Like many kids who visited Disneyland in the '60s and '70s, I always remembered Monsanto's "Adventure Thru Inner Space," an exhibit that pretended to shrink its visitors to microscopic size and examine them with a giant eyeball as they exited. (We became particularly familiar with it after my frugal father learned that it was one of the few free rides at the park.)
Little did I know that Monsanto would become the embodiment of corporate evil to many farmers, environmentalists, health groups, consumer advocates, and opponents of genetic engineering. Yet, in the face of all its controversies, the biotech behemoth's blog blithely attempts to portray itself as a wholesome subject of the Magic Kingdom.
The latest entry to its blog, called "Monsanto According to Monsanto," is a July 27 item headlined, "Farm Girl Goes Global." Its fresh-faced author--a smiling new intern named Alyssa, pictured petting a Holstein calf--documents her journey from a small family farm in central Illinois to the agribusiness giant's global headquarters in St. Louis, complete with 4-H livestock awards along the way.
Alyssa is listed on the "About the Bloggers" page along with more than a dozen other kawaii-type avatars that are reminiscent of "South Park," but without the edge. All that's missing is Hello Kitty.
There are many obvious critical observations to be made here, especially about lending oneself to parody. But before I could even start taking notes, yet another blunder presented itself under a section labeled "Why a Monsanto Blog?" There we find a defensive 400-word over-explanation that begins: "The title Monsanto According to Monsanto is a spoof of The World According to Monsanto, a horribly biased documentary which portrays Monsanto in a very negative light."
I was not familiar with that documentary but, upon learning of it through this blog, naturally went looking for it and found it immediately. I'm sure many others have done the same thing.
This is the very reason that newspapers tell their reporters not to restate errant material when writing corrections. The thinking is that readers will remember only the mistake when it is republished, even as it is being rectified. Monsanto takes that concept to new heights, unwittingly paying homage to the offensive film at hand in the naming of its own blog.
For all its missteps, however, there is a diamond to be found in this biohazardous rough: a post headlined, "I Am Monsanto," penned by an employee distraught over the incessant criticism of his employer.
"Jeff" describes himself as "a Ph.D scientist, husband, father, biophysicist, biochemist, blogger, history buff, platform lead, poet, Monsanto employee, and political progressive"--taking care to note that "the last two things on that list are a source of great conflict, at least for me recently."
The post is "not part of some contrived PR plan," he says, and it doesn't read like one either. What it does read like is an honest but even-tempered post that could probably have been written by any number of Monsanto's 21,700 employees worldwide.
The discussion drew 61 comments, some of them by the author in response to vociferous critics in what became an open dialog. So the lesson here, if there is one, is that Jeff's apparently heartfelt diary entry was far more effective in putting a human face on Monsanto than any number of county fairs, cute emoticons, and theme park rides could ever achieve.
Granted, this piece and the discourse that followed won't likely reverse the opinions of anyone who participated, but it did at least generate some civil discussion. And for a multinational corporation as reviled as Monsanto, that's a pretty impressive feat for a single, unassuming blog post.