GM Crops could send food prices skyrocketing

Related

[link to www.bloomberg.com]

Monsanto to Charge as Much as 42% More for New Seeds (Update3)


By Jack Kaskey

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed maker, plans to charge as much as 42 percent more for new genetically modified seeds next year than older offerings because they increase farmers’ output.

Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans will cost farmers an average of $74 an acre in 2010, and original Roundup Ready soybeans will cost $52 an acre, St. Louis-based Monsanto said today in presentations on its Web site. SmartStax corn seeds, developed with Dow Chemical Co., will cost $130 an acre, 17 percent more than the YieldGard triple-stack seeds they will replace.

“Our pricing has the flexibility built in to ensure the grower captures the greatest return from his seed investment, irrespective of market volatility,” Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant said today in a statement.

Grant is introducing new modified seeds that boost yields as part of a plan to double gross profit from 2007 to 2012. The new soybeans, which resist Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, produce 7.4 percent more soybeans per acre than the older version. SmartStax kills insects in multiple ways, reducing the amount of conventional corn that must be planted to deter insecticide resistance.

“SmartStax pricing is higher than we initially expected,” Vincent Andrews, a New York-based analyst at Morgan Stanley, said today in a report.

Monsanto rose $1.57, or 1.9 percent, to $84.03 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have gained 19 percent this year.

Acreage Forecasts

SmartStax corn seed will be planted on as many as 4 million acres in 2010, its first year on the market, with a potential for as many as 65 million acres in the U.S. eventually, the company said. The new seed boosts yields 5 percent to 10 percent compared with other products, partly by reducing the amount of land that must be planted with conventional corn to 5 percent from 20 percent, Monsanto said.

Pricing for SmartStax is at the high end of expectations, Laurence Alexander, a New York-based analyst at Jefferies & Co., said by telephone.

Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean seeds were planted on 1.5 million acres this year and will be planted on as many as 8 million acres next year in the U.S. with a potential to one day reach 55 million acres, Monsanto said.

The company is pricing its seeds to share the benefit of increased yields with farmers, said Mark Gulley, a New York- based analyst at Soleil Securities. Prices include seed treatments designed to protect seedlings from pests and disease, Monsanto said.

“They are in essence splitting the value of the extra yield 50-50,” Gulley said by telephone.

Monsanto repeated its forecast for earnings in the fiscal year that ends this month at the low end of a range of $4.40 to $4.50 a share. The average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for profit of $4.41 a share.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Kaskey in New York at [email protected]

Feed costs would soar by 300 per cent, while UK pork and poultry production would plunge by up to 68 per cent. As a result, the report suggests, shop prices for meat and poultry would jump by up to 20 per cent.


theyre moving in on the food folks. control the people by food/water. take heed and prepare.

i can say this much daj, they have fucked seeds up to a point where either they dont grow or dont produce.

GM should stick to cars.

There are just some things that man should not screw around with. If you believe in God or mother earth, it is all just wrong to screw around with these things.

If you planted a garden this yr. save all the seeds you can from each thing you planted!
They will keep in storage.

OP I think I replied on a similar post about the governments intentions to put U.S. farmers especially family farmers out of business. Family farmers have a propensity to want to grow healthy foods, and stock.

I am seeing this in central Idaho, and it pisses me off to the max. Many of my friends who are farmers, are being forced out, and their little family farms are being bought up by the big corporations. Some of them are holding on, but cannot afford to grow much because of all the regulations that have cropped up in the last 12 months.

I see a huge food shortage in the near future. The food we will get will be shit food that is GM'd to death and of no real use.

I was reading recently where Russia said they had a small famine. The EU, and the US donated, or sold cheap grain and food-stufs to them. And a lot of it.
It appears this proffesor thought it was a sham, as the Russians are stockpiling food.
There is only one reason to store food. WW3, anyone.

food will skyrocket alrighty, when california, the world';s largest producer goes down in the sept 2010 mega quake

prices have risen already - here in pa anyhow. i have noticed the subtle increase

the gov has been passing leg for control over the farming industry i have posted many such threads ric this year alone. theyre trying to depop and one way to do it is by controlling food/water

look at where that got em

seriously we're in deep shit here.