Investigation Team
 Monsanto has a sizeable amount of hired investigators
that they employee to catch patent infringement. These
investigators are known to scout out farms, pretend to be
surveyors, videotape and photograph farmers, and even
impersonate others to obtain private information that
will support claims of patent infringement.
 Some farmers, and even non-farmers, have had
Monsanto investigators confront them and use scare
tactics and threats to get them to sign contracts that
would give Monsanto permission to check crops and
records.

9. Monsanto’s Investigation Team
 Monsanto’s investigators go after anyone who is
anti-Monsanto. Should someone speak out against
Monsanto, they are put onto a blacklist that prevents
them from doing business with Monsanto, and due
to paranoia, Monsanto watches them like a hawk
waiting for evidence that they are trying to use
Monsanto products without signing an agreement.

10. The CorpSeCorps
 Monsanto’s investigators can be compared to the
CorpSeCorps from Oryx and Crake. The
CorpSeCorps investigate anyone anti-government,
particularly anyone that gets in the way of the
powerful compounds. When it turns out Jimmy’s
mother has gathered information and run off with it,
they show up and make repeated appearances
through Jimmy’s life. They place him in a room with
just them, and try to intimidate and coax him into
saying things. They continue to be a routine part of
his life up until the chapter Gripless when Jimmy’s
mother is killed.

11. Monsanto’s Power
 Monsanto is one of most powerful companies in the
United States, and in the world. They have people linked
to them, either as past employee or clients, in powerful
position of law making and regulation. If they can shut
down a farmer or critic that doesn’t agree with them,
then they will. If they can sway the law and important
decisions in their favor, then they will.
 Monsanto has billions of dollars, which they use to
influence foreign countries into approving GMOs,
particularly Roundup ready GMOs. However, the use of
high-yield GMOs in America and other Western
countries is upsetting global trade, and is linked to an
increase in farmer suicides.

12. Monsanto’s Power
 Using their billions of dollars Monsanto can easily
take farmer’s to court, but most of the farmer’s they
target do not have the money to fight Monsanto, so
they instead accept Monsanto’s unsupported
accusations and pay patent infringement penalties
rather than attorney and court fee defending their
name and integrity.
 Monsanto uses this difference of wealth to their
advantage.

13. The Power of the Compounds
 In Oryx and Crake the rich and well off live in the
Compounds, while everyone else and the poor live in the
Pleeblands. The companies and people within the
compound produce products, which they then sell to the
people in the Pleeblands. It’s all about profit, and it
doesn’t really matter if people are worse off with what is
being sold to them.
 Their power is also demonstrated due to their implied
use of the CorpSeCorps to shut down anyone that speaks
out against them or may speak out against them.

14. The future?
 Oryx and Crake is implied to be our future if changes
aren’t made, and if that’s the case, then it’s possible
the Monsanto and other such companies are
precursors to HelthWyzer, OrganiInc, etc.

15. Why should we care?
 We should care, because we all can agree that the world of Oryx and
Crake is not exactly one we want to live in.
 Companies should be allowed to protect what is theirs, but we need
to draw the line someone, and we have the chance to do that now
with Monsanto, who uses money and fear mongering to get their
way, even if it does more harm than good.
 Monsanto does not have to label its genetically modified foods, the
consuming public have no complete knowledge of how dangerous
the foods they are eating. I could relate Monsanto to the novel's
HappiCuppa bean growers. Coffee beans modified to ripen
simultaneously thus maximizing profits for large corporations and
driving the smaller business owners to poverty. Monsanto does not
care about human plight, it cares only about revenue.

16. Annotated Bibliography
 Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. New York: Anchor Books,
2004. Print. Atwood's novel is set in a dystopic world that
could parallel our own. The main character is
Jimmy/Snowman, who struggles to survive after his friend
Crake has essentially destroyed humanity through a
genetically modified virus that was released globally. His
job is to look after Crake's GM humans, deemed Crakers, now
that everyone else his dead. As he does this Atwood reveals the
world as it was before the event through Jimmy's/Snowman's
memories. The well off and rich lived in compound separate
from the poor and "wild" people in the Pleeblands. Within the
compounds, and to some degree in the Pleeblands, people
works on creating new genetically engineered products and
organisms that could do whatever need they needed filled.
Great lengths were taken to protect these GMOs, as they could
bring about great wealth, power, and prosperity.

17. Annotated Bibliography
 Bartlett, Donald L., and James B. Steele. "Monsanto's Harvest of Fear." Vanity Fair May 2008:
156. Web. 18 April, 2013. Barlett and Steele begin with a story about a man named Gary
Rinehart, a small shop owner in a small town. One day one of Monsanto's hired "seed police"
loudly confronted him in his store, claiming to have proof he has illegally planted Monsanto's
patented seed, but Rinehart was not even a farmer. They took him to court, but later found out
their investigator got the wrong guy. Rinehart was never issued an apology and no offer to
cover his attorney's fees. The authors go on to state that Monsanto uses their investigators in
the farm land to bully and scare the farmers and people into signing away their privacy, and
that the investigators will scout out farm, videotape an photograph farmers, and pretend to be
people they aren't in order to infiltrate into private meetings. Should anyone refuse to submit
to Monsanto, Monsanto will send their investigators in a campaign to pressure farmers and
destroy reputations. Monsanto's power come from its Roundup resistant seed. Roundup is
weed killer that is sprayed on crops. Monsanto was able to patent the seed in 1980, and has
since then lead extreme campaigns protect their patent. Part of the agreement to using
Monsanto's seed is that you can't save it for future planting, but many farmers are unaware of
this or find throwing away good seed as wasteful, and thus run into trouble. Due to natural
conditions and animals Monsanto's seed can easily contaminate other crops and seeds, but to
a farmer without a lab there is no way to tell them apart, and thus Monsanto uses this to their
advantage to go after farmers. Innocent farmer's attacked by Monsanto often chose to pay
penalty fees over fighting Monsanto in court, because they cannot afford it. Monsanto is a
chemical company leading in the field of bioengineering. Monsanto was founded by John
Francis Queeny in 1901 to produce the chemical sweetener saccharin. Monsanto was the first
company to make a genetically modified plant cell. Over the years Monsanto has repeatedly
dismissed concerns over the safety of the chemicals they produce, and uses their power to shut
critics down.

18. Annotated Bibliography
 "Company History." Monsanto. Monsanto Company,
n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2013. Monsanto was founded
in 1901, but presently Monsanto views
themselves as a company that is different from
where they originally started. In 2011 the
company acquired a corn breeding facility, and
received USDA permission to plant their GMO
alfalfa and sugarbeets. Also in 2011 they
obtained a lab for developing biotechnology to
control agricultural pests like nematodes, and
set up a grant program in St. Louis.

19. Annotated Bibliography
 Cox, Stan. Sick Planet: Corporate Food and Medicine. London: Pluto
Press, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 14 April, 2013.
Pages 74-75, Cox states that Monsanto is a forerunner in the GMO
industry, protected by a 1980 Supreme court ruling that allowed
GMOs to be patented. This ruling was later expanded in 2001 to
guarantee protection to parts of GMO, such as seed. Monsanto has
many patented crops, such as soybeans and corn, which they sell to
farmers, but in order to buy this seed farmer's much agree to a
"Technology/Stewardship Agreement" which outlines what they may
and may not do with the seed, and give's Monsanto various
permissions, such as permission to inspect the crops, records, and
receipts. In order to prepare for the next season farmer's normally set
aside seed, but Monsanto's agreement prohibits farmer's from doing
this, so they must buy new seed every season. Monsanto apparently
has an entire force of investigators and billions of dollars set aside
just to catch anyone that infringes on the agreements made.
According to Cox, Monsanto has taken 147 farmers to court in 2005.
Monsanto even has a tip line, and encourages farmers to turn each
other in should they suspect another farmer of patent infringement.

20. Annotated Bibliography
 Hodge, Russ. Genetic Engineering : Manipulating The Mechanisms Of
Life. n.p.: Facts On File, 2009.eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web.
18 Apr. 2013. Scientists are learning how to manipulate the genes of
plants and animals and changing existing organisms and creating
new ones. Genetic engineering is a process in which recombinant
DNA technology is used to introduce desirable traits into organisms.
A genetically engineered animal is one that contains a recombinant
DNA construct producing a new trait. While conventional breeding
methods have long been used to produce more desirable traits in
animals, genetic engineering is a much more targeted and powerful
method of introducing desirable traits into animals. The techniques
involve highly sophisticated manipulations of genetic material and
other biologically important chemicals. Through genetic engineering,
organisms are given new combinations of genes and therefore new
combinations of traits that do not occur in nature and, indeed,
cannot be developed by natural means. Such an artificial technology
is radically different from traditional plant and animal breeding.

21. Annotated Bibliography
 Food, Inc. .Dir. Robert Kenner. Magnolia Pictures, 2009. DVD. The film Food, Inc., Monsanto's
role in the GMO market is looked at. According to the film, in the 1980's the Supreme
Court ruled that life could be patented, and thus today companies like Monsanto, a
chemical company, are genetically engineering crops like soy and corn, which they then
patent under their name. Over 90% of soybeans in the U.S. now contain the genetically
modified genes patented by Monsanto. To control farmers and keep profit high,
Monsanto prohibits farmers from saving seed from one years' crop to plant in the
subsequent year, which is what is traditionally done. Should Monsanto believe a farmer
has saved seed they militantly investigate and harass farmers who often cannot afford to
fight back against Monsanto's claim of patent infringement, even if the farmer has not
actually infringed on the patent. David Runyon, a farmer interviewed in the film,
describes Monsanto's investigation force as being intimidating and possibly ex-military
or ex-police, and goes on to say that these investigators would follow him wherever he
went to watch him. One farmer does not plant Monsanto seed, but neighboring farms
do, and should any of the seed or pollen end up in his crop Monsanto is able to
aggressively go after him for violating patents, but avoiding this is nearly impossible and
the burden of proof falls on the innocent farmer. Should farmer's express discontent
with Monsanto's practices, or refuse to turn over documentation on their crops and
facilities, then Monsanto blacklists them, but the issue is that non-GMO, non-Monsanto
seed is becoming scarce. Farmers just starting out and with little money have little
option, but to go along with Monsanto if they intend to become or remain successful.
Monsanto has close ties with many government officials, some being past employees or
clients.

22. Annotated Bibliography
 Todhunter, Colin. "Genetic Engineering and the GMO Industry:
Corporate Hijacking of Food and Agriculture."
GlobalResearch. Centre for Research on Globalization, 3 Jan,
2012. Web. 18 Feb, 2013. Todhunter states that Monsanto is a
large and powerful company. Part of this power in the Unites
States comes from their political power. They have people who
are directly involved within portions of the government, such
as the Food and Drug Administration. This gives them
immense power, and an advantage in getting the result they
want, and in getting rid of criticism. According to Todhunter,
many farmer suicides can be linked to the GMO industry,
because GMOs were not working out as claimed. The booming
GMO industry in the United States is upsetting trade globally,
and particularly in poorer countries. Internationally,
companies like Monsanto are using their power to push into
the markets of other countries to make profit.