Defending the Commons

 Monsanto is a multinational agricultural biotech corporation. The company is the leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed. It's 2005 annual revenue was $5.23 billion (fiscal year end Aug 2005). In the 1940s, they were active in the Manhattan Project, helping to develop the first nuclear weapons. They were also the leading producer of Agent Orange in the '60s and '70s. In 2003, Monsanto sued a dairy in Maine for advertising that its milk products did not come from cows treated with its bovine growth hormone, claiming that such advertising hurt its business. They have been sued in numerous cases over the health and environmental effects of their products. More recently, it lost a series of court decisions resulting in US$700 million in damages being awarded to thousands of residents of an Alabama town that had been polluted over a period of years by Monsanto's PCB byproducts.