Monsanto Canada’s Smartpark headquarters

by Geoff Kirbyson

This is not your grandfather’s agricultural company.

Monsanto Canada sells three lines of crops and a range of herbicides to Canadian farmers, but it’s becoming increasingly known for its work in genetics. No, it’s not into cloning sheep, but it does play around with the DNA of corn, canola and soy beans to increase their yield and tolerance to both drought and weed-killing chemicals.

In effect, its genetic testing has resulted in the creation of super commodities. For example, some varieties have been designed to use nitrogen more efficiently, enabling farmers to grow more crops with less fertilizer. In other cases, the new-and-improved proteins and enzymes have been programmed to provide a built-in defence mechanism–they’re fatal when eaten by insects.

“It’s bringing value to the farmer. They can count on a more sustainable yield and minimize risk by having these traits in the commodities. It allows them to be more competitive,” says Ryan Baldwin, president of Monsanto Canada’s seeds and traits division.

Monsanto has also developed and licensed technologies that make certain seed varieties tolerant to Roundup, the company’s brand name herbicide, which has been a top seller around the world since 1980.

“Roundup kills everything. But when you plant our seed, spray Roundup over top of it, everything will be killed except the plant with the Roundup trait in it,” he says.

To put its importance in perspective, the company says agricultural biotechnology has been adopted faster than any other farming improvement since the introduction of the tractor in the 19th century.

Baldwin says it’s not a stretch to compare Monsanto’s genetics operations to research and development in the pharmaceutical sector.

“We do a lot of genetics testing. It’s the same as the pharmaceutical industry in the rigour and the amount of testing and approvals you have to go through,” he says.

You don’t have to look far to see the impact of Monsanto’s lab work. The acreage dedicated to canola, for example, has grown substantially over the last eight years across Western Canada–where 98 per cent of the country’s canola is grown–nearly doubling to more than 16 million acres.

Part of that growth is attributable to the company’s design of canola seeds that can be planted in dry land areas that didn’t have the proper maturity zones for the crop previously. That allows farmers to plan canola as a core crop, confident that they’ll have a more consistent yield and sustainable product.

Baldwin said the company has pledged to double the yields of corn, soy beans and canola–using 2000 figures as a base–by 2030.

Monsanto Canada, which is based in Winnipeg, employs 120 people in Manitoba and 300 across the country. The parent company, which is headquartered in St. Louis, has 22,000 employees around the world.

Monsanto first started exploring the world of DNA when it came up with genetically modified plants–petunias–in 1983. A dozen years later, after thousands of experiments both in the laboratory and in the field, it received regulatory clearance for biotech products.

Baldwin makes no apologies about using technology to improve the commodities originally created by none other than the Almighty, calling it “sustainable agriculture.”

“There are food shortages today. There were food riots last year in Italy for pasta and riots in Mexico because the price of corn was too high, which impacted the price of tacos. People have the basic right to buy and have food,” he says.

“We’re using the land the most efficiently with our improved genetics and improved traits.”

Baldwin also deflected criticism that large agricultural companies should be doing more to grow food organically.

“If people grow organic, the yields will be much lower, which would cause them to use a whole bunch more land to get the same production. That’s not cost effective. As it costs them more to produce, it costs more for the food,” he says.

Monsanto is also putting its money where its mouth is. It is currently building a new $15-million, 29,000-square-foot breeding facility adjacent to its existing headquarters at Smartpark at the University of Manitoba. It is also putting money into its manufac-turing facility in Lethbridge, Alta., and the technical development centre it just built outside of Saskatoon.

“Our facility in Winnipeg is an older (plant) we acquired when we bought Advanta Seeds a couple of years ago. We’re going to move into a state-of-the-art plant with proper growth rooms and rooms for testing, processing and selection of seed for our breeding program,” he says.

You can be certain this won’t be Monsanto’s last foray into innovation, either. The parent company plans to remain on the cutting edge of genetics by investing more than $2.5 million per day into research and development.

Monsanto, which is a publicly traded firm on the New York Stock Exchange, had revenues of $7.3 billion last year. Its shares fell off their 52-week high near US $120 in the fall of 2008 but have hovered within a few dollars of $80 ever since. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.)

Baldwin said Monsanto is especially proud to have been named one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for the last two years by Mediacorp Canada Inc., the country’s largest publisher of employment-related periodicals and online directories.

Monsanto was cited for offering employees great parental leave top-up benefits to 90 per cent of salary for 26 weeks; starting new employees with three weeks vacation plus three personal paid days off each year; making its share purchase plan available to all employees; supporting employees with a variety of work options, including telecommuting; and helping employees prepare for retirement with a traditional pension plan and matching RRSP contributions and retiree health coverage, with no age limit.

Baldwin said the recognition comes in particularly handy when trying to attract good employees, a never-ending challenge in today’s environment.

“It gives us prominence and shows us we’re an employer of choice. It’s surprising how many people that we bring in for an interview who are surprised to see we were one of the top 100 employers. That has made them look closer at the company,” he says.