Opinion on  Monsanto Company (MON)     Sector: Basic Materials  >  Industry: Chemical Manufacturing
Monsanto Company

Monsanto Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides agricultural products for farmers principally in the United States. It operates in two segments, Seeds and Genomics, and Agricultural Productivity. The Seeds and Genomics segment produces corn, soybeans, canola, and cotton seeds, as well as vegetable and fruit seeds, including tomato, pepper, eggplant, melon, cucumber, pumpkin, squash, beans, broccoli, onions, and lettuce. This segment also develops biotechnology traits that assist farmers in controlling insects and weeds, as well as provide genetic material and biotechnology traits to other seed companies for their seed brands. The Agricultural Productivity segment manufactures glyphosate-based, acetanilide-based, and other selective herbicides; lawn-and-garden herbicides for residential lawn-and-garden applications; and bovine somatotropin to increase efficiency of milk production in dairy cows. The company offers its products under the Roundup Ready, YieldGard, Agroceres, Asgrow, DEKALB, D&PL, Deltapine, Vistive, Seminis, Royal Sluis, Petoseed, Posilac, and Bollgard and Bollgard II brand names. It also licenses germplasm and trait technologies to seed companies in the United States and international markets. The company sells its products through distributors, independent retailers, dealers, agricultural co-operatives, plant raisers, and agents to farmers, agricultural chemical producers, and dairy farmers. Monsanto Company has a joint venture with Cargill, Incorporated to commercialize a proprietary grain processing technology under the name Extrax, as well as has a research and development collaboration with BASF in plant biotechnology that focuses on high-yielding crops and crops that are tolerant to adverse conditions, such as drought. The company was founded in 2000 and is based in St. Louis, Missouri. Monsanto Co. (NYSE:MON) operates independently of Pharmacia Corporation as of August 13, 2002.