Statist diversion: Appeal to Monsanto.

Fallacy:

Comment about biotech or other area where large corporations dominate.

Statist: is basically an uninformed apologist for big agro-business. I would not be surprised if he is pulling a salary from Monsanto or Cargill. … “To feed a growing population …” This is an argument used by corporations such as Monsanto.

Response:

It’s my favorite new logical fallacy, the “Appeal to Monsanto”, the world’s largest producer of biotech agriculture seeds. This is the logic that compels many anti-GMO activists to reply to any argument in support of biotech crops with “So you love Monsanto?”

It’s so wonderful because it combines many other logical fallacies into one, and is thus a great time saver. For example:

It would also appear to be, in certain cases, a guilt by association fallacy: claiming something is helpful to feed a growing population "is an argument used by corporations such as Monsanto."

There is also a larger class of companies and fallacies, e.g., if you are for privatizing defense then Haliburton and Blackwater get trotted out (slightly different since they are corporations with effectively one customer, the state, and they rely very much on state regulations and barriers to entry), or private prisons (which are, again, part of the state system and without being fed money and victims by the state, could not operate); Monsanto, too, depends on the state to defends its patents and enforce its ridiculous lawsuits.


See Also: Environment Not Protected.