Monsanto: The Definitive Guide

I decided to look up and research this company. I was quite shocked to see what I found. This will be an ongoing project of mine.

Note to mods: Is this the right area for such a thread?

Lets begin.

Remember, this is the company that manufactures Roundup and made Agent Orange and various other chemicals. What is really interesting is all of its sister operations and background.

Enjoy the reading.

Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) is a multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation. It is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as its flagship product, Roundup. Numerous studies have shown that glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor. Monsanto is also by far the leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed, holding 70%–100% market share for various crops. Agracetus, owned by Monsanto, exclusively produces Roundup Ready soybean seed for the commercial market. In March 2005, it finalized the purchase of Seminis Inc, making it also the largest conventional seed company in the world. It has over 15,000 employees worldwide, and an annual revenue of $5.4 billion US reported for August, 2004.

So what does the stock trade at anyways?

finance.yahoo.com...

67.84 at the time of this post.

Lets look into the history of Monsanto a bit.

Board of Directors

Robert Shapiro is Monsanto's president (he named aspartame NutraSweet). John Reed is a member on the board of directors of Monsanto and was a former assistant of Ernst Hanfstängl, a friend of Hitler. Reed is also chairman of Citibank and a confederate of the CIA. Reed was an instigator of the Purple Ink Document in the 1980s. Dr. Charles Thomas was chairman of the Monsanto board. He directed a group of scientists during WW II in the refinement of plutonium for use in the atomic bomb. Another Monsanto director was William Ruckelshaus, also a director of the FBI under Nixon during COINTELPRO. Other members of the Monsanto board include Stansfield Turner and Earle Harbison. Both were CIA counterintelligence. Harbison is also a director of Merrill Lynch.

None of these people currently hold positions on Monsanto's board of directors.

Wow, what a history. Anytime HITLER is mentioned you know something evil is up.

I cannot verify this paragraph at this time but I will look into it.

Now this next paragraph is really the big punch. Check out what its been involved with. This is no small time.

Monsanto was founded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901, by John Francis Queeny, a 30-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry. He funded the start-up with his own money and capital from a soft drink distributor, and gave the company his wife's maiden name.

Monsanto's first product was the artificial sweetener, saccharin, which it sold to the Coca-Cola Company. It also introduced caffeine and vanillin to Coca-Cola, and became one that company's main suppliers. In the 1920s, Monsanto expanded into basic industrial chemicals like sulfuric acid.

In 1928, Queeny's son Edgar Monsanto Queeny took over the company.

In the 1940s, it became a leading manufacturer of plastics, including polystyrene, and synthetic fibers. Since then, it remained one of the top 10 US chemical companies. Other major products have included dioxin (in the herbicides 2,4,5-T and Agent Orange), aspartame (NutraSweet), Bovine somatotropin (bovine growth hormone; BST), and PCBs.

In the 1940s, Monsanto operated Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Manhattan Project, the development of the first nuclear weapons.

In 1947, ammonium nitrate fertilizer made by Monsanto and loaded on the French ship S.S. Grandcamp was responsible for the Texas City Disaster in Galveston Bay. It is considered the largest industrial accident in US history, with the highest death toll.

In 1949, Monsanto acquires American Viscose from England's Courtauld family.

In 1967, Monsanto enters into a joint venture with IG Farben, the key supplier of poison gas to the Nazi racial extermination program.

In 1980, thirty-three years after the accident, which happened during the tenure (1928–1960) of Edgar M. Queeny (1897–1968) as chairman, and twelve years after his death, Monsanto established the Edgar Monsanto Queeny safety award [1] in his honor, to encourage accident prevention.

Through a process of mergers and spin-offs between 1997 and 2002, Monsanto has made a transition from chemical giant to biotech giant.

In 1999, Monsanto sold their Phenylalanine facilities to Great Lakes Chemical (GLC) for $125 million.

In 2000, GLC sued Monsanto for the $71 million dollar shortfall in expected sales.

In 2001, retired Monsanto chemist William S. Knowles was named a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation, which was carried out at Monsanto beginning in the 1960s until his 1986 retirement.

Monsanto is not new to lawsuits. One of the most famous cases that I can think of is the Percy Schmeiser seed issue.

Read about it here.

en.wikipedia.org...

Basically Monsanto owns its genetically modified canola seed. This means that you CANNOT replant seed that you save.

The article explains the case quite well.

He also has a website that is VERY informative.

www.percyschmeiser.com...

This coorperation takes its GM seed issue very highly. In fact, if you "snitch" on a farmer using the seed illegally, you get a free leather jacket ! Yes thats right.

This link backs up that claim.

www.efao.ca...

I believe they have since terminated the snitch line though.

So what about Monsanto Products? What does Monsanto claim? I won't paste the farm products here, but heres some you may not have known.

Pharmacia Corporation | Who Manufactures:
AROMASIN - Breast Cancer Treatment
AXERT - Medication for the Treatment of Acute Migraine
AZULFIDINE/ALAZOPYRIN - Ulcerative Colitis & Reumatoid Arthritis Treatment
CAVERJECT - Erective Dysfunction Treatment
CLEOCIN/DALACIN - Infections & Acne Treatment
DEPO-PROVERA - Injectable Contraceptive
DETROL/DETRUSITOL - Overactive Bladder Medication
EDRONAX - Depression Treatment
FRAGMIN - Thrombosis Treatment
FREEDOX - Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Treatment
GENOTROPIN - Growth Hormone
GLYNASE - Diabetes Treatment
GLYSET - Type II Diabetes Medication
HALCION - Insomnia Treatment
HEALON - Surgical Aid for Cataracts
HELPS - Cough/Throat Drops
LUDEN'S ELITE - Cordial Cherries
LUDEN'S THROAT DROPS - Cough/Throat Drops
LUNELLE/LUNELLA - Injectable Contraceptive
MEDROL - Rheumatoid Arthritis, Asthma & Inlammation Disease Treatment
MICRONASE - Diabetes Treatment
MIRAPEX - Parkinson's Disease Treatment
MIRAPEXIN - Parkinson's Disease Treatment
NAXCEL/EXCENEL - Antibiotic for Treating Cattle, Pig, Horse & Sheep Respiratory Infections
NICORETTE/NICOTROL - Tobacco Dependency Therapy
PHARMORUBICIN - Cancer Treatment
PROVERA - Hormone Replacement
RESCRIPTOR - HIV Infection & AIDS Treatment
ROGAINE/REGAINE - Hair Loss Treatment
SERMION - Senile Dementia Treatment
UNICAP - Line of Test Systems
XALATAN - Glaucoma Medication
XANAX - Anxiety & Panic Attack Treatment
ZYVOX - Gram-Positive Infections Treatment

The rest can be found here.

Monsanto Products

So they are into everything you see. Rogaine ! Nicorette ! Cough drops !

While I believe they have sold the aspartame work, read up about it here.

This stuff is not safe, and I believe it.

www.ethicalinvesting.com...

"These are indeed extremely high levels for adducts of formaldehyde, a substance responsible for chronic deleterious effects that has also been considered carcinogenic.
....
"It is concluded that aspartame consumption may constitute a hazard because of its contribution to the formation of formaldehyde adducts."
[Life Sci. (scientific journal), Vol. 63, No. 5, pp. 337+, 1998]

Related links to aspartame.

www.aspartamesafety.com...
www.aspartame.org...
www.mercola.com...

Of course one for the bad guys here at: www.aspartame.net...

Aspartame is in so many daily products. Think about it, chewing gum, diet drinks, etc.


What about the good Monsanto does?

Like what? Solving world hunger with easy to grow GM crops?

Sounds nice at first, but lets look into the dark side the common man doesnt hear about.

This company has looked into terminator technology that will basically only allow a seed to work once, and then you have to buy new seed. Well that wont solve world hunger it will only make them richer (monsanto)

I believe due to world pressure they are backing off the program.

news.bbc.co.uk...
www.zetatalk.com...
www.ethicalinvesting.com...

What would happen if that gene mixed with other plants? Very deadly.

But really, so what if they dont have terminator genes? They have that already with the GM canola contracts. Thats right, like I mentioned before, you can only grow the seed once, then you must buy the seed again, not reuse those from your harvest.

So how does that solve world hunger?

It doesnt.

To be continued.

Originally posted by Dulcimer
Wow, what a history. Anytime HITLER is mentioned you know something evil is up.

Really informative thread you've got going here, but are you going to stick with the medical issues or are you leading into the enviromental ones? If you're sticking to medical, let me know and I'll move this thread over to the medical section.

Anyway, the only problem I had with the post was what was quoted above. Just because someone was a friend of Hitler's does not neccesarily make them evil. I just think that that statement was a bit brash, but that's all.

My family is from Anniston, Alabama. Thanks to Monsanto and the huge plant they have on the western edge of town, this small community is known as one of the most toxic places to live in the US. It probably doesn't help that the largest chemical warfare storage facility in the country is located there either, but the US Army has been pretty careful, whereas Monsanto just put their toxic stuff in the ground for others to come build houses on.

Thanks Dulcimer, that's very informative.

America has now imposed Monsanto's terminator seed on Iraqi farmers.

If the farmers don't want to sign the disclaimer that says they can't plant the seed the next year, then they shouldn't buy the products. Fact is, they do buy the products because even with the added cost of paying for new seeds every year, they're making more money with better yields and less insect/drought problems.

However, if Monsanto goes after someone who accidently got the seed, that's not right. The problem is proving whether or not the farmers are "cheating" or if it really was blown over from someone else's field. I'm not sure, but I think if that happens, the crops are actually Monsanto property and can be seized. Wouldn't that be a bummer for the poor sap who has no idea and gets his crops taken away.

The "terminator" technology would actually solve the above mentioned problem, but hopefully not create an even worse problem if it were to mix with other plants.

Pharmacia aquired Monsanto, but then Monsanto later broke off (about 5 years ago). They're not into Rogaine, Nicorette, Cough drops, etc.... that's Pharmacia.

Fyi, I work at Monsanto headquarters in St. Louis, but I don't know much about the political stuff. I'm just a web developer. Obviously I still hear stuff and know a thing or two about the company. I had even read about various lawsuits before working there, and so this thread interests me.

GMing seeds and crop plants is just plain stupid.

As is having standards that farmers and growers need to adhere to that dictate how their crops will be classed - based on how they look and what size they are! It's insane. Quality for food crops is about things like nutrition content and how they taste, and how much pollutants and toxins they have in them - which is a lot when things like pesticides are being used.

There's a whole load of crops that have been planted for ages and they are either actually illegal in some places (no I don't mean hemp, but that it a whole other issue with a history of insanity in terms of it being outlawed at all) or because they don't get subsidised farmers won't grow them at all.

In the UK there's Heritage Seeds, it's one of the things going where you can find out about all the different varieties of plant crops that already exist, get seeds, save seeds and so forth. There's already an abundance of crops availible that are not being utilised.

Thanks for starting a great thread. I shall look back often

If the farmers don't want to sign the disclaimer that says they can't plant the seed the next year, then they shouldn't buy the products. Fact is, they do buy the products because even with the added cost of paying for new seeds every year, they're making more money with better yields and less insect/drought problems.

One problem. One does not need to purchase a single seed from Monsanto. Contamination from Cross polination is impossible to stop in an open air farm. Things like Birds and Wind spread this genetic contamination to nearby farms, some of which do not purchase seeds from Monsanto, some are even Organic, and entire crops can be ruined. There is one case where Monsanto ended up suing a family farm because they alledged that this farmer Saved Seeds without a licence. Thing is, this farmer was an Organic Farmer and has never even considered purchasing "Roundup ready" seeds from this company. He ended up losing his Organic certification and was driven out of business. GMO's have their place.....in a well guarded, sealed, hydroponic farm. It's not as if they are using the technology to make those who eat it healthier, stronger, smarter, or faster. Their seeds are primarily produced for one purpose only, to increase crop yield to make the Factory Farmers even more efficient and profitable, and to hell with the consequences.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Patenting and Controlling life is immoral and should be made illigal. In a perfect world this entire industry would be built upon Open Source ideology, but it isn't, and it will not be as long as companies like Monsanto exist.

Monsanto is not a nice company with the consumers best interests at heart. They were a Tobacco company at one point and that culture of suppressing negative information about their business still exists to this day.

One other thing, if they get bigger and sell more of their genetically contaminated seeds, they will have a defacto Monopoly as their patented genome sequences will be in the majority of crops due to uncontrollable factors. The RIAA would love it if they could sue people for merely listening to their music from a passing car without a license.... this is essentially what Monsanto does.

[edit on 8-6-2006 by sardion2000]