Monsanto profit falls as Roundup struggles

Monsanto profit falls as Roundup struggles

KANSAS CITY | Wed Jun 30, 2010 12:15pm EDT

KANSAS CITY Missouri (Reuters) - Monsanto Co (MON.N) reported a 45 percent drop in quarterly net income on Wednesday as the global seed leader's Roundup herbicide business continued to struggle, sending its shares down as much as 4.3 percent.

Company officials, who called 2010 a "challenging year," said while they saw a 5 percent jump in net sales of seeds and genomics, net sales of Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides fell 56 percent.

Roundup was once a key profit-driver for Monsanto, and it has continued to generate sales even in the face of generic competition, in part because of Monsanto's development of "Roundup Ready" crops -- those genetically altered to tolerate treatments of the Roundup weed killer. Monsanto's Roundup Ready soybeans, for example, have been wildly popular with U.S. farmers.

But as problems with weed resistance have mounted and generic competition has pressured prices, Monsanto has seen its herbicide revenue slide.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65T2VJ20100630

Who knew?

:silly:

That's the last time I ever buy that shit.

that we buy. That stuff kills everything. It still might be made by Monsanto. I'll look next time I'm at Lowe's. Gee, I'm surprised Monsanto can't just force farmers to buy their shit.

seeds, fertilizers, everything.

Watch The Future of Food - it has some really interesting info on Monsanto. It was free on Hulu for awhile, might still be.

"Did you eat some crap sold by Monsanto in the last 5 years? Is your hair falling out? Do you have cancer of the eyebrows, inner ear, or fingernails? Are your testicles shrinking? You may be entitled to compensation."

passion that I hate Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Me too..I believe they are truly evil..

I will never buy any of their products and have told friends who didn't know about them, the Monsanto story. They aren't "real" Americans!

I'm afraid Monsanto's attempt at creation science, creating shit that will tolerate their poison, is no match for Mother Nature. She can take those genes and scatter them no matter how many signs Monsanto puts up on a field. Soon their fields will have dandelions and bugs just as she intended.

That's why Monsanto decided to get out of the glyphosate business a year or two ago.

Being evil in more ways than one can imagine would be "challenging" I guess.

Monsanto deserves to be at or near the top of the list of the most evil corporate business plans.

GMO food for all (whether you want it or not)! :grr:

http://gefreebc.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/farmers-herbicide-roundup-resistant-weeds/

Farmers Expected To Return To Harsh
Herbicides, Chemicals In Battle Against Roundup Resistant Weeds
July 1, 2010

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When the weed killer Roundup was introduced in the 1970s, it proved it could kill nearly any plant while still being safer than many other herbicides, and it allowed farmers to give up harsher chemicals and reduce tilling that can contribute to erosion.

But 34 years later, a few sturdy species of weed resistant to Roundup have evolved, forcing farmers to return to some of the less environmentally safe practices they abandoned decades ago.

The situation is the worst in the South, where some farmers now walk fields with hoes, killing weeds in a way their great-grandfathers were happy to leave behind. And the problem is spreading quickly across the Corn Belt and beyond, with Roundup now proving unreliable in killing at least 10 weed species in at least 22 states. Some species, like Palmer amaranth in Arkansas and water hemp and marestail in Illinois, grow fast and big, producing tens of thousands of seeds.

“It’s getting to be a big deal,” said Mike Plumer, a 61-year-old farmer and University of Illinois agronomist who grows soybeans and cotton near the southern Illinois community of Creal Springs. “If you’ve got it, it’s a real big deal.”

When Monsanto introduced Roundup in 1976, “it was like the best thing since sliced bread,” said Garry Niemeyer, who grows corn and soybeans near Auburn in central Illinois.

..more..

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/2010/roundup_ready_soybean_patent_expiration_commitment_extension.asp

warning, the following announcement comes from Monsanto,
:puke:

http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto_today/2010/roundup_rea...

Roundup Ready® Soybean Post-Patent Regulatory Commitment Extended through 2021
July 8, 2010 By K. Sauer


In December 2009, we communicated our plans for the Roundup Ready® soybean patent expiration in 2014. This included continuing global regulatory approvals through 2017. Since the announcement, we have worked with our licensees, our customers and the industry to develop further plans. Based on these conversations, we are extending this regulatory commitment through 2021.

Why are Global Regulatory Approvals Important?
International regulatory approvals for biotechnology products are important for farmers because much of the grain they produce and sell is exported. By granting regulatory approval, countries are recognizing that the product is safe for food and feed use – and therefore can be imported.

Having international regulatory approvals in place allows farmers to plant, harvest and ship their product around the world without disruption. Without these approvals, farmers have fewer markets to sell their grain to – and therefore lower profit potential.

Why is the 2021 Extension Important to the Industry?
By maintaining the Roundup Ready soybean regulatory approvals in other countries through 2021, Monsanto is enabling farmers who continue to plant that technology post-patent to have access to broadly market their grain for many more years.

It also gives farmers and the industry more than a decade to develop plans and mechanisms to assure continuing import approval support in export markets beyond 2021. The first-generation Roundup Ready soybean technology is the first of several technologies developed by Monsanto and other trait providers that will be coming off patent within the next decade.

On average, Monsanto spends $1-1.5 million per year to maintain global regulatory approvals for a product. Therefore, maintaining regulatory approvals for off-patent products will be a significant financial commitment for companies and trait developers that continue to market these products in the future. Over the next months, Monsanto is committed to working through BIO with our customers, our licensees, other biotechnology trait developers and stakeholders to determine the most-effective management approach for future off-patent technologies.