Company Overview
Highlights
Its flagship product, Roundup, is the world's leading herbicide.
In 2005 acquired Seminis, Inc., a global leader in the vegetable and fruit seed industry; the Stoneville cotton business; four companies that are the shareowners of the CORE Group (Fontanelle Hybrids, based in Fontanelle, Nebraska; Stewart Seeds, based in Greensburg, Indiana; Trelay Seeds, based in Livingston, Wisconsin; and, Stone Seeds, based in Pleasant Plains, Illinois); and Specialty Hybrids, a leader serving the Eastern Corn Belt.
In 2006 acquired Delta and Pine Land, the number-one cottonseed breeder in the U.S.
Biotechnology giant Monsanto is working hard to produce stronger, more efficient agricultural crops that resist insects and drought. The company focuses on applying biotechnology, genomics, and molecular breeding to herbicides and seeds. Monsanto was founded in 1901 by John Francis Queeny. Its name comes from his wife's maiden name. The company's first sale was of a 50-gallon drum of saccharine to Coca-Cola; before long, the company had branched out into caffeine and vanillin production for soft drinks. Over the years the company diversified its interests, branching out into everything from rubber and aspirin to paper-production chemicals, as well as nutritional and health care research, leading to today's incarnation as a biotechnology developer. The company currently faces a major challenge in the form of growing public suspicion of bioengineered crops.