"SeedsMain articles:
Genetically modified crops,
Genetically modified food, and
Genetically modified food controversies
As of 2012, Monsanto's line of seed products includes agricultural seeds and vegetable seeds.
Many of Monsanto's agricultural seed products are genetically modified for resistance to herbicides, such as
glyphosate, which Monsanto sells under the brand, "Roundup" - Monsanto calls these seeds "Roundup Ready". Monsanto's introduction of this system (planting glyphosate-resistant seed and then applying glyphosate once plants emerged) provided farmers with an opportunity to dramatically increase the yield from a given plot of land, since this allowed them to plant rows closer together.[SUP]
[59][/SUP] Without it, farmers had to plant rows far enough apart to control post-emergent weeds with mechanical tillage.[SUP]
[59][/SUP] Farmers have widely adopted the technology - for example over 90% of maize (
Mon 832),
soybean (MON-Ø4Ø32-6), cotton,
sugar beet, and
canola planted in the United States are glyphosate-resistant, as described in the
GM crops article. Monsanto has also developed a Roundup Ready
wheat (MON 71800).
As of 2009, the overall Roundup line of products including the GM seeds represented about 50% of Monsanto's business.[SUP]
[60][/SUP] The patent on the first type of
Roundup Ready crop that Monsanto produced (soybeans) expires in 2014.[SUP]
[61][/SUP] Monsanto has broadly licensed the patent to other seed companies that include the glyphosate resistance trait in their seed products.[SUP]
[62][/SUP] About 150 companies have licensed the technology,[SUP]
[63][/SUP] including Syngenta[SUP]
[64][/SUP] and Dupont/Pioneer.[SUP]
[65][/SUP]
In addition, Monsanto invented and sells agricultural seeds that are genetically modified to make a crystalline insecticidal protein from
Bacillus thuringiensis, known as Bt. In 1995 Monsanto's potato plants producing Bt toxin were approved for sale by the
Environmental Protection Agency, after having approved by the U.S. FDA, making it the first pesticide-producing crop to be approved in the United States.[SUP]
[66][/SUP] Monsanto has subsequently developed
Bt maize (
MON 802,
MON 809,
MON 863,
MON 810),
Bt soybean,[SUP]
[67][/SUP] and
Bt cotton.
Monsanto also produces seed that has multiple modifications, also known as "stacked traits" —for instance, cotton that make one or more Bt proteins and is resistant to glyphosate. One of these, created in collaboration with
Dow, is called
SmartStax. In 2011 Monsanto launched the Genuity brand for its stacked-trait products.[SUP]
[68][/SUP]
As of 2012 the agricultural seed lineup includes Roundup Ready alfalfa; Roundup Ready canola; cotton with Bt, Roundup Ready, or both traits; sorghum hybrids; soybeans with various oil profiles, most with the Roundup Ready trait; Roundup Ready sugarbeet; and a wide range of wheat products, many of which incorporate the nontransgenic "clearfield" imazamox-tolerant[SUP]
[69][/SUP] trait from BASF.[SUP]
[70][/SUP]
Along with other ag-biotech companies, Monsanto has been working on developing drought-resistant GM crops.[SUP]
[71][/SUP]
Monsanto's vegetable seed lineup includes "4,000 distinct seed varieties representing more than 20 species" that are created through breeding, not through genetic engineering.[SUP]
[72][/SUP]
"
created through breeding, and not genetic engineering..YEAH RIGHT!
