Gomariz

1
Helei Gomariz
Karen Tucker
ENC 2135
25 Oct. 2015

Should the US Government Place Tighter Restrictions on Multi-million Dollar

Corporations?
Death, cancer, poverty. Could all of these things be somehow linked to some of
Americas largest corporations? We read about oil spills in the news that kill coral reefs and
millions of marshland wildlife, we see the headlines 17 scientists speak up: Monsantos
roundup is causing cancer (Very Important Monsanto & GMO Headlines), and know friends,
relatives, friends of friends, and neighbors who have died of lung cancer due to smoking. BP and
Chevron are still the leading gas companies in the United States, 42 million adults still smoke
cigarettes, and the herbicide Roundup is used on nearly every crop of corn and soy in America as
well as lawns and gardens. Why is this still happening? Many government officials and
politicians believe that America means capitalism and in that belief they forgive companies for
any transgressions, no matter how major. Are lawsuits enough to keep these corporations from
damaging the sustainability of human life on earth? I have noticed a trend in many things
American vs. European per se, America tends to think of the present vs. thinking ahead into the
future. Example: What do we need now? Oil. What will happen when it runs out? Well figure
that out when we reach that point. Well why not focus on that instead of waiting until we run
out? Because then oil companies will stop making a profit, and that would just devastate our
nation, according to corporate America.

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Big Oil Companies: BP and Chevron

The Deepwater Horizon Spill, also known as the BP Oil Spill, began on April 20th, 2010.
To this day we are still seeing the aftereffects that it has had on the people and wildlife of the
Gulf of Mexico. This was the largest marine oil spill in earths history (Deepwater Horizon oil
spill of 2010). The Deepwater Horizon was an oilrig that BP had leased from the company
Transocean. The rig exploded on the night of April 20th, 2010 (Deepwater Horizon oil spill of
2010). Some time before the spill there had been a malfunction in a part of the drill called the
blowout preventer (60 Minutes - BP Oil Disaster Poison Tide). This was the part of the
machinery that prevented explosions and would stop the oil from rising to the surface.
Transocean and BP discussed the malfunction and Transocean suggested that they temporarily
shut down the rig to repair the malfunction. BP ordered that they continue to drill (60 Minutes BP Oil Disaster Poison Tide). A worker on the rig and survivor of the explosion, Mike
Williams, is interviewed and delivers some not so surprising news: there was going to be a push
coming, a push to pick up production and pick up the pace, says Williams in an interview by the
60 Minutes Report. BP is a multimillion-dollar corporation, and to keep making those millions
they need to keep up with the pace of consumers. Companies like these, it is argued, wield more
power in this nation than the government itself, and are capable of doing just about anything to
continue to make profit. The United States government recently came to a settlement of $20.8
billion to be paid by BP (Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010). Justice has been served, or so
one would think. This is not the first oil spill caused by an oil company. BP has a pretty nasty
history of being the least safe oil company in history. They have been responsible for three of the
most devastating oil spills in history and many other minor ones (Mouawad, For BP, a History

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of Spills and Safety Lapses). Spills like these have been happening since the beginning of oil
production in the 1900s. There are lawsuits, trials, fines and charges filed against oil companies
such as BP, Shell and Chevron, yet their negligence and disregard for the well being of this earth
continues. Profit is the only goal. Is the government regulating enough to prevent disasters such
as this?

Philip Morris USA Smoke to Your Throats Content

Phillip Morris remains to this day the leading cigarette corporation in the world. They
produce brands such as Marlboro, Parliament, and Virginia Slims, which are extremely popular
in the United States (Altria). Out of all the different types of cancer that we know to exist,
statistics show that lung cancer remains to this day the most fatal type of cancer (Common
Cancer Types). Smoking cigarettes has been found to be the leading cause of lung cancer
(Harms of Cigarette Smoking and Health Benefits of Quitting). For many, smoking a cigarette
seems cool, but what they do not realize is that every time they say one more wont hurt, they
have become addicted. Tobacco companies have been deceiving their consumers, until very
recently, by making their tobacco products appear to have health benefits. The company Philip
Morris International has used many slogans for their many brands including:
Just what the doctor ordered. (L&M)
Youre so smart to smoke Parliaments. (Parliament)
When smokers changed to Phillip Morris every case of nose or throatdue to smokingeither
cleared completely or definitely improved! (Philip Morris)
(Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising)

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Recently the European parliament has put legislation in place that require tobacco companies to
place a health warning combining pictures and text must cover 65 percent of the front and back
of all cigarette packs (Castle, European Ministers Agree to Stricter Tobacco Laws). This
could include graphic pictures of smoke damaged lungs or the text Smoking Kills, among
others. Europe has also made most public facilities, schools, universities, no smoking zones.
In America the court cases against the tobacco companies have been more successful
than against any other corporation. One case in particular that occurred in 1988 was a pivotal
case for smokers against tobacco companies; it was also the first case in which the tobacco
companies had lost (Burtka, Taking on Big Tobacco). A woman began to smoke at the age of
16 and died at the age of 58 due to lung cancer. As she was dying her husband sued the cigarette
company the Liggett Group (L&M cigarettes) which had provided her with the means to fuel
her addiction. He won the case, and the Liggett Group was forced to pay him a fine of $400,000
(Burtka, Taking on Big Tobacco). This led to the investigations of the inner workings of
tobacco companies in the US, and their well kept secrets. Until the 1990s, the public had been
skeptical about the adverse health effects of smoking cigarettes, but after the results of these
investigations were made public, the percentage of smoking Americans greatly decreased.
Unfortunately the case was overturned in 1992 due to stipulations about the state law (Burtka,
Taking on Big Tobacco). The main difference between tobacco companies and food and oil
companies are that cigarettes could be considered a luxury (even though most see them as an
addiction), and not essential for modern life in the United States, like food or gasoline. This is
my opinion as to why court cases against tobacco companies have produced such a large amount
of public uproar and have actually shaped public opinion and caused a difference in regards to
cigarette smoking. I have already discussed the detrimental effects that oil drilling has had on the

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environment, yet we still continue to drill and consume oil at increasingly rapid rates. We do so
because a majority of people believe that it is essential to our current way of life in the United
States. Cigarettes are not.

Monsanto
Thousands of Indian farmers are committing
suicide after growing GM crops.
(qtd. in Plewis, 14)

The company Monsanto is the leading producer of patented genetically modified seeds as
well as the toxic herbicide Roundup. Monsanto originated in the United States, but it has now
grown to be an international company (Kloor, Opponents of using genetically modified
remain largely unaddressed). Monsanto has invented a genetically modified seed that once
planted produces seeds that are infertile, which means that the farmers who plant these seeds will
need to repurchase more seeds from Monsanto before planting their next crop (Kluger et al.).
The corporation has now moved towards a more international market and began to sell their
seeds to farmers in India. They promise flashy traits like herbicide and pest resistance into
everything from canola to corn (Kluger et al.). The most impoverished farmers in developing
countries buy these seeds in the hopes that their crops will yield greater results than they have
ever had before. What happens when the price of cotton decreases to approximately to 8% of the
price it was before? (Crop failure impels Indian farmer suicides). Farmers cannot afford to buy
new seeds because now they are even poorer than they were originally. Not being able to feed
themselves or their families drives them to end their lives by drinking one of Monsantos

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pesticides as a final desperate act and a warning to other farmers (Kloor, Opponents of using
genetically modified remain largely unaddressed). This is only one example of the
detrimental effects that Monsantos sterile seeds have had.
Some scientists argue that the suicides were not a result of the genetically modified crops
because cotton sales and production were booming (Kloor, Opponents of using genetically
modified remain largely unaddressed). What they may fail to realize is that the cotton
industry in India was booming because the prices were so cheap. The masses could buy cotton at
a cheap price, but the more cotton the farmers sold the more money they lost. Some also argue
that genetically modified seeds are vital to the future of food production and could end world
hunger (Kluger et al.). Others, however, argue that even though these seeds advertise a built-in
pesticide and herbicide, the fact that they are patented and equipped with an insurance policy of
producing crops with infertile seeds causes more damage to the lives of farmers in developing
countries (Kluger et al.). The United States has no way of regulating the sales of an international
company such as Monsanto outside of the United States, and the governments of developing
countries, such as India, are too corrupt to care or take any action.

Conclusion
Companies such as Monsanto, Philip Morris, and BP are only a few examples of
corporate giants who have abilities to overpower the law, and even governments. America has
lost sight of what made this nation great in the first place. America was established on the
foundations of democracy. The American constitution does not include a section about
corporations being the foundation of this country. These corporations were founded on the idea
of profit, not on the wellbeing of the people and the planet. How have these corporations come to

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dominate and control even the highest of authorities? In 2012 alone, 300,000 organic farmers
filed lawsuits against Monsanto, but they never went to trial (300,000 Organic Farmers Sue
Monsanto in Federal Court: Decision on March 31st to Go to Trial). The government seems
unable to take any sort of action that will prevent these corporations from doing harm. If a citizen
commits a serious enough crime they will go to jail, possibly for many years. This is supposed to
provide an experience that will encourage them not to commit further crimes when they are
released. Statistics show that 67% of released convicts are back in jail within three years of their
release ("Recidivism"). Similarly, lawsuits are filed against corporations such as BP, and there
are consequences such as large fines and taking responsibility for clean up efforts. Yet within six
years of the Texas City refinery explosion, the tragedy of Deepwater Horizon occurred
(Mouawad,For BP, a History of Spills and Safety Lapses). The difference between a single
criminal and a large corporation is the area and number of people that are affected. A drug dealer
may have be able to affect an area the size of a city, but an oil spill on the gulf could affect at
least 3 states, a good portion of the ocean, fish and wildlife as well as humans, and the whole
southern fish trade, thus affecting commerce in the entire nation. This in turn could have much
larger consequences such as a rise in level of toxins in the ocean, destruction of coral reefs and
extinction of species. No corporate CEO will be punished for these crimes.

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Works cited

Altria. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.

Ayers, Jane. 300,000 Organic Farmers Sue Monsanto in Federal Court: Decision on March 31st
to Go to Trial. NationofChange. N.p., 12 Feb. 2012. Web. 09 Dec. 2015.

Burtka, Allison. Taking on Big Tobacco. American Museum of Tort Law. N.p., n.d. Web. 25
Oct. 2015.

Castle, Stephen. European Ministers Agree to Stricter Tobacco Laws. The New York Times.
The New York Times, 21 June 2013. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.

Common Cancer Types. National Cancer Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

Crop failure impels Indian farmer suicides. UPI Security & Terrorism 6 Jan. 2011. General
OneFile. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.

Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica

Online. Encyclopdia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.

Harms of Cigarette Smoking and Health Benefits of Quitting. National Cancer Institute. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

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Kloor, Keith. Opponents of using genetically modified cotton in India claim that the technology
has resulted in the suicides of hundreds of thousands of farmers. They appear to be
wrong, and the real reasons why Indian farmers take their own lives remain largely
unaddressed. Issues in Science and Technology 30.2 (2014): 65+. Opposing Viewpoints
in Context. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.

Kluger, Jeffrey, et al. "The Suicide Seeds." Time 153.4 (1999): 44. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 25 Oct. 2015.

Mouawad, Jad. For BP, a History of Spills and Safety Lapses. The New York Times. The New
York Times, 08 May 2010. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.

Plewis, Ian. Indian Farmer Suicides: Is GM Cotton to Blame? Significance11.1 (2014): 14-18.
Web.

Recidivism. National Institute of Justice. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.

Slogans. Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct.
2015.

Very Important Monsanto & GMO Headlines. The Promise Revealed RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25
Oct. 2015.

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60 Minutes - BP Oil Disaster Poison Tide YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.