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Monsanto to Charge as Much as 42% More for New Seeds
By Jack Kaskey
Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed maker, plans to charge as much as 42 percent more for new genetically modified seeds next year than older offerings because they increase farmers’ output.
Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans will cost farmers an average of $74 an acre in 2010, and original Roundup Ready soybeans will cost $52 an acre, St. Louis-based Monsanto said today in presentations on its Web site. SmartStax corn seeds, developed with Dow Chemical Co., will cost $130 an acre, 17 percent more than the YieldGard triple-stack seeds they will replace.
“Our pricing has the flexibility built in to ensure the grower captures the greatest return from his seed investment, irrespective of market volatility,” Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant said today in a statement.
Grant is introducing new modified seeds that boost yields as part of a plan to double gross profit from 2007 to 2012. The new soybeans, which resist Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, produce 7.4 percent more soybeans per acre than the older version. SmartStax kills insects in multiple ways, reducing the amount of conventional corn that must be planted to deter insecticide resistance.
“SmartStax pricing is higher than we initially expected,” Vincent Andrews, a New York-based analyst at Morgan Stanley, said today in a report.
Monsanto rose $1.57, or 1.9 percent, to $84.03 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have gained 19 percent this year.
Acreage Forecasts
SmartStax corn seed will be planted on as many as 4 million acres in 2010, its first year on the market, with a potential for as many as 65 million acres in the U.S. eventually, the company said. The new seed boosts yields 5 percent to 10 percent compared with other products, partly by reducing the amount of land that must be planted with conventional corn to 5 percent from 20 percent, Monsanto said.
Pricing for SmartStax is at the high end of expectations, Laurence Alexander, a New York-based analyst at Jefferies & Co., said by telephone.
Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean seeds were planted on 1.5 million acres this year and will be planted on as many as 8 million acres next year in the U.S. with a potential to one day reach 55 million acres, Monsanto said.
The company is pricing its seeds to share the benefit of increased yields with farmers, said Mark Gulley, a New York- based analyst at Soleil Securities. Prices include seed treatments designed to protect seedlings from pests and disease, Monsanto said.
“They are in essence splitting the value of the extra yield 50-50,” Gulley said by telephone.
Monsanto repeated its forecast for earnings in the fiscal year that ends this month at the low end of a range of $4.40 to $4.50 a share. The average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for profit of $4.41 a share
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aLW8VZBkP3PA
How do we stop Monsanto? They are creating a terrible monster andn they don’t care. We have no idea the dangers of GM food or as we all call it FRANKENFOOD! If there are people reading this, contact your representatives and complain. The FDA is a eunuch and has the power to destroy all life. But maybe that isn’t a bad thing. With what’s going on in this country, the world would be better off without it.
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Has any sort of research been done to show the long term health effects of these GMO-Seeds?
Reminds me of RBST in milk………
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Roundup ready? Roundup has proven to be a carcinogen to human beings.
Monsanto is evil. The company should be shut down and the board of directors and upper management put in prison, right in the same ward as Charles Manson, where they belong.
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The United States Constitution states that no living organism can be patented! How is it that Monsanto is getting away with treason? They have ruined East India farmers by forcing them to buy patented seeds induced with pesticides that do not produce results promised and then the farmer becomes totally indebted to Monsanto losing his small farm and leaving families bankrupt. HELP! Monsanto is an American Company cheating everybody of good nutrition and health for the sake of greed as ancient as human existence. STOP THE MADNESS. THEY ARE THIEVES of everything any citizen knows. HELP! It is against the Constitution of the United States of America. HELLO!!! Obama wake up. What happened to ‘I (Obama) will make public lobbyists’ position regarding whatever? Where are YOU, Mr. President? HELP!
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ktravel Reply:
August 22nd, 2009 at 9:27 am
Asking for Obama’s help is a bit funny to me. He is one of them. Bilderberg group, population controll, new world order! Get educated folks and push back!
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For crimes against humanity and all life on God’s green earth, companies such as Monsato should be terminated and new laws established to protect future generations from these “profits at any cost” morons.
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Rbst and Aspartame are both GMO or genetically modified. Monsanto’s long-term plan is to control the world, through controlling the food/drug supply. (they are also making GMO drugs). Read “Genetic Roulette” by Jeffrey Smith, which shows the health dangers of GMO’s. Also watch “GMO trilogy” DVD. In India, Monsanto changed the seeds, and then forced everyone to buy the new seed at exorbitant prices, and their fertilizer (or the plants won’t grow), and they want to make the seed so it won’t reproduce, so you have to buy Monsanto seed each year. If they don’t like you, sorry, no seed for you. Monsanto has taken over more than 80% of the US seed companies and tons of seed companies throughout the world, so they can get rid of the competition. You need to know that GMO’s are radically different from hybrid seed. They are messing with the DNA of the plant, and rearranging it, in other words playing God without the degree. He who controls the food supply controls the world, is their real motto. If you value the health of you and loved ones, you must get educated on this!
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I AM glad that Monsanto and co. are done, it is simply a matter of time for this to manifest, not long…….
They were amusing i will miss them, lol.
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Monsanto controls way too much of our food and wants to control all food everywhere so it can dictate that everyone must use its seed and so it can dictate the price of the seed each year. Their enforcement is way too effective. As a farmer on a Bill Moyers show said: when people decide they’ve had enough of big business food, we can give them what they want in a heartbeat.
What are we waiting for?
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These seed Nazies are the worst evil I have seen since the Nuclear bomb. All these folks should be shot for treason and premeditated mass genocide. We have been guinea pigs for the US government for so long it sickens me to think of it. Our children fight drug and oil wars for a government gone criminal. My parents generation just believed everything the government said. Let them get away with so much evil and all in the name of GOD! There is a special place in hell for this kind of evil. May it swiftly arrive! SWIFTLY!!!
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Three unforgivable Montastos besides GM:
1) The seeds are “orphan seeds”, meaning that seeds cannot be saved by the farmer year to year, because the plants produce seeds that are infertile or no seeds at all. Farmers are slaves to this company.
2) Do the research, and you will see that Monsanto is behind the “food safety bill”. It’s very political with the bill-introducing senator and her husband who has Monsanto as a client. The bill’s requirements include a provision for Monsanto’s seeds to be sent to third world countries with what I believe are Monsanto’s desires to stop small, seed-saving farmers.
3) If you haven’t noticed, the honeybee is in grave danger. It is suspected that these GM seeds that create their own systemic pesticides are causing ALL insects to die, including our honeybee–the MOST important pollinator in the world–a HUGE concern for aware farmers.
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