Monday 26 October 2009
Monsanto: St. Lois we have a problem
Despite its market dominance Monsanto & Co. is continuing to show financial loss according to the St. Lois Business Journal this month:
Monsanto Co. reported Wednesday a wider fourth-quarter loss on charges from recent layoffs and the sale of its sunflower operations. Monsanto lost $233 million in the quarter ended Aug. 31, compared with a loss of $172 million a year earlier. Results reflected restructuring charges that included the costs of staff reductions, streamlining brands, and office and facility consolidations. Monsanto recently cut 1,800 jobs, including 300 in St. Louis.
Monsanto's woes do not stop there however, because there is growing unease among government regulators around the world who suspect that anti-competitive practices abound in the global seed industry, not least in the multinational's home country America.
Here are the opening paragraphs of 23 October 2009 of The American Antitrust Institute white paper discussing the issue Transgenic Seed Platforms:
Competition Between a Rock and a Hard Place?:
With the widespread adoption by farmers of corn, cotton, and soybean seed containing transgenic technology, the U.S. seed industry has changed rapidly in the past twenty years. The largest changes include the creation of strongholds of patented technology and the gradual elimination of the numerous regional independent seed companies through consolidation. Resulting increases in concentration in affected markets has been driven largely by the industry’s dominant firm, Monsanto.
A threshold question to consider is whether Monsanto has exercised its market power to foreclose rivals from market access, harming competition and thereby slowing the pace of innovation and adversely affecting prices, quality, and choice for farmers and consumers of seed products. If the answer to this question is yes, remedying the intractable competitive situation that prevails in the transgenic seed industry may require antitrust enforcement, legislative relief, or both. The problem highlights both the importance of competition policy and the security and diversity of a key agricultural sector.
White Paper PDF download here.
* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.
Sunday 25 October 2009
The Twitterverse on the Coalition's CPRS emissions trading scheme bill amendments
The Twitterverse is underwhelmed by Malcolm Turnbull's proposed amendments to the Rudd Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009.
no_filter_Yamba Coalitions ETS amendments - NO, NO, NO, NO and NOoooo! http://bit.ly/4oWFm2
Coalition want to give $10billion CPRS compo to coal industry - that's over $600,000 per job
Treasury modelling for CPRS projects emissions from electricity sector will double by 2050 - http://bit.ly/3axGGQ (expand
) (page 60)
"Never in the history of Aust public finance has so much been given without public policy purpose, by so many to so few" - Garnaut RE: CPRS ) (page 60) 
reenymal: Polluters rejoice as CPRS returns: Science, economics and ... http://bit.ly/meZVT (expand) 
BraveNewClimate: Investors demand end to handouts and criticised amendments to the emissions trading scheme (face it, it's useless): http://bit.ly/2LiE63 (expand) A race to the bottom as the "Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme" goes from useless to a farce: http://bit.ly/3uSDmH 3 days ago from web
sustainablogger: RT @climateinstitut Coalition's proposed amendments 2 the CPRS will slug households with additional $ to fund polluters http://bit.ly/2VDk3z (expand) 
AusConservation: All but 3 of Coalition ETS amendments would blunt the impact, incr cost to other taxpayers and incr actual emissions http://bit.ly/26tr7b (expand) A triumph of ego over substance: Steve Fielding once again demonstrates why he's such a lightweigt politician
It would appear that Family First's one and only federal senator, Steve 'I'm an engineer so I know about stuff' Fielding, is feeling slighted by the Australian public broadcaster, if his recent Senate estimates committee questions to the ABC's managing director are any indication. A triumph of ego over substance and a waste of time at taxpayers expense:
Could you give us a handle on biases in The 7.30 Report, just generally? Are there some sorts of guidelines about keeping an eye on it?.........
Do you have any monitoring of the range of viewpoints by political parties that have actually been on The 7.30 Report?......
There are three parties sitting in the crossbenches with equal weighting and I thought those views would be interesting to hear on The 7.30 Report. I cannot recall the last time that Family First appeared on The 7.30 Report. I am just wondering: is something going on there?.......
But not it seems Family First's favourite bottle imitator, to his obvious chagrin.Photograph of Senator Fielding as a bottle from The Sydney Morning Herald
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