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Most people seem to view them as rather evil.. I dont think the view is entirely deserved, or rather it is exaggerated a lot, but I wouldn't go so far as to say they are the good guys either, even if their products have done a lot of good for the world (like vitamin enriches rice that has saved many).
Monsanto was certainly after making money, and that in and of itself isnt always a bad thing.. and yea it meant american farms could afford the seed stock and outperform other foreign food sources. but that also means we are shipping less food over seas (therefore much less pollution) and while farmers might make less money it also means food is cheaper and stays local. so one could argue it also had a positive effect on the community even if it was worse for the local farmers.
My point is not to defend monsanto though, it is merely to point out its a very nuanced thing to evaluate.
This is Mur 
@freemo
If don't know then know that when the prices of basic grains and vegetables go down too much then the farmers just let the produce go rot cause with a low price the cost of transporting the produce becomes more then they can make by selling. This in itself causes shortages of supplies in market and ofcourse inflation. It's only good for America and Europe, developing countries just get minced.
@dankmaximus @trinsec
people still need to buy rice, why would they buy rice imported from the USA and not local rice? Both would presumably sell at the same price regardless of monsanto's existence.
@freemo I suspect overproduction.
@freemo
India doesn't imports rice, though we do export rice to USA
@dankmaximus @trinsec
Then that would prove my point even more, supply and demand suggests that as long as you arent producing more rice than what is needed then it wont go to waste, you will get a price that covers your cost or more, at least on the aggregate.
The real issue with farmers complaining is that they used to be able to export rice to america (which caused a lot of pollution and ultimately wasnt the best deal for the USA)... and now monsanto enabled american farmers to produce more and therefore need less from india. So india exports less and farmers make less.. Sucks for india, but its great for america. I wouldnt say in and of itself that is a bad thing though, india was just producing more rice than it needed to, markets shift, its not a bad thing.
@freemo
By the way rice imports of United States have grown around 40% in the last 5 years, so it's rather a booming market to sell rice atleast.
@dankmaximus @trinsec
@freemo @dankmaximus @trinsec
It reveals to be that, yes the growth of rice and other staples did increase but they rather exported to America and Europe as it was profitable that way while domestic markets saw decrease in amounts of staples available. Also the company in a way forced the shift of farming from grains to cashcrops. At the end it seems Monsanto was just after making money. Farmers got poorer.