Why Does Everyone Hate Monsanto? (2014)

The comments on this article are painful. Monsanto certainly has a huge problem and that problem is PR. People call them an evil monopoly, but they're not a monopoly. They're the second biggest, sure, but they have lots of competitors behind them, too. Almost every single thing I read that's negative about Monsanto is either a fabrication or spun so heavily that the truth is too distorted.

Honestly, so much negative press really distracts from where you can find negative issues with the company.

I think it's a combination of things:

1- the name. Monsanto sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon villain.

2- the whole concept of patenting a life form rubs many the wrong way

3- previous bad behavior, I.e. Agent orange.

4- self-reinforcing bad information

That's no excuse for making things up whole cloth,but it at least explains some of it.

In other news, 80% of Americans want food containing gaining DNA to be labelled - comparable to the number that are concerned about dihydrogen monoxide.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/201...

No one seems to still have a grudge against Dow.

Monsanto Canada Inc v Schmeiser[1] is one datum.

The Schmeisers lost their heirloom corn they had been growing for generations when a neighbour grew Monsanto corn, which pollinated some of the Schmeiser's plants.

Because Monsanto had patented Roundup-ready corn, the Schmeisers lost the right to grow their unpatented family corn as some contained patented DNA. The court ruled 5% contamination was enough to assert IP rights and the Schmeisers could no longer grow their corn.

Seized ownership by genetic contamination is clearly a huge risk.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_Canada_Inc_v_Schmei...