$82.07
-1.46 (-1.75%)
Monsanto Company (MON)
CAPS Rating:
A global provider of agricultural products for farmers.
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Monsanto is basically an evil company. They sell genetically engineered seeds that are resistant to herbicides, which is not a terrible thing. However, these seeds cross pollinate non-engineered crops. Further, they will sue farmers who did not buy the GMO seeds but whose fields have become cross pollinated through no-cause of the farmers. This has resulted in the agricultural landscape for rapeseed and other crops to become dominated by the GMO variety and a great decrease in diversity of farm crops from a wide variety of genetic lines.
They also push their GMO crop onto small third world countries, conning the countries with talks of great yields - but not informing them of the recurring costs of the GMO seeds to Monsanto. These countries get locked into the Monsanto model and go into debt. Eventually this leads to crop problems, and famines.
I'm shorting Monsanto mostly on principle. But, this may be good business sense too - as eventually people will win in lawsuits and Monsanto may lose ground on their GMO license protections. Organic farming is also on the rise - and could pose challenges to Monsanto.
I hope you all read this and think twice about what you are supporting with your investments. Ethical investing is more important than simply growing your money.
Do you have any "facts" to back up your claims about countries going into debt because they use Monsanto seeds? I can't find one article on the internet about any country that has gone into debt over using Monsanto seeds or the “Monsanto Model”. But then again you had me at the opening line, "Monsanto is basically an evil company", an emotional thought not logical thinking. I think you need to go do your homework again.
The main issue I see with GMO's is the uncertainty surrounding potential side effects from modifying the genetic makeup of the foods we eat. For better or worse, it seems to be the path we're headed, and I'm not sure if I'd blame this MON for growing money on it. There's a lot of good that comes from the tech seed industry. Last I researched (which was awhile ago), they were toying with the idea of delivering immunizations via fruits & vegetables for 3rd world countries. Also noteworthy is that they're just waiting FDA approval on a drought resistant corn seed that will be hugely beneficial. Like FoolRoDy, I would be interested in knowing the scoop on the dirt.
I think the dire need for grain in the coming decade will greatly outweigh any moral or safety concerns with GMOs and any legal battles surrounding their practices. When you supply such a huge proportion of what the world needs to survive, you're invincible.
Not evil! Just taking making and taking good advantage of a market niche. They have developed some unique products and done a great job of advancing their use against strong, often uninformed or misinformed opposition worldwide. This is a well run company in my opinion. While you may argue with their strategies, there is and will remain a strong and growing demand for their products.
this is a very risky company to invest in because a lot of people are waking up to how bad GMO can be for our health and for the planet. countries in the european union are banning GMO foods entirely because of possible health risks, and a growing number of americans each year are boycotting GMO foods.
keep in mind, the health risks could be much higher than you think for eating GMO foods. in order to get the gene inside the seeds, they have to shoot an activator at high speed into a petri dish with the genes which penetrates into the genes and activates 100% of the things it comes into contact with. however, this activator can also enable things that aren't supposed to be enabled on the plant or in the humans who eat it. there are plenty of genes in the human body that don't want to be activated.
also, there have been strains engineered that are resistant to pests without needing to spray them, but these have been proven to kill or deform the birds and bees that pollinate them. this is more serious than you think, because if these frankenstein foods get out of hand (like other non-indigenous plants/animals) then we will lose the necessary seasonal pollination for billions of plants around the country/world. who knows, maybe it'll create jobs for people to go around in bee suits and pollinate plants once they're gone. oh, and remember how the killer bees started? i'm not a big fan of humans playing god, especially when there's a profit to be made for the people doing it. money can lead people to bad and risky decisions.
oh and by the way, it's very easy for companies like this to lobby congress to get their needs met and/or suppress bad information/studies about them. kind of like how organically labeled foods are not 0% spray/GMO/etc, but rather allowed to be 30% of normal. i'm one of the many people who doesn't want turds like this on my dinner plate.
as a sector, i think agriculture is wonderful because the population of the world is growing, food prices are rising, and people have to eat to live. however, companies that support GMO are on the decline. look for other areas in the agriculture sector if you want to make more consistent money without worrying about the bottom dropping out because of lawsuits or the hundredth monkey boycott phenomenon.
Obviously you have no concept of production agriculture, as all your theories are flawed. Organic farming will destroy the earth, since yields will be so depressed you would have to farm every nook and cranny to feed people to even half of what they currently consume. Additionally, lawsuits from Monsanto are based on misuse or downright theft of their intellectual property. Cross pollination does occur to a minor extent - thus far, no producer has been cited from cross pollination. That may be an easy excuse to use, but is not the case. Monsanto is a good play. You would do well by investing in them.
that is incorrect agridealer. many farmers have, in fact, been sued for cross pollination and have gone out of business because of it. archer daniels midland and monsanto are both involved in a lot of lawsuits for cross pollination. this is, like you suggest, to prevent theft of their intellectual property, and they argue that there is no way to tell if a plant was cross pollinated, stolen, or just reproduced by the farmer so they wouldn't have to buy more seed next year, even though most of these cases are, in fact, from cross pollination. farmers around the country and around the world are going out of business because of this thievery by greedy and dishonest corporations, causing hunger to rise around the world. i ended my outperform pick for mon (with a lucky 7) when i found out about this, because i don't like shaking hands with the devil.
i'm not ballsy enough to vote underperform, because dishonest people can still make money hand over fist. but sustainability is weak and short-lived in crooked companies. be very careful about going long on this one and watch it closely.
i prefer investing in technology that allows for more efficient farming without modifying the crops themselves, such as machinery, fertilizer, and alternative energy for agricultural use to reduce operating costs, boost yield, and increase productivity.
Do you garden, can,freeze,do you own any land? Other than just sitting in front of a screen most of the day, what else do you do? What do you have to with farm/ranch with operations? What do you know about waking fence,going away for the weekend & having your garden cleaned out. Keep on buying your goods at the local market. And for organic, better check your county FDA rules for what you can and not use, and pay the permit prices if you are going to do it legall.
I base my investing on fundamentals, not whether I think a company is evil. I eat Organic as much as I can however, here is why I think Monsanto will be around for a very long time.
1. Growing Global Population (no sign of this changing)
2. Shrinking of quality land available for farming (no sign of this changing)
3. Poor water quality in many farming regions (only going to get worse)
4. COST of organic foods in the grocery store (not everyone can afford organic)
Barring any major change to the global population, Monsanto will continue to grow and be successful despite how you feel about the company.
Sorry ... i definetely have no Ag background lots of studies and lots of biotech involved on it versus a simplistic comment. Back not too long ago we used to live less than 40 years, at present 75 years ... the future poses to 90 plus years. Genetically modified seeds with higher yields (more production to farmers), and healthier such as with omega 3 and less cholesterol will make life better and and also support better food for populations. MON is lagging behind in the commodities rally but do not be surprised when it jumps back to above $150.
MON does have an environmental rap sheet. They argued back in the day (1970's?) that harmful side effects from their products are the responsibility of government regulations. In a way, that is how capitalism is supposed to work, but I don't think that type of defense will hold up anymore as "we the people" expect corporations to be morally responsible. Bad publicity moves fast in the world today so they'd better know better now. The cross pollenation issue is a tough one.
That rap sheet seems to be from 30-40 years ago.
I have to agree, I also try to be somewhat ethical in my investing.
There have been several documentaries made about monsanto and their cross-pollination lawsuits.
Not only that but they sell aspartame a sugar substitute that is in basicly everything sugar free that kills and maim millions of people over the years. So I agree that they are like the financial institutions that only cares about their bottom line and the hell with the masses of people that will get hurt.Typical greedy evil company that makes lots of money so far.
The cross polination argument is absurd. Corn will only have a chance to cross polinate with only a few members of related species and corn itself. If there is an escape (very low possibilty) then we have herbicides with selective activity against grasses to control them with. The vast majority most GMO is corn (zea maize) and is round up ready and BT protein coded into its dna. This conveys resistance to corn ear worms and excelent weed control by making it resistant to round up (glyphosate) herbicide. The Total number of pounds of pesticide used in production has been reduced dramatically because of this science. The chemicals (preplanting incorporated herbicides and numerous insecticide sprays) that were eliminated from production because of the use of GMO are much harsher on and longer lasting inthe environment than round up. So I contend that they are helping save the environment. More yield per acre = more room for nature!