It's going to be hard to profit off of something they're giving away.
I'm not overly concerned about GM food and find most stated concerns alarmist in the extreme. But Monsanto may not profit immediately from giving away seeds, but if they are ones with a "terminator" gene then they will. Farmers are used to getting a lot of seed for the next crop from the existing crop -- and Monsanto has lots of products genetically designed to make no viable seeds. So if those farmers like what they are growing, they'll have to go back and buy Monsanto next season.
So it's not exactly like Monsanto has no potential upside on this. Doesn't make them worthy of criticism on it, but they defnitely have a potential market to make here.
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Date: 13/5/10 11:39 (UTC)I'm not overly concerned about GM food and find most stated concerns alarmist in the extreme. But Monsanto may not profit immediately from giving away seeds, but if they are ones with a "terminator" gene then they will. Farmers are used to getting a lot of seed for the next crop from the existing crop -- and Monsanto has lots of products genetically designed to make no viable seeds. So if those farmers like what they are growing, they'll have to go back and buy Monsanto next season.
So it's not exactly like Monsanto has no potential upside on this. Doesn't make them worthy of criticism on it, but they defnitely have a potential market to make here.