The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

320 the world according to monsantoA Risky Company for InvestorsStill in Manhattan, not far from the offices of TIAA-CREF, I went to seeMarc Brammer, who works for Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, the leaderin what is known as “extrafinancial analysis,” which consists of evaluatingthe social and environmental performances of companies on a scale rangingfrom AAA for the best to CCC for dunces. The grades are used to advise investorsso that they may reduce their financial risks and increase the yield oftheir investments. With offices in New York, London, Tokyo, and Paris, Innovesthas taken on the task of developing a clientele with portfolios focusedon sustainable development. In January 2005, Brammer published a reporttitled “Monsanto and Genetic Engineering: Risks for Investors,” in which hepresented a summary of the company’s activities and noted its “managementand strategy” in the area of biotechnology. 1 The result was a grade of CCC.“It’s the worst environmental grade,” he told me. “We have observed that inalmost every industrial sector the companies with above-average environmentalgrades generally do better in the stock market than those with belowaveragegrades, by a range of three hundred to three thousand pointsannually. This means that Monsanto is a risky business for shareholders inthe medium and long term.”“Who are Monsanto’s shareholders?”“They are very dispersed, but the principal investors are pension fundsand banks, which represent tens of thousands of small shareholders.”“How do you explain the fact that a fund like TIAA-CREF has invested inMonsanto?”“It’s surprising, because it’s an institution that really encourages responsibleinvesting. On the other hand, it’s rather typical of the way pension fundsoperate: they make short-term calculations and are very sensitive to marketrumors. In the case of Monsanto, it’s clear that it is overvalued because ofunconditional support on Wall Street.”“What are the principal risk factors for investors?”“The primary one is market rejection, which is a real time bomb for Monsanto.GMOs are some of the most strongly rejected products that have everexisted. More than thirty-five countries have adopted or proposed legislationlimiting the imports of GMOs or requiring the labeling of food containing