Monsanto: The Company that Owns the World’s Food Supply

Monsanto Company, formerly (1933–64) Monsanto Chemical Company and (1901–33) Monsanto Chemical Works, leading American producer of chemical, agricultural, and biochemical products. It is based in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Monsanto Chemical Works was founded in 1901 by John F. Queeny (1859–1933), a purchasing agent for a wholesale drug company, to manufacture the synthetic sweetener saccharin, then produced only in Germany. Queeny invested $1,500 of his own money and borrowed another $3,500 from a local Epsom salts manufacturer to launch his new company, which he named Monsanto, after his wife’s maiden name. The firm was up to full-scale saccharin production in 1902, added caffeine and vanillin to its product line over the next few years, and in 1905 began turning a profit. With the Coca-Cola Company as one of Monsanto’s chief customers, sales reached $1 million in 1915. Monsanto began producing aspirin in 1917.

Like many other American chemical companies, Monsanto expanded during World War I and flourished under the protection of the high U.S. tariffs of the 1920s. Queeny passed control of the company to his son, Edgar M. Queeny (1897–1968), in 1928. Edgar Queeny transformed Monsanto into an industrial giant before he retired in 1960. The company was incorporated as the Monsanto Chemical Company in 1933. Its production of styrene, a component of synthetic rubber, was vital to the U.S. war effort during World War II. Reflecting its diverse product offerings, the company changed its name to Monsanto Company in 1964. In 1985 Monsanto purchased pharmaceutical firm G.D. Searle & Co., maker of the NutraSweet artificial sweetener. Monsanto sold its sweeteners businesses, including NutraSweet, in 2000.

In the 1990s Monsanto’s acquisition of Calgene Inc., DEKALB Genetics, and other biotechnologyfirms made it a leader in the development and production of genetically modified crop seeds. It began commercial production of BST (bovine somatotropin), a synthetic supplement for dairy cows, in 1994. Monsanto merged with global pharmaceutical company Pharmacia & Upjohn in March 2000, but in August 2002 Monsanto’s nonpharmaceutical segments were spun off by Pharmacia Corporation, and Monsanto became a publicly traded company. Its primary businesses are in agriculture and biotechnology. To further those interests, it acquired various seed companies and software firms in the early 21st century. In 2016 it was announced that Bayer AG, a German chemical and pharmaceutical company, was purchasing Monsanto in a deal valued at $66 billion.