by Eric Blair
October 7, 2015
from
ActivistPost Website
Spanish version
It's hard to believe that the once almighty
Monsanto is on its
knees. But their dirty deeds seem to have finally caught up with
them.
Monsanto shares have already dropped 27 percent this year and they
just posted fourth quarter losses wider than estimates. They also
announced cost-saving measures to counter their plunge; deep cuts to
their workforce and exiting the sugarcane business.
Bloomberg
reports:
Monsanto Co. said it will eliminate
2,600 jobs as part of a cost-savings plan, joining a growing
list of major corporations struggling to contain the damage from
the decline in world commodities prices.
The St. Louis-based agricultural
giant announced the reductions - the equivalent of 12 percent of
its workforce - as it reported a loss of 19 cents a share in the
fiscal fourth quarter and warned profit would remain weak
through 2016.
Monsanto enjoys a near monopoly on corn
and soybean in North America.
They appear to have it all; they own,
-
the farmers
-
the industry
-
the politicians
-
the regulators...
And,
yet, they're crashing and burning.
Bloomberg cites slumping commodity
prices for Monsanto's decline.
"Like
DuPont Co. and Glencore Plc,
Monsanto, the world's largest seed maker, is taking steps to
combat the effects of a commodity slump…"
However, here are 5 real reasons
Monsanto is tanking:
-
Consumer activism
The market doesn't want
herbicide-soaked genetically modified food anymore. As
people are becoming more health conscious, they prefer to
eat
organic food. It's really that simple.
-
Lawsuits with farmers
Monsanto spends untold resources
suing family farms for patent infringement. Farmers are
forbidden from saving
patented seeds year to year. Additionally when
Monsanto's GMO crops pollute neighboring farms, Monsanto
sues those farms too. Not a great business model when your
primary customers are farmers. An
organic farmer in Australia is hoping to reverse this
revolting practice.
-
Funding anti-labeling campaigns
in multiple states is draining Monsanto of millions of
dollars
This seems to be the majority of
their "marketing" budget. They spent at least $8M
in 2012, over
$9M in 2013 in Washington State alone, and combined for
$8M to defeat just a county initiative in Maui County
Hawaii this past year.
-
Flagship product causes cancer
A recent World Health
Organization report concluded that the active chemical used
in Monsanto's flagship product "Glyphosate
is probably carcinogenic to humans." This unsettling
realization hasn't even begun to sink in yet. Although some
cancer-stricken farm workers are suing the big "M" over
their illness with many more likely to do the same.
-
National bans
An increasing number of
countries are banning either GMOs or certain pesticides, or
both. At least
15 European Union members move to ban GMO crops.
Meanwhile some small nations like Bermuda
and
Colombia have banned glyphosate.
To summarize, when people no longer want
a product, market share and regulatory control mean nothing. This a
long-term problem for Monsanto that can't be fixed with cost-savings
measures.
That is why they're doomed...
Monsanto to Cut 2,600 Jobs
...as
GMO Seed Sales Fall as Americans (and Europe) reject GMOs
by Anthony Gucciardi
October 8, 2015
from
NaturalSociety Website
It's not looking too good for
everyone's favorite GMO seed giant.
With sales figures crashing
down, Monsanto
has announced a plan to cut 2,600 jobs in an effort to cut costs
- about 11.6% of the workforce.
And this isn't the first time Monsanto
has experienced a serious slump in sales. Back in February of this
year, I told you about the 'beginning of the serious decline'
for both Monsanto and McDonald's. It's a notion that would be
considered absolutely absurd not too long ago, really.
McDonald's and
Monsanto were the two
'juggernauts' that everyone loved to hate, but felt powerless
against.
They were 'too big to fail,' we
thought. And perhaps the corporate executives thought so, too.
The truth is, however, that both of these companies had decades to
actually improve their practices and regain public opinion.
Why didn't McDonald's stop using cheap
fillers and toxic compounds in favor of something that's at least
somewhat higher quality?
Monsanto could have actually done
something about the numerous reports by mainstream media
organizations that detailed Indian farmer suicides as a result of
the company's terrible farming contracts.
Better yet, maybe Monsanto's deep ties
with the US government shouldn't have
threatened 'trade wars' with nations that would dare to
oppose their GMOs. It's all in The Guardian
report about the 2007 WikiLeaks revelations surrounding
Monsanto.
The U.S. State Department was apparently even paying for
Monsanto's marketing material overseas.
But back to Monsanto shedding cash...
Here's what Reuters
had to report:
"Monsanto Co, one of the world's
largest seed and agrichemical companies, said on Wednesday that
it was slashing 2,600 jobs and restructuring operations to cut
costs in a slumping commodity market.
Sales of corn seeds and traits,
Monsanto's key products, fell 5 percent to $598 million in the
quarter. And sales at the company's agricultural productivity
unit, which includes Roundup herbicide, dropped 12 percent to
$1.1 billion."
Unless Monsanto magically decides to
turn around and clean up its act, or manages to buy up Syngenta and
enter an entire new world of genetic modification, I expect to see
similar headlines in the future.
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