MON Overview

Founded more than a century ago in St. Louis, Missouri, the Monsanto Company (MON) was the creation of John Queeny, a seasoned veteran of the pharmaceutical industry, who started the company with his own capital. Beginning in 1901, the company’s first marketed product was saccharin, an artificial sweetener that was sold to the Coca-Cola Company.

As a regular supplier for Coca-Cola, Monsanto later introduced caffeine and vanillin, a synthetic product that is a vanilla flavoring agent used in foods, beverages, and pharmaceuticals. It was not until the 1920s that the company entered into the market that they are most recognized for, the chemical industry. During this time, the company began to produce such chemicals as sulfuric acid, with principle uses including chemical synthesis, fertilizer manufacturing, oil refining, and later on, lead-acid batteries, ore processing and wastewater processing.

By the 1940s, Monsanto was the leading manufacturer of plastics, including such products as polystyrene, which is the basis for CD and DVD cases, smoke detector housings and disposable cutlery, and synthetic fibers. Throughout the decade, the company also was the leading producer of DDT and Agent Orange, which was used in the Vietnam War as a deforestation weapon. It was later proven that Agent Orange was a carcinogenic to those who came into contact with the chemical solution.

Over the next several decades, operations within the company ranged from chemical weapons for the government to the marketing of polyurethanes, which included items such as wheels and tires, gaskets, bushings, adhesives and Spandex fibers.

In 1982, scientists at Monsanto became the first to genetically alter a plant cell. Within five years, the company was conducting their first field test of these genetically engineered crops. By the late 1990s, Monsanto had transitioned the company from one of chemical manufacturing, into a biotech giant, by way of mergers and spin-offs.

Incorporated in February 2000, Monsanto’s seeds, biotechnology trait products, and herbicides provide farmers with solutions to produce foods for consumers and feed for animals. Monsanto is the leading provider of agricultural products for farmers in the U.S. and internationally, while operating in two main business segments, Seeds and Genomics, and Agricultural Productivity.

The Seeds and Genomics segment produces corn, soybeans, canola, and cotton seeds, as well as vegetable and fruit seeds, including tomato, pepper, cucumber, and lettuce. This segment also develops biotechnology traits that assist farmers in controlling insects and weeds, as well as provide genetic material and biotechnology traits to other seed companies for their seed brands.

The Agricultural Productivity segment offers glyphosate-based herbicides for agricultural, industrial, ornamental, and turf applications. Glyphosate is a systemic herbicide used to kill weeds, normally perennials, and is used in the cut-stump treatment as a forestry herbicide.

Other uses include herbicides for residential lawn-and-garden applications and other selective controls of pre-emergent grass and small seeded broadleaf weeds in corn and other crops.

Monsanto also licenses germplasm and trait technologies to various outside seed companies. Germplasm is a collection of seeds, or genetic resources for an organism, that is stored for later use. The company sells its products through distributors, retailers, dealers, agricultural co-ops, plant raisers, and agents, as well as directly to farmers.

The company is currently working on procedures to commercialize a proprietary grain processing technology as well as plant biotechnology that focus on high-yielding crops and ones that are tolerant to adverse conditions.

Monsanto Co. currently competes with publicly traded companies such as Syngenta AG (SYT), Dow Chemical Co. (DOW), El DuPont de Nemours & Co. (DD), BASF SE ADS (BASFY.PK), and Total SA (TOT), along with privately held companies such as Bayer CropScience AG, ExxonMobil Chemical Company, Formosa Plastics Corporation, Shell Chemicals Limited and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation.

By BetterTrades