Monsanto Company (MON)’s Next Conquest for GMO Dominance

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Then starts a cycle of becoming ever more reliant on the herbicides and pesticides necessary to grow those crops. Why buy Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON)’s Roundup-resistant seed if you’re not going to spray the herbicide afterwards? Unfortunately, the overapplication of these chemicals is leading to the creation of superweeds and superbugs and have been linked with the destruction of the honeybee population. For farmers who wished to go back to the old ways, their fields would have to lie fallow for years before the chemicals poured onto them were gone, a practical impossibility when the harvests are used for subsistence.

Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON) withdrew bids to grow eight of nine genetically modified crops in Europe because of staunch opposition and will instead focus on conventional seed types. Syngenta AG (ADR) (NYSE:SYT) is now fighting the EU’s ban on its pesticide thiamethoxam, the neonicotinoids thought responsible for honeybee colony collapse disorder. Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON), Syngenta AG (ADR) (NYSE:SYT), and The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW)‘s AgriScience division have resorted to combating the anti-GMO sentiment rampant on the continent by creating a website dedicated to pushing its agenda and combating fears.

Perhaps the far easier solution is to look elsewhere for easier fish to fry — or turn into Frankenfood. The fertile, untapped potential of Africa is just such a place, and while local resistance to GM crops is mounting, the individual governing bodies may yet pave the way for their introduction. A new era of agricultural colonialism will be born where the local farmer ends up becoming enslaved to the global profit demands of corporate agriculture.

The article Monsanto’s Next Conquest for GMO Dominance originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Rich Duprey.

Fool contributor Rich Duprey and The Motley Fool have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 

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