Code Green: the Evils of Monsanto

Code Green: The Evils of Monsanto The topic of the inherent evil of genetically modified seeds, the foods they produce, referred to as GMOs, and the herbicides created by the agricultural giant Monsanto is quickly becoming the rally cry of a broader base of consumers than merely activists and extremists. Through increased media exposure, viral activism campaigns, and political cartoons, more and more everyday Americans are joining the fight to raise awareness of the potential dangers of tampering with our food supply in the name of lower prices and convenience. In Code Green, a series of political cartoons focusing on environmental issues, creator Stephanie McMillan paints a clear picture of her opinion of the Monsanto Corporation. Her cartoon titled “Final Act” (see Fig. 1) depicts what we can imply is the executive wearing a gasmask crawling across a barren landscape towards the last wild plant on Earth. In the left hand side of the two nearly identical images that make up the cartoon we are led to believe that he is struggling to reach it for some
Figure 1. A political cartoon by Stephanie McMillan portraying a Monsanto executive killing off Earth 's last remaining plant. Source: http://www.stephaniemcmillan.org/codegreen/comics/2011‐10‐10‐ final‐act.jpg

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sort of heroic or humanitarian purpose or possibly even for his own self-preservation. But, in the right hand side image we find that he is merely trying to snuff it out with poison which, although is not specifically spelled out in the image, can be implied is Monsanto’s popular and controversial herbicide RoundUp. The two side by side images paint a picture of despair and desolation with the last plant being wiped out in a final act of cruelty by the corporation responsible for pushing man towards the apocalypse. McMillan does an effective job of setting the scene with a minimal use of color designed to contrast the apocalyptic landscape with the litter strewn about and the crawling executive and his can of poison. The litter inserted into the image seems to be there in order to make social commentary about her feelings towards the Monsanto executives. It’s almost as if she is saying that the men behind the corporation are on the same level as trash. This is a very powerful persuasive tool she uses because it not only portrays the man in the cartoon himself in a negative light, but it also implies on some level that Monsanto is responsible for the littering and destruction of our world. The last wild plant pictured in the cartoon stands tall and proud in the wasteland and evokes a feeling of optimism and hope. This feeling is quickly erased after it is poisoned in the second image. The wilting plant in the second image exaggerates the effects of the poison and depicts them as being immediate and final, killing the plant even as he’s still spraying the poison. Another common tactic McMillan uses in many of her cartoons about Monsanto to persuade the reader to sympathize with her viewpoints on the subject is the perception that the American consumer is powerless to stop the rampant greed and corruption associated with the company’s executives and American lawmakers. By painting an “us vs. them” picture in our minds she attempts to rally the reader to continue the fight against them even in the most

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hopeless of situations. A lasting emotional response is generated in people’s minds when they feel like they are being used as a pawn in a game that is much bigger than they are. When the game is as high stakes as McMillan argues it is with her images of apocalypse and destruction she doesn’t give the reader much of an alternative on which side they should take. In her cartoon titled “Tyranny of Unanimity” (see Fig. 2) McMillan drives home this strategy in no uncertain terms. The cartoon depicts a

consumer venting her frustration that the public’s voice is not being heard by the USDA on the subject of GMO approval. The
Figure 2. A cartoon by Stephanie McMillan depicting the inability of the American consumer to have their voice heard on GMO regulatory policy. Source: http://www.stephaniemcmillan.org/codegreen/comics/2012‐01‐ 09‐tyranny‐of‐unanimity.jpg

government regulator and the Monsanto executive respond with a kind of role reversal

implying that the majority opinion of the general public is the tyrannical entity that they will not yield to. In this way she uses irony to drive home the point that the public’s voice is going unheard. She makes a further rhetorical statement in the illustration by the inclusion of a rubber “approved” stamp in the regulator’s hand and a bag of money in the executive’s hand. This type of rhetoric is especially important because it reinforces the notion that most Americans already have that money overrides everything and those that have the most money yield the most power. In McMillan’s Code Green cartoons the most overpowering recurring theme seems to be the demonization of Monsanto executives and other authority figures in an overtly visual way. For example in almost every cartoon where an executive appears he is drawn in a nearly nonhuman or monstrous fashion. Their heads are pale and disfigured, almost in the shape of a

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potato, their teeth are jagged and dark, and their eyes are small and beady. In one Code Green cartoon titled “To the Bitter End” the Monsanto executive is actually pictured with flames rising from the ground around him. The premise of the cartoon is that the world is burning up, but the genetically modified Monsanto crops are drought resistant. At face value the flames are meant to signify the world burning, but when analyzed more deeply the flames, which only appear immediately surrounding the executive, clearly are intended to portray him as the Devil standing in hellfire. Other characters in the cartoons that are not intended to be portrayed in a villainous fashion have normal proportions and appear to be drawn in a very straightforward manner. The intended audience for this particular environmental cartoon appears to be everyday Americans who are not serious or particularly well informed activists on either side of the debate. It does an effective job of using fact, fiction, and half truths alike to form an opinion for the reader and persuade them to rally against the perceived evils of Monsanto. In our ever evolving technology based society cartoons such as Code Green and other activist created visual media sources are becoming more and more effective at swaying the hearts and minds of consumers who shop with price and convenience in mind first. This type of visual content is extremely easy to produce using modern technology and even easier to distribute to mass audiences at virtually no cost in some cases. As technology and ways to access it continues to become more readily available around the world, controversial corporations such as Monsanto will continue to be increasingly scrutinized by anyone with an opinion and a keyboard. How they respond to that scrutiny remains to be seen.

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Works Cited Alfano, Christine, and Alyssa O’Brien. Envision: Writing and Researching Arguments. 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson/Longman, 2011. Print. McMillan, Stephanie. “Final Act.” Cartoon. Code Green Cartoons. Web. 24 June 2013. McMillan, Stephanie. “Tyranny of Unanimity.” Cartoon. Code Green Cartoons. Web. 24 June 2013. McMillan, Stephanie. “To the Bitter End.” Cartoon. Code Green Cartoons. Web. 24 June 2013.

Cited: Alfano, Christine, and Alyssa O’Brien.  Envision: Writing and Researching Arguments. 3rd ed.  Boston: Pearson/Longman, 2011. Print.  McMillan, Stephanie. “Final Act.” Cartoon.  Code Green Cartoons.  Web. 24 June 2013.  McMillan, Stephanie. “Tyranny of Unanimity.” Cartoon.  Code Green Cartoons.  Web. 24 June  2013. McMillan, Stephanie. “To the Bitter End.” Cartoon.  Code Green Cartoons.  Web. 24 June 2013.