Talk:Monsanto

How odd. The link "Disinfopedia on Monsanto" under External Links seems to appear sometimes when doing a search on Monsanto in a wiki search box and other times it disappears. A glitch?

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Monsanto is currently owned by Pfizer. (... through a middle-company buy-out, iirc.)

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Monsanto is NOT owned by Pfizer. Monsanto merged with Pharmacia in 2000. Pharmacia took the medical research divisions they were interested in (which included Celebrex) and then spun off the Agricultural divisions into the "new" Monsanto. From 2000 until 2002, Pharmacia still owned about 85% of the "new" Monsanto. In 2002 the "new" Monsanto was spun-off completely, and has been a completely seperate company since then. Also in 2002, Pharmacia was purchased by Pfizer, but Monsanto was already a seperate company and wasn't part of this. Kenj0418 15:46, Nov 29, 2004 (UTC)

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I removed the line "It is negatively referred to by many of its most outspoken critics as Monsatan." I don't see any value in having what insults opponents use against Monsanto included. Other corporate pages I checked don't have this sort of comments included either. (For example, "Fix Or Repair Daily" (an insult concerning the quality of Ford vehicles) isn't on the page on Ford).

I think the Monsatan information should remain. It helps clarify Monsanto's dubious distinction as "most reviled". From what I can see, the company name is a household word in much of the world, and much of that is due to various court cases and publicity (not because lots of people use Round-Up on their lawns). Monsatan is not at all the same as Fix Or Repair Daily, which is simply a sweeping negative product opinion. Widespread use (albeit in activist circles) of a nickname like Monsatan is a fact, and illustrates the extraordinary degree of conviction of its detractors that is a major element of the Monsanto's social context. E.g.: Monsanto boss's grand vision gets reality check ... Robert Shapiro figured his biotechnology factory could serve both humanity and investors. But consumers are wary of food seen as unnatural. Now his products are labelled 'Frankenfoods' and the firm is demonized as "Monsatan." - Globe and Mail 22-Dec-99 - Tsavage 23:15, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I wasn't questioning the fact that some people called Monsanto "Monsatan". I was only questioning whether this was relevant to the entry and NPOV. I've found several other, more prominant, entries that contain derisive nick names, namely Slick Willy, and Tricky Dick, so I've added Monsatan back. I've created a new section specifically about Monsanto's controversies. I placed the Monsatan comment there. I also mentioned the use of the term frankenfoods. Based on a Google test, this term for GE foods appears much more common than the use of Monsatan. Kenj0418 22:05, Feb 15, 2005 (UTC)

I also removed the politics section. All but two of the people it refered to are no longer in office. Also, the section was unsubstatiated and of questionable NPOV. Kenj0418 19:40, Feb 14, 2005 (UTC)

Section on mergers

I notice that the current section on "spin-offs and mergers" section only includes big movings and shakings. Do we need a new section for smaller acquisitions such as their March 25 purchase of Seminis Inc.[1] (http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/layout/media/05/03-23-05.asp) This section could also include analysis of acquisitons. For example, what is the significance of them buying up "the largest developer, grower and marketer of fruit and vegetable seeds in the world"? mennonot 04:15, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

That would be...fun. (I was going to add Seminis, but decided to wait until it was fully approved and finalized, which I think is still a few weeks away. It's cool when Wiki articles are more or less real-time, but I guess it's a matter of exactly how up-to-the-minute one wants to be. In this case, Seminis could have been added a couple of months ago, or only when it's a done deal.) Tsavage 04:56, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

23-Mar-2005 Monsanto announced Seminis finalized so I added an initial line in the intro. Tsavage 00:00, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)