Video: Passion for Sustainable Squash & Supporting Growers
Bill Johnson is a breeder with Seminis, the Monsanto global vegetable seeds brand for open field crops. He breeds squash for key vegetable markets around the globe. Bill explains the importance of breeding squash to meet different cultural expectations and shares his lifelong passion for squash, which equals the passion he sees from vegetable growers who are committed to producing the best possible products.
Video: Producing More Peppers Sustainably
Bill McCarthy, is a breeder with Seminis, the Monsanto global vegetable seeds brand for open field crops. He breeds a variety of peppers, including mini-peppers. Bill talks about the various benefits peppers offer to consumers and his commitment to helping make vegetable growers more productive by delivering sustainable products that are more robust and require fewer pesticides to thrive.
Video: Sustainable Tomato Breeding Helps Meet Demand
James Frantz is a tomato breeder. He gives us some background on the popularity of the tomato and how this popularity makes for challenging opportunities to help tomato growers meet constant demand by providing them the agriculture tools to grow consistent, sustainable products across various season and geographies. Disease resistance is one of those important sustainable agriculture tools.
Video: Passion & Innovation Bring Benefits to Producers & Consumers
Ken Kmiecik breeds beans for Seminis, the Monsanto global vegetable seeds brand for open field crops. Ken discusses the implications of disease resistance on grower success – in providing higher agriculture yields and ensuring that vegetables look appealing to consumers – and talks about his own history of becoming involved in agriculture and how much he enjoys the constant challenges in his role with vegetables at Monsanto.
Giving Back to the Troops
Recently, I received an invitation from a military-support organization to spend the day with the troops. As a member of the Navy League in the US, and the Royal British Legion Scotland and Royal British Legion in the United Kingdom, I never pass up those opportunities.
A Wee Bit of Culture in St. Louis
Close your eyes and picture Forest Park full of Scots and Americans, many wearing traditional highland attire, the sound of the bagpipes floating across the park, the clang of swords, the melody of folk music, the grunts of the athletes as they toss cabers and other heavy objects, the smell of food, the laughter of children, and the cheers of onlookers. This was the experience for the thousands of people who visited the 2011 Scottish Games.
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…
There and Back Again
Thoughts from Saltire Foundation intern Kitty, at the end of her 8-week internship at Monsanto’s global headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, on what she gained, and what she’s taking back to Scotland with her.
The Leaving of St Louis
After an eight-week internship at Monsanto’s global headquarters, Rory–an intern from Scotland’s Saltire Foundation–reflects on the life-changing experience.
Give a little bit…
What happens when a Scottish intern partners with Monsanto employees to volunteer with almost 1,000 kids in the St. Louis community?
Helping Grow Community
Reflections from one of Scotland’s Saltire Foundation interns at Monsanto on volunteerism by Monsanto employees and the new Grow St. Louis project.
Innovation Conserves Water in Hawaii
Water is a limited resource. According to FAO, agriculture is the world’s largest consumer of water. Between now and 2050 the world’s water supply will have to feed and create livelihoods for an additional 2.7 billion people. It is essential to identify ways to preserve this precious resource. The Monsanto team in Hawaii took this challenge to heart, and were able to conserve 11 million gallons of water annually.
We’re all in this together…
I’m the youngest of seven children. Before I was born in Ireland, my parents and six older siblings lived in Zambia for a number of years and three of them were even born there. They often talk about their time spent in Africa and my brother Ronan’s adamant claims of “Afro-Irishness” still amuse me to this day. This is perhaps one of the main reasons why I have always been intrigued by the African continent and its peoples – my family loved their time in Zambia and their stories and tales about the friends they met and the things they experienced do well to paint a pleasant picture of life there.
Producing More Vegetables in Peru
A huge challenge for today’s agriculture is producing more, using less resources. And at Monsanto, we are working hard to do our part. Our employees in Peru are an incredible example of this. The team at Monsanto’s Homefarm ICA vegetable seed production site looked at their entire site and through agronomic and production changes were able to increase vegetable yields almost 1,000 percent.
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.
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 [...]
Sending the “City Girl” on Assignment to a Farm
Raegan Johnson is a member of my work team. If you don’t know her, I can tell you that she’s friendly, polite, deferential; well, maybe I should say friendly and usually polite and leave it at that. What you may not know is that she has some “magna cum laudes” after her degrees and she’s [...]
How the FFA has Impacted Monsanto Employees
National FFA Week is upon us, and it’s a great time to celebrate the contributions that past members have made and current students are making. At Monsanto, we have hundreds of employees who are FFA alumni. This week, I spoke with four Monsanto employees about their FFA experiences and how the organization has had a [...]
A Small Family Farmer at Monsanto
Monsanto is comprised of over 22,000 individuals from around the world and I recently learned that 600 of them are PhDs–but that’s what you would expect from a biotech company. What you might not expect is the number of farmers that work at Monsanto.
Farm Girl Goes Global
I grew up on five acres of rich, black, Central Illinois soil, where you can see corn and soybeans stretch to the horizon. Our large, family-owned pork farm sits just a half mile up the road from our house, where my dad manages a 7,000-head operation with seven employees.
A Peek Behind the Curtain at Monsanto
Monsanto employees see the value of accountability. We understand that food is an emotional issue. We know the deep passions and the romance we all have about our food. But we also know that there are many, many false claims about Monsanto on the Web.
Monsanto – We’re Just Like You
Monsanto is a community of people who believe in what they do and not an evil corporation. Sorry conspiracy bloggers.
