[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by JesseK

2.) The whole 'ethics' debate here is about Monsanto's intent vs. execution. They use technology to address a growing world problem (great intent) yet repeatedly hide or undermine attempts for transparency or to study the side effects (questionable execution). We can even supersede the GMO debate since drought-resistant GMO wheat is a key reason the Midwest survived the Dust Bowl in the 1930's.
3.) At this time, no one can claim 100% certainty about whether Monsanto's current practices have long-term detrimental effects on human health. The studies I've read make conclusions one way or the other and yet have glaring holes in the scientific method. Being "pretty sure it's safe" or "pretty sure it's bad" just isn't good enough.

I feel it's worth noting that there are a few other areas of concern for Monsanto. There's GMO as a whole, which I don't think is obviously or inherently bad. Genetic modification to resist pesticides is of a much greater concern to me as these modifications find their ways into other crops and plants in the environment, requiring the invention of more exotic and dangerous pesticides to keep up.

The biggest ethical concern I have is with their business practices. Monsanto has patented genome sequences for plants. This alone is fairly ridiculous, literally patenting a form of life, but their enforcement of these patents is particularly terrible. If a non-Monsanto farmer sits near a Monsanto farm, there's a significant chance of some of the Monsanto seeds spilling over into this farm. Monsanto then sues the pants off of anyone whose farm somehow acquired even a tiny number of Monsanto crops without having bought their seeds - even though the seeds were bought and paid for by another farmer and there was zero human intervention leading to the "infringement". In many situations this essentially forces farmers to either buy Monsanto to avoid these lawsuits or fold entirely. It's weird because they aren't suing for theft - Monsanto loses no money - and the other farm likely doesn't care that they lost a dozen seeds due to wind, but they're suing for *patent infringement*.

4.) Here's the X Factor (to address Chris's statement): When was the last time you ate something grown from Monsanto seeds and/or used with other Monsanto products? Are you sure it was so long ago? It is increasingly difficult to avoid derivative food products from a given company, especially foods from publicly-traded companies with incentives to delay transparency to the consumer.

Ethical consumerism is a whole 'nother debate, but it's highly likely that you have eaten Monsanto products several times a week if not daily. With thousands of brands sourcing from Monsanto it's practically impossible to avoid them without serious concentrated effort.