Monsanto Seeds Account for Half of US Sugar Supply

Farmer Brown here with today’s interesting bit of ag-related trivia.

The LA Times has a story up about the fact that the federal government has given farmers the go ahead to plant Monanto’s ($MON) genetically modified sugar beet seeds despite a court ruling against it.  The Department of Agriculture fears a severe sugar shortage otherwise.

I had no idea how important Monsanto seeds were to the US sugar supply until I read this:

Monsanto’s biotech seeds are used to produce an estimated 95% of the U.S. sugar beet crop. The crop accounts for more than half of the country’s sugar supply, according to USDA data.

A lot of Monsanto’s earnings have been driven by sales of weed-killer Roundup, a product that’s come under pressure from Chinese knock-offs in the recent past.  But Monsanto’s aspirations are for the business to be much more driven by agritech and biotech in the future.  This is important because the stock pops up in virtually every ag-related ETF and portfolio.

Source:

U.S. OKs planting of Monsanto’s modified sugar beets despite court ban (LA Times)