Monsanto’s image takes a beating
It’s been a rough few months for Monsanto’s efforts to brand itself an environmentally responsible company.
But last week the St. Louis-based chemical giant suffered a blow that’s potentially bigger than the bad PR it’s gotten all month from the documentary film Food Inc.: A U.S. Appeals Court ruling gives momentum to farmers and environmentalists who are trying to block the company’s genetically engineered takeover of global seed stocks.
Monsanto never exactly has been an enviro-darling. While it refers to itself nowadays as an “agricultural company,” it’s still perceived for its Big Chem roots and is best known for Astroturf, Roundup and genetically modified seeds. But few companies have suffered as bad a spate of environmental headlines as Monsanto has since April.
As best I can tell, the bad publicity started on April Fool’s Day (appropriately enough). Read more
Monsanto enlists Astroturf group vs. Food Inc.
The Monsanto Co. is leading Big Ag’s PR offensive against Food Inc., the searing documentary on industrial agriculture that opened Friday. That’s not surprising. The chemical giant comes off as the biggest bogeyman in the film, which focuses on the company’s genetic seed patents, alleged bullying of farmers and efforts to influence politicians.
What is surprising is that Monsanto is tying its response to the movie to a discredited front group called the Center for Consumer Freedom. It seems too obviously payback for at least $200,000 that Monsanto has contributed to the supposedly nonprofit organization.
The company’s PR offensive against Food Inc. is no ham-handed reaction. It includes a very slick (of course) web page featuring an interactive seven-question quiz and the following characterization of the movie:
Food, Inc. is a one-sided, biased film that the creators claim will “lift the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer.” Unfortunately, Food, Inc. is counter-productive to the serious dialogue surrounding the critical topic of our nation’s food supply.
A couple of points may undermine Monsanto’s message, however. A core theme on the company’s site is that Food Inc. “demonizes American farmers.” But the movie actually positions itself as siding with family farms against agribusiness and accuses the ag industry of doing precisely what Monsanto is doing in response to the movie: conflating its interests with those of small farmers.
Maybe this is smart on Monsanto’s part. Both sides in the Great Food Debate brandish the “family farmer” as a talisman against the claim that they’re elitists. But Monsanto inherently will have a more difficult time maintaining that it’s the friend of farmers — especially, family farmers — at the same time it’s aggressively going after farmers in lawsuits.
And that standing-up-for-the-little-ol’-farmer line gets a bit harder to take when you consider that Monsanto is directing readers from its own website to the Center for Consumer Freedom. The center is one of a dozen or so front groups created by Washington lobbyist Rick Berman to push the interests of some of America’s least popular industries. Read more
