Fighting Back Against The Machine: Monsanto Earnings Report Shows Lower Profits
This is a tough world in which to try to bring up a child with good moral values. It seems like the moral of every story these days always ends up with some reprehensible jackass suffering no consequences for bad behavior.
Millionaire rich kids get a slap on the wrist when they run afoul of the law, corporate polluters the same. The people who crashed the global economy are still employed and pulling the strings on Wall Street.
But every now and then, Virginia, the good guys really do win.
Witness the news this week that agri-chemical GMO giant Monsanto has lower earnings this quarter, which many attribute to the company being in the spotlight over Vermont’s GMO labeling law, and their ham-handed fight in Congress to attempt to circumvent it.
The company announced that its quarterly profits declined to about $4.5 billion, while its net sales for the second quarter of the 2016 fiscal year decreased from over $5 billion in 2015. Gross profit for the quarter was also lower from the same period in the previous year, dropping to approximately $2.6 billion, down from $3 billion in the second quarter of 2015. The company also reported a decrease in both sales and profits for the first six months of fiscal year 2016 with sales at $6.8 billion and profits of approximately $3.5 billion, compared to about $8 billion and $4.5 billion respectively in 2015.
The latest earnings report from Monsanto comes along in the midst of a wave of food corporations belatedly announcing plans to label genetically modified ingredients in the wake of the US Congress failing to pass the SAFE Act (aka the DARK Act, or Deny Americans the Right to Know Act) which would have usurped Vermont’s and other states’ labeling laws.
Vermont’s law takes effect in July, and companies like General Mills, Campbell’s Soup, Mars and others have been feeling the heat from consumers over labeling of GMO-containing products.
And the deliciously delightful part of the current news is that Monsanto’s and food companies’ very own heavy-handedness may have helped bring things to this pass. Increased consumer awareness about all the implications of GMO crops and the pesticides and herbicides they require was certainly aided by the fight the corporations waged against labeling,
Well, bad news for them, good news for consumers who prefer to a.) know what is in the food they eat, and b.) don’t want to eat pesticides and herbicides in abundance, and c.) don’t really like the idea of eating genetically modified foods, and d.) find it hard to trust with the future of the planet’s ability to feed itself sustainably a company that brought us saccharin, PCBs, Agent Orange and glyphosate.
Now, they still make far too much money for poisoning us, so let’s keep up the pressure and hope that this is the beginning of the end for GMO/chemical companies dictating the way we feed ourselves.
(Don’t forget, there is a worldwide March Against Monsanto scheduled for May 21!) http://www.nationofchange.org/news/2016/04/03/march-monsanto-happening-everywhere-may-21/
http://www.nationofchange.org/news/2016/04/06/monsanto-reports-lower-earnings-profits-amid-pressure-consumers-vermont-gmo-label-law/