About “Beyond the Rows”

Beyond the Rows is a Monsanto Company blog focused on one of the world’s most important industries, agriculture. Monsanto employees write about Monsanto’s business, the agriculture industry, and the farmer.avatar Monsantoco Posts

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A Boost for Education and the Arts Featured Article

Today, the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) and Monsanto announced that Monsanto is giving $1 million for a community education center in Grand Center in mid-town St. Louis. According to UMSL, “Scheduled to open in late spring, the building will offer classes and programming in the city’s newest arts center and provide a new home for the studios and offices of St. Louis Public Radio|90.7 KWMU.”

My wife and I spend a lot of time in Grand Center. Decades ago, it was the place to see the latest movies, in large, rather opulent movie theaters that were so common in American … Full Article »

Helping Restore a Piece of St. Louis’ Past

Greenwood Cemetery was founded in 1874 by Herman Kreuger, a native German and member of St. Peter’s German Evangelical Church, to serve the African-American community of St. Louis. Situated on 31 acres, it is divided into 22 burial sections. Krueger’s descendants maintained the cemetery through the 1970s. It was sold in the 1980s, and gradually fell into disrepair. The last burials occurred there in 1993.

A number of famous African-Americans are buried there, including Harriett Scott, the wife of Dred Scott, and composer and blues pianist Walter Davis.

In 1999, the Friends of the Greenwood Cemetery, Inc., was formed to … Full Article »

airport-travellers

There and Back Again

All good things must come to an end.

True, but the impact they have travels with us.

The past eight weeks of my internship with Monsanto have flown by. Before we came to St Louis, we received a list of projects we would work on, giving us an idea of what would be expected of us, the teams that we would work within, and the output expected.

If this list had included a “What you will learn at Monsanto” section, you can bet it would be infinitely short of the actual lessons I’ll take away with me.

Not just about … Full Article »

The Leaving of St Louis

So here we are. Eight weeks to the day that I arrived in sunny St Louis, I’m packing my bags and getting ready to go back to not-so-sunny Scotland.

The past eight weeks have been challenging, fascinating and memorable. As a journalism student with very little knowledge of agriculture or bioscience (or marketing and public affairs for that matter!), I didn’t really know what to expect from interning here. .But looking back, I feel more confident, knowledgeable and driven ahead of my return to university in Glasgow.

I now have experience in an array of roles; contributing to Global Branding … Full Article »

Kitty Gordon

Give a little bit…

For most of us Sunday is a day of rest. For the volunteers at the Monsanto YMCA this weekend, it was anything but.

Hundreds of children poured through the doors for the annual Craig Blac’s Community Cuts for Kids event. This Sunday’s mammoth task was to cut or style the hair of over 300 children before their return to school. A 30 strong team containing a mixture of both experienced stylists and students from the Paul Mitchell hair college here in St. Louis, crammed in to the Monsanto YMCA on Page Avenue for four hours of hair cuts, hot dogs, … Full Article »

Helping Grow Community

Editor’s note: Rory Herron is one of two UK interns spending their summer at Monsanto’s global headquarters, under a program with Scotland’s Saltire Foundation. The Saltire Foundation is an independent charitable organization representing a new vision for Scotland, providing invaluable opportunities through experience, learning and business networking. Its undergraduate internship programme offers Scotland’s students the chance to spend 8 weeks working at a top multinational company with the aim of encouraging candidates to develop their confidence, skills and capacity to succeed.


By Rory Herron

I am now just over the half-way point in my 8-week Corporate Marketing & Communications … Full Article »

The Scottish Are Coming! The Scottish Are Coming!

By Kitty Gordon

Avid “Beyond the Rows” readers will have been introduced to my fellow intern Rory, and will know a little about who we are, and why we’re with Monsanto for the summer. For those of you who haven’t had the good fortune to read Rory’s blog, I’ll fill in the gaps.

My name is Kitty Gordon. I am a 26 year old Communications and Public Relations student from Aberdeen in the north east of Scotland, and part of the fantastic Saltire program.

The Saltire Foundation is a Scottish organization established in 2006 with a view to … Full Article »

Monsanto Organizes Employees’ Passion for Volunteering

By Sara Duncan

Monsanto employees have a long history of volunteer work. Recently, a Monsanto team created a program that makes it easier for employees to get involved in communities where we do business—Monsantogether.

Monsantogether hosts a website where employees can learn about local organizations that need volunteers, using a variety of search criteria including the types of services offered by each organization and where they are headquartered. Employees can also use the website to organize team-based service projects and search for projects organized by others. After each volunteer event, employees are asked to input volunteer hours on the website.… Full Article »

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"It's Our Community,Too"

On April 22, severe thunderstorms raked the St. Louis metropolitan area, spinning off several tornados and causing a wide swath of damage. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured or killed.

The St. Louis airport sustained significant damage, especially Concourse C which remains closed. The tornado that struck the airport traveled across Highway I-170 (a connecting highway between Interstate 70 and Interstate 64) and then moved for several blocks through the suburban community of Berkeley.

The news coverage of the damage was extensive, but to see the devastation first-hand is something else again. Last week, a team of 20 Monsanto people … Full Article »

Tornado Destruction

Amid the Damage, A Night of Miracles

On Friday night, my wife and I were on our way out to dinner in St. Louis, about two miles from home, when we heard the tornado sirens start. We turned around and went home, our “dinner out” turning into microwaved leftovers on a card table in our basement.

We were fortunate; our part of St. Louis was spared. But a lot of other Monsanto employees and their families weren’t, as the storm and its associated tornadoes bore down on an extended stretch of the St. Louis area that included rural areas to the west, the St. Louis airport and … Full Article »