Millions Against Monsanto's logo and Monsanto's logo

I was just at Monsanto’s corporate HQ in St Louis last week, and met with their CEO, Hugh Grant, for the second time. Really nice guy – yes, really – and his staff were terrific and very capable people. He’s an accomplished and intelligent man, with grace and strength. Just like politicians, executives of big companies have responsibilities to their shareholders, their boards of directors, and to their own consciences. They have to inhabit their positions as figureheads with power and charm, and try to steer organizations they did not start, which often have gone astray before they came to power. It’s not an easy position to hold, which is why they’re compensated so well.
In the case of Monsanto, the company has profited greatly from a truly bizarre twist in the law which has basically allowed them to claim an amazingly huge chunk of the world’s food as their own intellectual property. The same intellectual property laws protecting Roundup-Ready corn and soy are protecting the photographs I make every day, as well as my right to write this long comment. It’s no surprise, of course, that Monsanto will do everything they possibly can to protect their stake. Their ruthlessness in the process is hard to watch, but it’s how businesses run and grow.

With the recent reports of Roundup-resistant weeds taking such a strong hold and growing so quickly, it’s clear to me that the tides are shifting, and farmers are going to be leaving GMO crops and moving towards organics out of their own economic needs, not just because it’s the right thing to do. Companies like Monsanto are going to have to adapt very quickly, or they’re going to suffer economically. Even WalMart is selling some organics now, too. They have power like no one else -no one – to shift the trend away from GMO and towards organic and local, if that’s what we as consumers vote for every time we spend a dollar.

I won’t stand up and be an apologist for Monsanto (or, for that matter, WalMart or Starbucks or McDonald’s, all of whom I’ve been boycotting for years). I only mean to say that the situation is immensely complicated, and there are good people at all of those companies trying to do right, and (I dare say) trying to keep their jobs, too.

I try to buy organic and local whenever I can, and walk or bike to the store, but it’s not always possible, and $6/gallon for organic milk is very hard to stomach.