Sunday, July 19, 2009

Monosoto

I watched a movie yesterday called Food. It was very interesting and had a lot of bad things to say of Monosoto, but ...

I think the company is very interesting. They make a product called round-up, which farmers use to protect their crops. What's more interesting is the new business they are in which is genetic engineering crops. They produce a soy seed that is resistant to ... you guessed it round-up. Not only that they have former executives in top positions in the government like the FDA and the supreme court (Clarence Thomas). This type of power has made their seed patentable, which means farmers can't replant the seed that comes from their own crop.

What's even more interesting is that if neighboring farmers plant Monosoto seed and that seed flies onto another farmers land; that farmer is guilty of patent infringement if they sell the crop. Wow! No wonder Monosoto has almost a 90% market share. Doesn't seem very ethical, but the moat on this business has to be huge.

Should you invest in a company that has questionable ethics? I'm not sure I have enough cents to call that one.

1 comment:

Stephen said...

i think monsanto is one of the most evil companies on the planet. personally i would never invest due to ethics