In article <t4uk24d6o3ilvgt5pdkqnheq0rdi8k4d6s@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Charlie wrote:
> This makes me want to puke......these SOBs stand exposed as far as I am
> concerned. It has been a brilliant campaign developed over the last
> four decades. Bastards. Read carefully and see the developing
> incremental control over the worlds food. Frogs in a pot. Screw Bill
> Gates for multiple reasons.
>
> Charlie
>
> Full article at:
>
> http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/13/8930/
>
> Firms Seek Patents on ‘Climate Ready’ Altered Crops
> by Rick Weiss
>
> Excerpt:
>
> A handful of the world’s largest agricultural biotechnology companies
> are seeking hundreds of patents on gene-altered crops designed to
> withstand drought and other environmental stresses, part of a race for
> dominance in the potentially lucrative market for crops that can handle
> global warming, according to a re****t being released today.0513 05 1 2
>
> Three companies — BASF of Germany, Syngenta of Switzerland and Monsanto
> of St. Louis — have filed applications to control nearly two-thirds of
> the climate-related gene families submitted to patent offices
> worldwide, according to the re****t by the Ottawa-based ETC Group, an
> activist organization that advocates for subsistence farmers.
>
> The applications say that the new “climate ready” genes will help crops
> survive drought, flooding, saltwater incursions, high temperatures and
> increased ultraviolet radiation — all of which are predicted to
> undermine food security in coming decades.
.............................
GMO Opponents May Eat Their Own Words
<http://online.barrons.com/article/SB121067626681188103.html?mod=9_0002_b
_online_exclusives_right>
Credit Suisse
WORLD FOOD-SUPPLY ISSUES are by now major front-page news, and that
creates different political risks that will affect both sentiment and
reality for agricultural-science producers.
GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are the big winners, politically.
We have argued that the politics of GMOs will swing dramatically, with
declining anti-GMO sentiment propelled by rising food costs. That will
speed GMO introduction to new regions. We see that political ****ft as
moving much faster than may be apparent on the surface.
Fertilizer producers, by contrast, may be overplaying their (very
strong) hand, and are at risk of being painted as "price gougers." That
alone may not swing the supply/demand balance, but it certainly could
affect investor perception, and increase the risk of new government
intervention on several continents.
We have argued elsewhere that buyers already have good reason to
consider banding together into buying consortiums -- the staggering
price hikes recently announced in potash only add to that argument.
The biggest losers politically, for better or for worse, are likely to
be the well-meaning environmentalists. With little real science to
sup****t their perfectly valid concerns (should have done that homework
after allŠ), they are likely to be increasingly marginalized, with
public sentiment ****fting to more pressing (and measurable) concerns.
So politically, at least, GMO producers are on the upswing, and
fertilizer producers need to be careful. But that doesn't mean its time
to dump the stocks.
Fundamentals are still exceptionally good for fertilizer. What the
fertilizer industry may need now is a better PR team.
With the pullback in the stocks, our preference for Mosaic over the
others remains intact. We continue to like phosphorus more than potash
(and note that it is potash that grabs the most fertilizer headlines).
In the seed world, where Monsanto reigns supreme (and will continue to),
there are no cheap stocks, but none worth unloading either.
We do like the ag-chemical outlook, where pricing power is only now
taking hold. We currently rate DuPont and Syngenta (co-covered with
Rhian Tucker) Outperform.
-- Mark W. Connelly
-- Nils-Bertil Wallin
The opinions contained in Investors' Soapbox in no way represent those
of Barron's Online or Dow Jones & Company, Inc. The opinions expressed
are those of the newsletter's writer(s).
--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA
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