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> American Food Safety bill that was prepared by Monsanto Was it just Monsanto? They are a relatively small business of the businesses that deal in agriculture
by randomdata 12y ago
> American Food Safety bill that was prepared by Monsanto
Was it just Monsanto? They are a relatively small business of the businesses that deal in agriculture. I'd be surprised if the bigger companies would let them have free reign over the decision making process like that (though I'm sure they're happy to have Monsanto as the fall guy, so to speak). The only reference to the bill, with respect to who wrote it, that I could find said it was prepared by multiple corporations.
- shaneofalltrad 12y agoIs there really bigger companies than Monsanto doing the same thing? If so, and the power/bullying that Monsanto has proven it holds, we need to be really scared. Because the financial needs to defeat Monsanto can bleed even a State dry, so if they are just a front of whats to come, how could we win? I would love to hear more on these other companies and organizations.
- randomdata 12y agoWhat do you mean by same thing? Monsanto has hands in many things, including software development. If you mean GMOs, which they have have become infamous for, then absolutely. Bayer, for instance, is significantly larger.
- hibikir 12y agoMonsanto is now a relatively focused company that mostly sells seeds: Many GMOs, some bred traditionally. They also now sell some services related to optimizing seed selection for a particular field. If you read their PR(which you might believe or not), there is much focus on minimizing pesticide application, and instead make the plants themselves more resistant to pests. So instead of spraying your field with a liquid full of Bacillus Thuringiensis, they'd rather have the farmer grow plants with leaves that produce the same toxins than BT does. The market cap is just 63B. In comparison, a Walmart is 240+. The main reason they are smaller than their competitors is that they separated their biotech arm from their chemical company roots, while most of their competitors are still mainly chemical companies: BASF and DuPont. If we just compared their seed-producing operations though, Monsanto is probably larger, but it's not as if I've checked the numbers. The thing about political influence is that it's not really about size, but about being in a position so that you do not have clear opponents. Farmers as a whole do not dislike Monsanto, or they'd not buy their seeds. They tend to lower crop prices, so it's not as if the next level in the food production chain has a problem with them either. So, as far as getting laws that are helpful to them, their one opponent is certain kinds of environmentalists. It's how lobbying works: It's easier to get a few people to spend a lot of an effort than to get a whole lot of people to do very little.
- dingdingdang 12y ago> Is there really bigger companies than Monsanto doing the same thing? I concur, who are these hidden giants?
- randomdata 12y agoI'm not sure they are exactly hidden. I'd consider them household names. BASF and Bayer are larger, Dow and DuPont are roughly the same same size as Monsanto, and Sysgenta is slightly smaller. In hindsight, it would have probably been better to say that Monsanto is a medium sized business, relatively speaking, in that agriculture space.
- dingdingdang 12y agoThanks for clarification - I had overblown sense of Monsanto's size, guess the other players are just better at playing quietly!