LibGuides: Business Ethics MAN 3065 (Prof. Loubeau): Ethics Watch

Monsanto Attempts to Balance Stakeholder Interests

Pesticide Use Proliferating With GMO Crops, Study Warns.

"Monsanto's combination of genetically modified seed and Roundup herbicide was supposed to ensure that crops across America grew tall while weeds were laid low. Some 15 years later, most of the corn, soybeans and cotton cultivated in the U.S. stems from these Roundup Ready seeds. But a growing number of these crop acres are also reluctant hosts of Roundup-resistant 'superweeds.' Repeated application of the herbicide has literally weeded out the weak weeds and given the rare resistant weeds the opportunity to take over. The situation, according to a report published last Friday in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Sciences Europe, has driven growers to use larger quantities of Roundup, more often and in conjunction with a broader arsenal of other weed-killing chemicals."

Article Link

Monsanto Website (now Bayer)
Impacts of genetically engineered crops on pesticide use in the U.S. -- the first sixteen years
“Contrary to often-repeated claims that today’s genetically-engineered crops have, and are reducing pesticide use, the spread of glyphosate-resistant weeds in herbicide-resistant weed management systems has brought about substantial increases in the number and volume of herbicides applied. If new genetically engineered forms of corn and soybeans tolerant of 2,4-D are approved, the volume of 2,4-D sprayed could drive herbicide usage upward by another approximate 50%. The magnitude of increases in herbicide use on herbicide-resistant hectares has dwarfed the reduction in insecticide use on Bt crops over the past 16 years, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”

Debates over Executive Compensation

Here are 100 of the highest-paid chief executives in American business. The list comes from the Equilar 100 C.E.O. Pay Study for 2013, which ranks the compensation of chief executives of the 100 largest publicly traded United States companies, based on revenue, that filed proxies by April 4, 2013

New York Times List
Bloomberg Link
“Most companies don’t disclose median worker pay, so Bloomberg calculated ratios based on the U.S. government’s industry-specific averages for pay and benefits of rank-and-file workers. This table, searchable by company name, CEO or industry, shows the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index top 250 companies by ratio. Each was offered a chance to respond; their edited comments are listed.”
AFL-CIO Link
“In 2013 the CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 331:1 and the CEO-to-minimum-wage-worker pay ratio was 774:1. America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, a country where hard work and playing by the rules would provide working families a middle-class standard of living. But in recent decades, corporate CEOs have been taking a greater share of the economic pie while wages have stagnated and unemployment remains high. Highly paid CEOs of low-wage employers are fueling this growing economic inequality. In 2013, CEOs of the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index companies received, on average, $11.7 million in total compensation, according to the AFL-CIO’s analysis of available data from 350 companies.”
Forbes Link
“Across the board, the more CEOs get paid, the worse their companies do over the next three years, according to extensive new research. This is true whether they’re CEOs at the highest end of the pay spectrum or the lowest. “The more CEOs are paid, the worse the firm does over the next three years, as far as stock performance and even accounting performance,” says one of the authors of the study, Michael Cooper of the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business.”

Starbucks’ Mission: Social Responsibility and Brand Strength

Sustainability Challenges in Gas and Oil Industry

BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster
“Campaigners warn that fracking is binding the US even more tightly to a fossil-fuel future and deepening the risks of climate change. There have been stories from homeowners of fracking chemicals seeping into their drinking water. Companies have been fined for releasing radioactive waste into rivers.”
Article-The Guardian

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Trailer
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a 2005 documentary film based on the best-selling 2003 book of the same name by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, a study of one of the largest business scandals in American history. McLean and Elkind are credited as writers of the film alongside the director, Alex Gibney.The film examines the 2001 collapse of the Enron Corporation, which resulted in criminal trials for several of the company's top executives during the ensuing Enron scandal; it also shows the involvement of the Enron traders in the California electricity crisis. The film features interviews with McLean and Elkind, as well as former Enron executives and employees, stock analysts, reporters and the former Governor of California Gray Davis. (Source: Wikipedia)

Walmart Manages Ethics and Compliance Challenges

Minimum Wage Controversy:
“We’re going to make changes in a few months that will create a situation where no Walmart associate in the United States makes federal minimum wage,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.
Walmart Sweatshop in China:
"Liu Zhang (not his real name) was apprehensive about taking a job at the Chun Si Enterprise Handbag Factory in Zhongshan, a booming city in Guangdong Province in southern China, where thousands of factories churn out goods for Western companies. Chun Si, which made Kathie Lee Gifford handbags sold by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ( WMT) as well as handbags sold by Kansas-based Payless ShoeSource Inc. ( PSS), advertised decent working conditions and a fair salary. But word among migrant workers in the area was that managers there demanded long hours of their workers and sometimes hit them. …..Liu quickly realized that the factory was even worse than its reputation. Chun Si, owned by Chun Kwan, a Macau businessman, charged workers $15 a month for food and lodging in a crowded dorm--a crushing sum given the $22 Liu cleared his first month."