Monsanto’s seeds of discord

Those who don’t vilify Monsanto tend to rhapsodize about it, or at least about its mission. In a world on pace to spawn 9.1 billion mouths to feed by 2050, the black magic of ag-biotech offers the only apparent prospect of salvation: crops that will be, it is promised, ever more resistant to insects, disease, and climatic stress; that will require ever less water, fertilizer, and pesticide; and that will bring forth ever more abundant, hardy, and nutritious harvests.

Whichever school of thought one subscribes to, there is now a fresh reason to fear Monsanto. It relates to the “uncharted territory” Monsanto’s Grant is alluding to through his rolled r’s and glottal stops. The most important genetic trait ever engineered — the Monsanto herbicide-tolerance gene known as Roundup Ready — is about to come off patent and, in a testament to just how young this entire business sector is, that’s never happened before.

CNN