Monsanto shareholders rejected a concerned shareholder’s proposal and upheld management viewpoint, as expected–after all, they did own shares in Monsanto–at the 2012 annual shareholders meeting held today at Monsanto Headquarters in St. Louis, MO. A shareholder representing Harrington Investments had submitted a proposal to create a study of “‘material financial risks or operational impacts’ associated with its chemical products and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).” Monsanto management issued a statement recommending that its shareholders vote against the proposal, which they did, of course. Although Monsanto’s statement claimed to support the freedom of farmers to choose whatever farming system they wanted, John Harrington, CEO of Harrington Investments, said he doubted that Monsanto was truly supportive of farmers’ freedom because “genetic drift from GMO crops is contaminating their conventional and organic crops.” The GMO contamination takes away the farmers ability to market crops to Europe, China, and Japan where GMO crops are not accepted.

Although the meeting was only open to shareholders, there were protesters demonstrating outside the meeting. The protest was organized by Organic Consumers Association (OCA), Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA), and Harrington Investments. Shareholders should be concerned that eventually Monsanto will be held responsible for the “human health and environmental damages” from its toxic pesticides, herbicides (Roundup-glyphosate), and genetically engineered seeds, which would cause Monsanto stocks to drop in value.

Sources:

St Louis Business Journal, Environmentalists protest at Monsanto annual meeting

GM Watch, Protests outside Monsanto meeting planned

The Sacremento Bee, Monsanto Attempts to Lockout Socially Responsible Shareholder at Annual Meeting

Organic Bytes, Join the OCA Protest at Monsanto’s Annual Shareholders Meeting

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Glyphosate is already in our food, air, and water: What is it and why should we care?

Double GM Whammy for the Monarch Butterfly

It’s Not Pretty Behind the Biotech Veil, and Interview with Howard Vlieger What Does Genetically Engineered (or GMO) Mean?