Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future

Bart Elmore takes us on an authoritative and eye-opening journey into how the company Monsanto came to have outsized influence over our food system. Monsanto, a St. Louis chemical firm that became the world’s largest maker of genetically engineered seeds, merged with German pharma-biotech giant Bayer in 2018―but its Roundup Ready® seeds, introduced twenty-five years ago, are still reshaping the farms that feed us. Elmore examines Monsanto’s astounding evolution from a scrappy chemical startup to a global agribusiness powerhouse. Monsanto used seed money derived from toxic products―including PCBs and Agent Orange―to build an agricultural empire, promising endless bounty through its genetically engineered technology.

Panel:

Bart Elmore | Associate Professor of Environmental History at The Ohio State University

Nicholas Breyfogle (Moderator) | Associate Professor, Department of History; Director, Harvey Goldberg Center for Teaching Excellence