Will the world be a better place without Monsanto?
On May 21, cities worldwide saw their fourth annual “March Against Monsanto.” Indeed Monsanto is one of the most hated companies around the world. According to a Bloomberg BusinessWeek article: “In a Harris Poll measuring the ‘reputation quotient’ of major companies, Monsanto ranked third-lowest, above BP and Bank of America and just behind Halliburton. For much of its history it was a chemical company, producing compounds used in electrical equipment, adhesives, plastics, and paint. Some of those chemicals—DDT, Agent Orange, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)—have had long and controversial after-lives. The company is best known, however, as the face of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.”
So, for Monsanto, it was time to re-invent itself, and in the process make even more money for its shareholders: Monsanto has just been purchased by the German pharmaceutical giant Bayer for 66 billion dollars! The new megacorporation will be the world’s largest seed and pesticide company and will control 25% of the world’s seeds and pesticides.
Monsanto’s timing could not be better as new reports emerge saying that Glyphosate, a chemical ingredient found in Monsanto’s Roundup and hundreds of other herbicides, has been found in childhood vaccines!(1)
For sure, Monsanto could benefit substantially from rebranding itself, although some are already bracing for the worse: Three companies (Monsanto/Bayer, Dow/DuPont, and Syngenta/ChemChina) will now control the lion’s share of the world’s agricultural services, from seed production, to the herbicide and pesticide sprays that go on them, to the biotechnology used to produce them all. As Professor John Colley of Warwick Business School said: “Bayer’s acquisition of ‘Frankenstein’ crop producer Monsanto could be a horror story for both Bayer and its customers: the farmers.”
REFERENCE
(1) – http://www.momsacrossamerica.com/glyphosate_in_childhood_vaccines