V. useful article. among many other points, note how the amiable local fronting of Monsanto's products ties in with the strategy the industry's adopting at a political level in the U.S., as in the recent californian county ballots - getting local farming interests and "faces" to front its campaign (see item 2)

EXCERPTS: To the local growers who buy its corn and soybean seeds, Channel Bio largely will look and feel unchanged, said Monsanto spokeswoman Lori Fisher.

"The local customers are used to companies they're familiar with there, in their back yard. They know and trust those companies, and we don't want to destroy that".

In this deal, and future acquisitions envisioned for American Seeds, Monsanto gains the ability to reach farmers at a more granular level than it can with in-house seed brands Asgrow and Dekalb, said Kerry Preete, vice president of U.S. Crop Production, the business unit under which American Seeds [Monsanto's holding company for seed company acquisitions] was formed.

Monsanto expects to make further acquisitions through American Seeds.

1.Monsanto acquires seed business through holding company
2.Running scared in California - say hello to the fake persuaders?
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1.Monsanto acquires seed business through holding company
By Rachel Melcer
St Louis Post-Dispatch, 16 Nov 2004
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/technology/story/5D097D3140A2DEB486256F4F000D03FA?OpenDocument&Headline=Monsanto+acquires+seed+business+through+holding+company

Monsanto Co. said Tuesday it has acquired Indiana seed company Channel Bio Corp. for $120 million, continuing a consolidation trend in the industry.

Rather than gobbling up its brands, breeding knowledge and other assets, Monsanto created a holding company that allows Channel Bio some measure of autonomy. To the local growers who buy its corn and soybean seeds, Channel Bio largely will look and feel unchanged, said Monsanto spokeswoman Lori Fisher.

"The local customers are used to companies they're familiar with there, in their back yard. They know and trust those companies, and we don't want to destroy that," she said.

The biggest difference is that Channel Bio, as part of the new holding company, dubbed American Seeds Inc., can access its parent company's financial muscle and range of technology, she said. Besides using Monsanto's genetic traits - which are engineered into corn and soybeans to make them resistant to certain pests, disease and applications of Roundup herbicide - Channel Bio will be free to license traits developed by Monsanto competitors.

In this deal, and future acquisitions envisioned for American Seeds, Monsanto gains the ability to reach farmers at a more granular level than it can with in-house seed brands Asgrow and Dekalb, said Kerry Preete, vice president of U.S. Crop Production, the business unit under which American Seeds was formed.

In acquiring Channel Bio, Monsanto said it also boosts its share of the U.S. corn-seed market by 2 percent, to 16 percent.

Channel Bio President Don Funk and Chief Executive Aline Funk will continue to run the business, which owns and manages three brands: Crow's Hybrid Corn Co., Midwest Seed Genetics Inc. and Wilson Seeds. They will be free to operate "as (they) do today ... and not the way that Monsanto would go to market," Preete said.

Monsanto has been focused on expanding biotech-seed sales in its most reliable market: the United States. It continues to struggle with piracy of its technology in developing countries, as well as resistance to genetically modified foods in Europe. Its strategy is to "stack" various traits in a single seed to profit more from every planted acre - but that increases the price tag to seed company licensees as well as to farmers.

Regional seed companies told Monsanto that they needed greater access to capital in order to keep up with technology and continue to grow, Preete said. American Seeds is one way to get it to them.

This acquisition, funded with Monsanto's ample supply of cash on hand, will dilute earnings in the current fiscal year 2005 and be accrete in fiscal 2006, the company said. It's fiscal 2005 earnings guidance is unchanged, however, at $1.77 to $1.90 a share on an ongoing basis.

Monsanto expects to make further acquisitions through American Seeds but has not yet established specific targets, Preete said. "The companies would have to want to be a part of us, and we'd have to see value in them. It's a matter of if it makes financial sense and if the strategic needs meet."

The holding company provides a third avenue to market for Monsanto, in addition to direct sales through in-house brands and licensing to independent seed companies.

Monsanto shares closed Tuesday at $44.62, up 12 cents.
Reporter Rachel Melcer
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 314-340-8394
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2.Running scared in California - say hello to the fake persuaders?
GM Watch daily, 28 October 2004

The biotech industry's mouthpiece - AgBioView - has just brought out a "Special" campaigning bulletin dedicated entirely to the "Reckless Ballot Measures in California".

The content reflects not just the industry's anxiety over the county ballot measures calling for a GM ban. It also makes plain its strategy - a strategy developed after it wasted more than half a million dollars (via Croplife America) unsuccessfully opposing the Mendocino ballot iniative.

The new tactic is to do everything in the name of the locals - most especially, the farming community, so that the ballots are not seen as a fight between giant multinationals and local folk, but as a fight between local farmers standing up for their independence and overbearing activists.

To this end the industry's friends in California have been busy organising appropriate locals to sing the industry's tunes. You can catch a flavour of what's going on in today's Agbioview Special where an almost line by line rebuttal is presented of a "GE-Free Butte" Ad. AgBioView's rebuttal is described as, "A California Farmer Speaks Up and Takes on 'GE-Free' Myths'".

The particular "California Farmer" in question is not identified and, while he or she may just be bashful, there are very good grounds for scepticism about such contributions to AgBioView. This is the list that previously ran a whole series of campaigning pieces by what have been termed the "fake persuaders" - Monsanto PR flaks posing as ordinary citizens. These misleading, soemtimes libellous and otherwise poisonous postings were eventually tracked down to Monsanto's IP address and that of its online PR company Bivings, which actually boasted about its insidious "viral marketing".

Why Monsanto & Co. might want to resort to such good old "third party" tactics is all too obvious when you read the "California Farmer" rebuttal. In commenting on the statement in the ad, "GE canola has so thoroughly contaminated non-GE varieties, Saskatchewan's organic growers abandoned the crop altogether and are suing Monsanto and Bayer CropScience", the "California Farmer" retorts, "And who were these organic growers? Their production accounted for a fraction of a percent of all canola growers. Did they have the right to hinder the economic viability of all other growers?"

To say the production of these farmers should just be eliminated without any compunction sounds harsh even coming from a "California Farmer". Now imagine those words in the mouth of a multinational!

At the end of AgBioView's "Special" is a call to arms to California's scientists from AgBioView's editor, CS Prakash, who wants them to write to the media, to Governor Arnie, amongst others, and even provides a model letter for the purpose.

This is highly r