Knowledge
Essay Preview: Knowledge
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After an exhausting game of basketball on my Playstation two it was time to eat. As my search for food was coming to an end I came across a bag of potatoes. So using the cooking skills that I have acquired in my many years I decided to make french-fries. As I cut my potatoes I started to think about Michael Pollans essay “Playing God in the Garden”. This essay is about the creation of “genetically engineered” potatoes that produce their own insecticide right inside their leaves. I began to wonder if the potatoes on my plate were the same “New Leaf” potatoes that Pollan talked about. I started to change my mind about eating the fries that I had already melted cheese on but they looked to good to give to my roommate so I continued thinking while eating. The government does not require New Leaf potatoes to be labeled in stores so it must mean they feel it will have no harm on people. One of the many reasons that government exists is to look over the wealth fare of its citizens. Think of some of the things that a company must put on their products, labels on alcohol and cigarettes tell the dangers that come from using them, and all foods packages must have the ingredients printed on them. The government also sets up programs like family first to help people in need. Even in high school a person needs four years of gym. Peter Drucker touches this subject in his essay “The Age of Social Transformation” as he talks about a changing society. The government made the decision that using the knowledge that Monsanto found was the right thing to do for the farming industry. The best times will come when the knowledge that people have is used to enhance their lives.
What good is knowledge if it is not used? There is no point in learning new things if the only reason for learning them is to prove a point or to know more than someone else. Knowledge should be used and the New Leaf is just a potato that has had knowledge applied to it. The potato helps farmers because they no longer have to bathe their fields in harmful chemicals.
Imagine living on a farm and someone offers a job that pays more, has fewer hours and is easier than farm work. Any person would leave, it just makes sense. This is the start of the industrial worker. In Peter F. Druckers essay “The Age of Social Transformation” he talks about the next social change, the move into the knowledge society. Unlike the move from farmer to industrial worker this move will be much more difficult. “The rise of the class succeeding industrial workers is not an opportunity for industrial workers. It is a challenge” (Drucker 253). Not everyone will be able to move into knowledge work the way people moved into industrial work. In Druckers new society the organization has a big role. It will not only be a persons place of employment but were they can contribute to their community. “Playing God in the Garden” an essay by Michael Pollan is about “genetically engineered” (Pollan 459) potatoes that produce their own insecticide. This potato makes farmers jobs easier and safer “from where a typical American potato grower stands, the New Leaf looks very much like a godsend” (Pollan 468). Some people feel that it is wrong for these potatoes to be on the market and are angry that they are not labeled as being genetically engineered. Both essays “Playing God in the Garden” and “The Age of Social Transformation” are related because the potato in Pollans essay is a product of Druckers knowledge society. The company that created the potato is called Monsanto and they signify the kind of knowledge work Drucker saw as the future.
The “knowledge worker” (Drucker) that Drucker talks about will be required to have a formal education. They will be the center of this new society. The knowledge worker is going to change what it means to be an employee. We are already moving into a kind of knowledge society, one were having a formal education is necessary. Unless someone is on the cleaning crew a formal education is the only way to work for Monsanto, it is therefore a knowledge company. “With the advent of biotechnology, agriculture is entering the information age” (Pollan 461). Pollan knows Monsanto is trying o be the leader in the new age of biotechnology. Moreover, as a leader they will get complaints from everywhere. “Uncertainty is the theme that unifies much of the criticism leveled against biotech agriculture by scientists and environmentalist” (Pollan 464). Like the first to do anything they will be criticized by many people.
Monsanto fits Druckers image of a knowledge company that does not care about anything but its own purpose. That is exactly how Monsanto treats itself, they are about making money and that is what they do. Phil Angell a Monsanto executive who Pollan asked the safety of the New Leaf potatoes said, “Our interest is in selling as much as possible. Assuring its safety is the F.D.A.s job” (Pollan 468). Drucker knows that a companys main goal is and will always be to make money. “In the society of organizations each of the new institutions is concerned only with its own purpose and mission. It does not claim power over anything else” (Drucker 268). However, Drucker feels that every company also needs to do more to help the community; they need to take responsibility for their own actions. The question is why should they?
Monsanto has a responsibility to society, because their employees are a part of it. Pollan could be wrong, maybe Monsanto really thought about the effects that their New Leafs could have on the Earths ecosystem and that it was not a problem. Because it is up to the scientists as knowledge workers to take into account their own actions. In the knowledge society it is possible for an employee to have a commitment to society because “knowledge workers – own the tools of production” (Drucker 260). If the scientists were to leave Monsanto they would take their knowledge with them and since Monsanto relies on them, they can decide if it is the right decision to create the potatoes or not. There probably is a chance that these New Leaf potatoes could create a