EPA says Monsanto mine violates law

1.EPA says Monsanto mine violates law
2.Roundup annual gross profit likely to half

NOTE: One thing you can say for Monsanto is they are consistent - see item 1.
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1.EPA says Monsanto mine violates law
Associated Press, June 29 2009
http://www.idahobusiness.net/archive.htm/2009/06/29/EPA-says-Monsanto-mine-violates-law

Federal regulators say an Idaho mine that Monsanto uses to make Roundup weed killer has violated federal and state water quality laws almost since it opened, sending selenium and other heavy metals into the region's streams. The Environmental Protection Agency says problems at the St. Louis-based company's mine near the Idaho-Wyoming border were documented starting in April 2002, 15 months after it won Bureau of Land Management approval.

The mine recently has failed to halt metals-laden water seeping from a waste dump.

Eva DeMaria, an EPA enforcement official in Seattle, says, "The measures they have implemented aren't working."

The disclosure comes as Monsanto Co. wants federal officials to approve a new mine in the region.

Monsanto lobbyist Trent Clark says his company has remedied some EPA concerns and continues to work to fix violations at the waste dump.
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2.Roundup annual gross profit likely to half
Reuters, 27 June 2009
http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/Default.aspx?s=3&s1=2&id=12481

New York - Monsanto Co will see gross profit from its Roundup herbicide business drop by half to about $US1 billion ($1.58b) annually because of increased competition, the company said.

The business, once a core money-maker for Monsanto, should fall from about $US2b in gross profit this fiscal year to $US1b by 2012 and in the future should amount to less than 15 percent of the company's total gross profit, Chairman Hugh Grant said.

Company officials said they were creating a separate division for the herbicide business to help stabilise and better align spending and working capital needs.

They did not rule out eventual divestiture but said they were focused on stabilising the business.

Monsanto Executive Vice President Carl Casale said the pace and magnitude of the competition in the sector had surprised the company as the price gap between its glyphosate herbicide offering and competitors grew from about 50 cents per acre last fall to more than $US2 currently.

As a result, volume sales of Roundup have been steadily sliding this year. Monsanto said herbicide values had dropped to $US3 a kilo from $US10 last year. - Reuters