By Eric Blair
It’s hard to believe that the once almighty Monsanto is on its knees. But their dirty deeds seem to have finally caught up with them.
Monsanto shares have already dropped 27 percent this year and they just posted fourth quarter losses wider than estimates.
They also announced cost-saving measures to counter their plunge; deep cuts to their workforce and exiting the sugarcane business.
Bloomberg reports:
Monsanto Co. said it will eliminate 2,600 jobs as part of a cost-savings plan, joining a growing list of major corporations struggling to contain the damage from the decline in world commodities prices.
The St. Louis-based agricultural giant announced the reductions — the equivalent of 12 percent of its workforce — as it reported a loss of 19 cents a share in the fiscal fourth quarter and warned profit would remain weak through 2016.
Monsanto enjoys a near monopoly on corn and soybean in North America. They appear to have it all; they own the farmers, the industry, the politicians, and the regulators. And, yet, they’re crashing and burning.
Bloomberg cites slumping commodity prices for Monsanto’s decline. “Like DuPont Co. and Glencore Plc, Monsanto, the world’s largest seed maker, is taking steps to combat the effects of a commodity slump…”
However, here are 5 real reasons Monsanto is tanking:
1. Consumer activism: The market doesn’t want herbicide-soaked genetically modified food anymore. As people are becoming more health conscious, they prefer to eat organic food. It’s really that simple.
2. Lawsuits with farmers: Monsanto spends untold resources suing family farms for patent infringement. Farmers are forbidden from saving patented seeds year to year. Additionally when Monsanto’s GMO crops pollute neighboring farms, Monsanto sues those farms too. Not a great business model when your primary customers are farmers. An organic farmer in Australia is hoping to reverse this revolting practice.
3. Funding anti-labeling campaigns in multiple states is draining Monsanto of millions of dollars. This seems to be the majority of their “marketing” budget. They spent at least $8M in 2012, over $9M in 2013 in Washington State alone, and combined for $8M to defeat just a county initiative in Maui County Hawaii this past year.
4. Flagship product causes cancer: A recent World Health Organization report concluded that the active chemical used in Monsanto’s flagship product “Glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans.” This unsettling realization hasn’t even begun to sink in yet. Although some cancer-stricken farm workers are suing the big “M” over their illness with many more likely to do the same.
5. National bans: An increasing number of countries are banning either GMOs or certain pesticides, or both. At least 15 European Union members move to ban GMO crops. Meanwhile some small nations like Bermuda and Colombia have banned glyphosate.
To summarize, when people no longer want a product, market share and regulatory control mean nothing. This a long-term problem for Monsanto that can’t be fixed with cost-savings measures. That is why they’re doomed.
Eric Blair writes for Activist Post under Creative Commons. You have full permission to share or repost this article in its entirety.
Image credit: AnthonyFreda.com
Good riddance to your lousy company and your online stooges defending you.
Now let’s reject slave made clothing…see how that works out. Check out how silk is dyed in India…same for rugs. Check out brands that refuse to sign safety standard agreements. There are moderately priced alternatives…including sewing. No more free trade sweatshops!!!
There’s probably a bailout for them buried in TPP somewhere. I’m sure they’re to big to fail.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they will be sheltered somehow. They are probably going to be like the Terminator, they’ll have to be taken down multiple times. Last year I read in a Wired Magazine article that Monsanto has been perfecting a breakthrough technology extraordinarily efficient at identifying promising new hybrids on a massive scale, bred the usual way, not through genetic engineering. Then there is the relatively new method of surgically adding and deleting genes via the Cas9 system. Great victory so far, but let’s stay vigilant!
Reintroduce them to Nuremberg on- Crimes Against Humanity- Depraved Indifference -Malice of Forethought & GENOCIDAL ‘SOFT KILL’ etc …because these vermin are the scoin of the ol Nazi’s from I.G.Farben that morphed into Dow-Mon$atan-Du pont-BASF Syngenta.. like Fritz-ter-mere that penned Codex Alimentarius’ while serving a wrist-slap sentence for war crimes…Who really won the 2nd world war???
Who really won the 2nd world war? Germany lost; the Nazi’s won.
Still haven’t done any research? Or do you just enjoy lying to everyone? You know most of the companies you listed had nothing to do with Farben, so why lie? Sad that your position is so weak that you try to back it up that way.
Good news for a change!
great ! Monsanto should die a quick death and I hope the door does hit them on the backside.
Thumbs down to all gmo companies.
Nobody wants your poison!
Is the ttp thing going to mean tax payers will be forced to pick up the bill for lost revenue when people refuse to eat the herbicide saturated poison? Monsanto reap hate because they sow poison.
The article says: “Farmers are forbidden from saving patented seeds year to year.” This is nonsense! The way the Monsanto seeds work is that farmers need to buy new seeds every year b/c the GMO seeds can’t be saved and make to grow, that’s how they are designed, that’s the whole idea for Monsanto to make business! Duh!
Yet even when they are gone, their evil will remain in crops being cross pollenated with GMOs, the poison in the water tables, cancer causing chemicals left in the soil. So when is someone going to be arrested and charged with these crimes against humanity. My way of thinking, a corporation does not make decisions, a human does. I hold the human responsible for the crime. Corporations are the legal cover for elite criminals to rape the earth and humanity with no worries of paying for their crimes.
GMO’s = obesity, infertility, allergies etc, and the reason American men & woman look “pregnant,” yet are not. Most American beer have gone over to the dark side, and switched to GMO, not the same beer it was 10-15 years ago.
Pay more for non-GMO food, or pay later with your health.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving corporation. Oh how the mighty fall … it is glorious.
Good news but the same corrupt legislators that allowed this to happen in the first place are still being elected.