Monsanto

Daniel Pieper, of Hunter Mill Farm in White Hall, donated a $2,500 grant he won to Penn-Mar Human Services in Freeland Tuesday, March 27. Pieper applied for the grant in December and was informed he was the Baltimore County winner of Monsanto's American Farmers Grow Communities grant program in January. The national program is sponsored by the Monsanto, an agricultural biotech company headquartered in St. Louis. Farmers who cultivate at least 250 acres and live in any of 1,245 qualified counties across the United States can apply.

Food safety groups are ramping up pressure on Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski over language included in a government funding bill that would make it harder for courts to block the planting of genetically engineered crops. The language, tucked into appropriations legislation to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year, would strip courts of the power to halt the planting of such crops if a judge felt a review of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's approval was warranted over health or environmental concerns.

WASHINGTON -- While the federal government doesn't usually endorse products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has struck an unusual arrangement with agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. that gives farmers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota a break on federal crop insurance premiums if they plant Monsanto-brand seed corn this spring. The arrangement has raised some eyebrows, particularly among organic farm groups that argue the government agency should not be promoting Monsanto seed corn that contains chemicals that kill weeds and insects.

Daniel Pieper, of Hunter Mill Farm in White Hall, donated a $2,500 grant he won to Penn-Mar Human Services in Freeland Tuesday, March 27. Pieper applied for the grant in December and was informed he was the Baltimore County winner of Monsanto's American Farmers Grow Communities grant program in January. The national program is sponsored by the Monsanto, an agricultural biotech company headquartered in St. Louis. Farmers who cultivate at least 250 acres and live in any of 1,245 qualified counties across the United States can apply.

Q. Help! I am the nervous owner of 66 shares of Monsanto Co. which seem to be sinking fast. Should I hold on or let go?A. There's no need for a life raft.Despite a decline in price on weak earnings estimates, your shares of chemical producer Monsanto Co. (around $55 a share, New York Stock Exchange) should be held, advised Harvey Stuber, analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.Monsanto incurred enormous costs with its G. D. Searle division and in releasing its Maxaquin infection-fighting drug.

Can my shares of Monsanto Co. continue to rise at their current pace or should I be worried? - R.M., via the Internet The world's leading producer of a wide range of seeds has found farmers more willing to spend money on premium corn seed this year. That's because farmers are benefiting from the highest corn prices in more than a decade because of global demand for food and for fuel such as ethanol. U.S. corn production is expected to rise 26 percent this year, according to the Agriculture Department.

A genetically altered plant that excretes pesticide will be tested in cotton fields around the nation this summer, a major step toward getting the first such plants onto the market.The Environmental Protection Agency approved yesterday large-scale field tests of Monsanto Co.'s cotton plant on about 60 acres in 11 states. Approval came despite concerns that the large green caterpillar so destructive to the plant could become resistant to the pesticide.Other genetically engineered plants have been tested in the open and are moving toward commercial markets.

In an effort to capitalize on what it sees as a revolution in agricultural biotechnology, Monsanto Co. said yesterday that it has agreed to buy Holden's Foundation Seeds Inc., a major corn seed producer, and two Holden seed distributors, for $1.02 billion.The purchase, which some Wall Street analysts viewed as expensive, comes less than a month after Monsanto announced that it would spin off its $3 billion chemicals business to concentrate on its faster-growing agricultural, nutrition and health businesses.

ST. LOUIS -- Monsanto Co. said yesterday that it will spin off its chemicals business to shareholders and fire up to 2,500 people so it can concentrate on its agricultural, food ingredients and pharmaceuticals businesses.The move is the most dramatic of a series of steps by Monsanto to transform itself from a traditional chemical company into a leader in the emerging agricultural biotechnology industry.Monsanto will set aside $400 million to $600 million to cover the cost of the spinoff, to be charged against 1996 earnings.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- DuPont Co. has agreed to buy the 80 percent of Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. that it does not already own for $7.7 billion in cash and stock, or $40 a share, to boost its growing agriculture unit.Des Moines, Iowa-based Pioneer Hi-Bred, the world's largest seed-corn company, has annual sales of $1.8 billion from genetically enhanced grains and feed additives.DuPont said it would pay cash for 45 percent of the shares and stock for the rest. The offer is an 81 percent premium over Pioneer's closing price Wednesday, before news of discussions between the two companies lifted Pioneer's shares.

Mother Nature is in the news of late, and she doesn't seem happy. Monsanto, the Great Satan in the eyes of the environmental movement, is making headlines with huge profit increases and yet another David-versus-Goliath lawsuit in Manhattan filed by organic and family farmers who fear the health consequences of the company's genetically modified food crops. Scotts Miracle-Gro, a lesser Satan in the garden, tried to polish its image with an arranged marriage with the National Wildlife Federation, only to have the nuptials hastily canceled when Scotts pleaded guilty to knowingly selling tons of bird seed tainted with pesticides.

WASHINGTON -- While the federal government doesn't usually endorse products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has struck an unusual arrangement with agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. that gives farmers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota a break on federal crop insurance premiums if they plant Monsanto-brand seed corn this spring. The arrangement has raised some eyebrows, particularly among organic farm groups that argue the government agency should not be promoting Monsanto seed corn that contains chemicals that kill weeds and insects.

Can my shares of Monsanto Co. continue to rise at their current pace or should I be worried? - R.M., via the Internet The world's leading producer of a wide range of seeds has found farmers more willing to spend money on premium corn seed this year. That's because farmers are benefiting from the highest corn prices in more than a decade because of global demand for food and for fuel such as ethanol. U.S. corn production is expected to rise 26 percent this year, according to the Agriculture Department.

Agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. is challenging a growing trend among dairies to label their milk "hormone free," saying that claim misleads consumers into believing the cow growth hormone Monsanto makes is unsafe. St. Louis-based Monsanto's aggressive move against a group of dairies to halt use of the labels could send ripples through the food industry.

PHILADELPHIA -- Facing sharp competition and market share erosion in its once-unassailable corn seed business, DuPont Co. says it will cut about 10 percent of its work force, or 1,500 employees, in its agriculture and nutrition division. The cuts will save the Wilmington, Del., chemical company about $100 million a year, which it will plow back into developing new high-yielding corn seeds. DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred seed operation, a centerpiece of its effort to restructure into a biotech company and out of old-line petrochemicals, has been losing corn seed market share to Monsanto Corp.

The Corporation isn't impressed much by the benefits of capitalism, and with a select panel of judges that includes Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky, you can guess how that goes (badly, for corporations like Monsanto). Still, given the black eye corporations have given themselves over the past few years, you can hardly say that The Corporation isn't timely or overdue. The documentary starts with legal decisions in the 1800s that established incorporated bodies as "persons" with the right to buy, sell, borrow money and sue. Corporations attained these privileges but often undertook them without any moral framework.

Agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. is challenging a growing trend among dairies to label their milk "hormone free," saying that claim misleads consumers into believing the cow growth hormone Monsanto makes is unsafe. St. Louis-based Monsanto's aggressive move against a group of dairies to halt use of the labels could send ripples through the food industry.

PHILADELPHIA -- Facing sharp competition and market share erosion in its once-unassailable corn seed business, DuPont Co. says it will cut about 10 percent of its work force, or 1,500 employees, in its agriculture and nutrition division. The cuts will save the Wilmington, Del., chemical company about $100 million a year, which it will plow back into developing new high-yielding corn seeds. DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred seed operation, a centerpiece of its effort to restructure into a biotech company and out of old-line petrochemicals, has been losing corn seed market share to Monsanto Corp.

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. - For nine years, two dozen genetic engineers struggled to create a simple soybean that would stand up to a killer herbicide. After tens of thousands of blind alleys, they thought they might have done it: The researchers had created 100 seedlings that contained DNA from soil bacteria, a cauliflower virus and a petunia plant. They planned to test them cautiously in their Monsanto Co. labs. But an eager executive decided to test them all, to douse every plant with a highly potent concentration of the herbicide.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- DuPont Co. has agreed to buy the 80 percent of Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. that it does not already own for $7.7 billion in cash and stock, or $40 a share, to boost its growing agriculture unit.Des Moines, Iowa-based Pioneer Hi-Bred, the world's largest seed-corn company, has annual sales of $1.8 billion from genetically enhanced grains and feed additives.DuPont said it would pay cash for 45 percent of the shares and stock for the rest. The offer is an 81 percent premium over Pioneer's closing price Wednesday, before news of discussions between the two companies lifted Pioneer's shares.