Monsanto Looks to Sell Dairy Hormone Business

[flashl]

By ANDREW MARTIN and ANDREW POLLACK
Published: August 6, 2008

After struggling to gain consumer acceptance, Monsanto on Wednesday announced that it would try to sell its business of producing an artificial growth hormone for dairy cows. The company will focus instead on its thriving business of selling seeds and developing ways to improve crops.

The decision comes as more retailers, saying they are responding to consumer demand, are selling dairy products from cows not treated with the artificial hormone.

Wal-Mart, Kroger and Publix are among the retailers that now sell house-brand milk from untreated cows. Almost all of the fresh milk sold by Dean Foods, the nation’s largest milk bottler, also comes from cows that were not treated with the artificial hormone, a spokeswoman said.

Monsanto officials said the decision was not related to the retail trend and that business for the artificial hormone, sold under the brand name Posilac, remained brisk. Monsanto, which is based in St. Louis and is the only commercial manufacturer of the hormone, declined to provide sales numbers.

Selling Posilac “will allow Monsanto to focus on the growth of its core seeds and traits business while ensuring that loyal dairy farmers continue to receive the value of Posilac in their operations,” Carl Casale, Monsanto’s executive vice president for strategy and operations, said in a statement.

What is Posilacs' 'value' to loyal dairy farmers?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Increased milk production.

:shrug:

[Kip Humphrey]

2. Maybe the NFL will buy it.

[Celebration]

3. Well, they sold aspartame, ya know?

And then what happened?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18627677?ordinalpos=3&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Formaldehyde, aspartame, and migraines: a possible connection.

They have a history of good timing for sloughing off toxic products. Tremendous business model, poor scientific model.