Facebook, March Against Monsanto and Stuff

March Against Monsanto (2013).

Flowing on from my week seven post, Facebook uses its metadata for targeted advertising (Van Luyn, 2013). In the week 8 lecture Wilkinson (2013), discussed Fordism and touched on the mindless and robotic nature of the "sameness" of stuff, the birth of consumerism. The way I see it, without consumerism there would be no Facebook. The internet, Facebook is one giant data collection tool, its all about increased profits. This makes me think of the Monsanto agenda and the March Against Monsanto page (MAM), especially the image and video I used this week. Maximised profits at whatever cost necessary is immoral and an abuse of power, it is totally repressive. 

This image is highly provocative I wonder how many more "likes" MAM got after this post? Which brings me to "push-button activism" with all great intentions MAM aims to educate (Petray, 2011, pp. 935). It also aims to raise funds for their documentary and encourage people to literally March Against Monsanto in October. MAM targets the laws that prevent genetically modified foods being labelled as such. Have a look at the video below to get an idea of the Monsanto seed agenda and also the image above. I think Facebook users, a lot of the time want to identify themselves with a worthy cause in their own virtual space, their timeline. 

Stuff as a commodity, food and seeds in this case are being used to control the population in a completely repressive way (Wilkinson, 2013). This globalised economy from transnational corporations like Monsanto, is affecting everyday people at a community level (Dicken, 2007, pp. 438). This also relates back to farmers being squeezed out of their farms and then employed on the land that was once theirs (Patel, 2007, pp. 7). As the market share of these transnational corporations grow, global unemployment will forever be rising, this dissembles entire manual and manufacturing industries in the name of new technologies and again profit (Wilkinson, 2013).

(Cooking up a Story, 2009)

Reference List

Dicken, P. (2007). Winning and Losing: An Introduction. In 5th Edition Global Shift: Mapping the changing contours of the world economy (pp. 437-453). London: Sage Publications.

Patel, R. (2007). Introduction. In Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle of the World Food System (pp. 1-19). Melbourne: Black Inc.

Petray, T. (2011). Protest 2.0: online interactions and Aboriginal activists. Media, Culture & Society, 923-940.

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the Making of Place, Week 4 Notes. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from: http://www.learnjcu.edu.au  

Wilkinson, R (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the Making of Place, Week 4 Notes. [Power Point slides]. Retrieved from: http://www.learnjcu.edu.au

Image Credits

Cooking up a story (2009, July 23). Youtube. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi1FTCzDSck

March Against Monsanto (2013). Facebook. Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/photo.phpfbid=662855237066333&set=a.566016720083519.1073741828.566004240084767&type=1&theater