The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

ConclusionA Colossus with Feet of ClayThe people of this company are poison: like the god of death, they take awaylife.—A member of the Community Media Trust in Pastapur, Andhra PradeshThe scene took place at the headquarters of TIAA-CREF (Teachers Insuranceand Annuity Association, College Retirement Equities Fund) in an upscaleneighborhood of Manhattan in July 2006. Established ninety yearsearlier, this prestigious pension fund is one of the most important financialinstitutions in the United States, holding $437 billion in assets. Rankedeightieth on Fortune’s list of the five hundred largest companies in the country,TIAA-CREF has a special characteristic figuring prominently on all itsofficial documents: the company provides “financial services for the greatergood.” The only people eligible to join the pension fund are those who servethe “greater good,” including “professors, nurses, deans, hospital and universityadministrators, doctors,” and the like, amounting to 3.2 million members.Since 1990, TIAA-CREF has had a department specializing in “responsibleinvestment,” which 430,000 clients have joined. The reason I had asked tomeet representatives of the venerable company was that I had discovered itwas one of the twenty largest shareholders in Monsanto, 1.5 percent ofwhose shares it held at the time.**According to the SEC, in June 2006 Monsanto’s principal shareholders were: Fidelity Investment(9.1 percent), Axa (6.1 percent), Deutsche Bank (3.6 percent), Primecap Management (3.6 per-