Monsanto Must Abide by ‘Harm Principle’

In response to a class discussion we had last Thursday on the corporate social responsibility of Monsanto, one of the world’s largest producers of agricultural technology, I would like to argue for the necessary moral accountability of producers, particularly those who are profiting off of our food, water, and other bare necessities. One major cornerstone of capitalism is the theory of rational thought, which suggests that consumers make purchases using rational decision-making heuristics based on the assumption that we have perfect information about everything on the market. This idea of rational thought puts the responsibility of ethical decision-making onto the consumer, rather than the producer. In reality, however, this assumption of perfect information proves to be harder and harder to achieve, which makes deciding who should be held accountable for consuming choices more ambiguous than the rational thought theory suggests. With large agro-corporations deliberately hiding the social and environmental impacts of their practices from the general public, it is nearly impossible for the consumer to understand the true consequences of their choices. I argue that when it comes to the production of our food, corporations like Monsanto should be held to the highest moral standards based on John Stuart Mill’s “harm principle.” According to the harm principle, individuals should be free to do anything that does not harm other individuals. ‘Harm,’ in this sense, means utilizing one’s own individual liberties at the expense of another’s equal liberties. Tying Monsanto’s actions to the basic ideas behind the ‘harm principle,’ by producing agricultural technologies that harm the environment, exploit workers, and potentially impact human health, Monsanto is infringing on basic human rights. This is because they have not provided the consumer with perfect information. Instead, they spend millions of dollars greenwashing their products and lobbying Congress to encourage their practices under Federal law. Monsanto’s overwhelming concern for profits have given them the power to ultimately artificially determine our food prices in a way that allows them to dominate the world food market, subsidizing crops that have been patented as their own intellectual property. Monsanto has violated the ‘harm principle’ by using their power in a way that ultimately infringes on the consumer’s right to choose, as well as their right to perfect information.