Many food freedom and anti-GMO activists are celebrating this week’s news that the infamous Monsanto corporation has suffered huge losses in the 4th quarter.
The Associated press reported that Monsanto lost $156 million in the last quarter of this year alone.
This week’s reported losses were partly due to a large environmental lawsuit that cost the company millions of dollars.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Monsanto and other biotech companies have been falling short of their expected earnings in recent years due to low prices in the agriculture market.
Last Week, Jacob Bunge and Chelsey Dulaney of The Wall Street Journal said that, “The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects record U.S. corn and soybean harvests this year. As a result, farmers are spending less on tractors, pesticides, fertilizer and seeds, which has driven the share price of farm equipment maker Deere Co. down by 12% over the past three months, and that of fertilizer producer Mosaic Co. by 13%. Monsanto shares fell about 13% over that period, when the S&P 500 stock index fell 2%.”
However, not all is lost for Monsanto, as chairman and CEO Hugh Grant pointed out in a statement, the company has seen impressive growth in two major areas, herbicide and genetically-engineered seeds, which are among Monsanto’s most controversial projects.
Grant said in the statement that “We’re confident in our ability to deliver the targets we’ve set in both the near term and over the longer term, In an industry that’s particularly near-term focused right now, there are few companies as well positioned to deliver strong growth today while significantly increasing investments to enable the continued delivery of a broad range of innovative solutions for tomorrow.”
The Accociated Press reported that in the last quarter sales, biotech seeds increased 16 percent to $1.38 billion, while sales of the company’s herbicide and agricultural products grew 23 percent to $1.25 billion.
Overall, Monsanto is still making plenty of money in the long run, and they will likely be receiving massive subsidies from the government during times of low profits.
