Who are you most afraid of – Darth Vader, Ninjas or Monsanto employees?
It happens. You create images of people and places you’ve never seen or met. And with some of the things that get said about Monsanto, it wouldn’t surprise me if some people said they were more afraid of Monsanto employees than they are of Darth Vader or ninjas…
Who should speak up for farmers?
As farmers look at the way the world works, its easy to think things need to change. Tennessee farmer Johnny Dodson says farmers need to speak up & be involved.
Indian Farmers Producing More, Conserving More and Improving Lives with Better Technology
Through innovative technology and a partnership between farmers, Monsanto and an Indian NGO, farmers are growing more, on the same amount of land, using less seed and less water. This is improving farmer’s lives, and the lives of those in the surrounding communities.
Golden Tower Pepper Improves the Lives of 30,000 Chinese Growers
Hongge Cai is a 49-year-old Chinese grower who used to feed his family by working on a two-hectare parcel of land growing corn. He, his wife, and two sons barely survived on $2,000 a year. But switching to a hybrid pepper on their farm improved their lives-along with 30,000 others.
Gothenburg Learning Center Highlights Agricultural Conservation
By Sara Duncan Water limitations are constant constraints to western agricultural production. In 2008, Monsanto pledged to reduce, by one-third, soil, land, water and energy resources required to produce a unit of its corn, soybeans and cotton crops between 2000 and 2030. Using a combination of advanced breeding, biotechnology and improved farm-management practices, the company [...]
The Future of Food
As a Brit living in the United States, I have immensely enjoyed all the attention my former stomping grounds have been receiving lately due to the Royal Wedding. Watching my future king walk down the aisle, and having my American friends and family celebrate with me, was incredible and exciting. So when His Royal Highness [...]
Thinking About Dirt
Earth Day, 1970. The first one. I was a college freshman at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. An entire array of events was planned on the large tract of land in front of the Student Union, known as the Parade Ground (and still known as that) for when ROTC was mandatory for freshmen boys. [...]
Farmers Signing Technology Use Agreements
Over the last few days I’ve seen people tweeting about Monsanto’s Technology / Stewardship Agreement (MTSA). Tweets send you to a video of two people discussing the agreement and now there is a commentary on Huffington Post. There seems to be a lot of shock that a liability statement is included in the document, and [...]
“Monsanto is Evil.” What?
“Monsanto is evil.” I’ve seen headlines like that, the latest one for a story about the readers of a website catering to people interested in natural news, health and information. The readers had voted Monsanto as “Most Evil Corporation of the Year.” Given the readers and the site’s coverage of GM food, even the editor [...]
It’s a New Year…Almost!
By Katie It’s human nature to think ahead. We think about what we’re going to have for supper, and what we’re going to do for the coming weekend. In the seed industry, now is the time we start thinking about our plan for success for the upcoming year. We think about varieties we’re going to [...]
Industrial Farming Gives Freedom of Choice for Farmers
From Mica: I discovered my colleague, Ed Umbaugh, through Twitter a few months ago. His Twitter bio intrigued me: “Ed Umbaugh lives on a very small farm where we raise grass fed lamb. I am a Tech at a Monsanto soybean seed plant.” I asked him if he’d be willing to share insight into his [...]
Sudden Death Syndrome Making its Mark in Soybeans
I couldn’t cut it as a farmer—for a multitude of reasons—but primarily, I couldn’t stomach the business risks involved. There are risks such as weather and disease that are completely out of your hands no matter how much forethought and planning you do. It appears that U.S. soybean farmers are facing one such risk this [...]
The Race Against Mother Nature
By Tyne It’s a race against Mother Nature every spring and fall for farmers across the U.S. This season, some may argue Mother Nature has pulled ahead over the past month. What started out to be a great year for planting with above normal temperatures in many areas across the country, has turned into a [...]
Five Answers on Monsanto’s Haiti Seed Donation
Since announcing Monsanto’s $4 million seed donation to Haitian farmers on May 13, there have been some questions and some inaccuracies regarding details of the gift. We covered some of the answers in this initial blog post, which primarily addressed how the donation came about and noted the seeds were hybrids not biotech (GMO). Monsanto [...]
Roundup Ready Alfalfa and the Supreme Court – the End of GMOs?
Today, Roundup Ready Alfalfa gets its day before the U.S. Supreme Court. And thousands of farmers will be watching and waiting—including the 5,500 farmers who planted approximately 260,000 acres of Roundup Ready alfalfa prior to the injunction. This is significant because it’s the first time a biotech or genetically modified crop has gone before the [...]
Social Media Coverage of Commodity Classic 2010
California Dreamin’ with Corn, Soybean, Wheat and Sorghum Growers The 2010 Commodity Classic Show kicks off today in Anaheim, California. Classic (as its known to hip ag-sters) is the annual meeting of the nation’s corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum growers, hosted by the National Corn Growers Association, American Soybean Association, National Association of Wheat Growers, [...]
There Isn’t an Off-season in Farming
During the cold days of February, Nebraska farmer Leland Uden sometimes recalls a joke he’s heard from his non-farming friends: “I wish I could be a school teacher in the summer and a farmer in the winter.” Uden’s winter to-do list proves at least the farmer part of that joke isn’t true. A farmer’s job [...]
When Farmers Are Your Business, What Does Your Business Meeting Look Like?
It’s not the first annual shareholder meeting I’ve ever been to and it won’t be the last. This one was a little bit different for me – it was the first one I’d been to since joining Monsanto. My previous experiences with annual shareholder meetings at a previous job were fairly formulaic. There are specific [...]
Bruce Drager: Serving Farmers as a Technical Resource
On Dec. 2, I talked with farmer/dealer Dave Morris about his farming operations in southeastern Minnesota. Since then, I’ve been talking with Monsanto people who support what Dave does on his farm. Some help from more than a thousand miles away; others, like Bruce Drager, are somewhat closer. Bruce is Monsanto’s Technology Development Representative (TDR) [...]
Learning from Farmers at the Learning Center
It’s quiet right now at Monsanto’s Monmouth, Ill., Learning Center, as least from a visitor perspective. During the late spring and summer months, a steady stream of farmers, seed dealers, investors, academics, international groups and youth organizations tour the facility to learn about the latest seed technologies being researched and tested in the field. “And [...]
Video: Getting to Know Mike Haley & Haley Farms
I really enjoy days when I can sit down to talk to a farmer about his farm. The fact that the history of family and land are so intertwined, rose to the top of my awareness several years ago. It was exactly what happened recently when I sat down with Mike Haley of Haley Farms [...]
Farmers Love Data!
It’s Saturday morning and I’m sitting in a meeting room… got here at 8 a.m. and we will be running until the afternoon. As the speakers have taken the stage or videos hit the screen, I’m reminded of how important data is to farmers. The data presented today is on cotton – yield, fiber quality, [...]
Customer Ops to Defending Our Crops
Monsanto’s Whitney Sparks talks about her experience with agriculture. Getting to know the farmer first hand has opened her eyes to the importance of Monsanto products for the farmer.
