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Monsanto's ongoing battle against GMO haters

Monsanto, and the ongoing controversy surrounding the company's genetically modified products, has landed on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek, with the headline "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful."

The Businessweek piece outlines Monsanto's ongoing battle with GMO haters and its status as America's third most-hated company, according to a recent Harris Poll. "The company's name has become shorthand for corporate villainy, like Standard Oil a century ago," Businessweek says.

The piece also highlights Monsanto's successes, with its stock market value growing from $7 billion in 2000 to more than $66 billion, and its ongoing technological and scientific advances, such as its broadening focus on traditional plant breeding, its research on the targeted use of bacteria and fungi, and its move into computing with its purchase of Precision Planting and the Climate Corp.

"I’m always amazed that critics can figure out some simple sound bite to point out how all these things are bad and wrong, and that there’s a better way," Rob Fraley, Monsanto's chief technology officer, told the magazine. "Show me that better plan for improving yields and doubling production to meet demand for food, and we’ll probably be doing research on it."