Mr. Speaker, part of it has to do with share price. If I am not mistaken, the share price of Monsanto in U.S. dollars was about $95 a share a year or so ago and it dropped to around $30 in December. That was in large part simply because of the reaction by the public to some of these so-called Frankenfoods that people envisioned the company was working on. It basically boils down to the company moving too quickly in the marketplace.
Mr. Speaker, do you remember a company called Panasonic whose slogan was “Slightly Ahead of our Time”? In politics we cannot be too far ahead of our time. In business we cannot be too far ahead or obviously too far back, but just slightly ahead of our time.
Monsanto was leap years ahead and pushed too aggressively and was forced to sell because of public backlash on some of the advances it was making. If the member recalls, it was Monsanto that came up with the so-called terminator seed, a seed we would have to buy from Monsanto but a seed that could not reproduce. Someone growing wheat, canola or whatever would be forced to buy that seed from Monsanto year in and year out. The repercussions in some Third World countries would be devastating. They would be held captive by a huge corporate giant. I think public reaction was one of the reasons it was forced to sell. I think the public was right. They had to bring these people into check. We hope governments will continue look out for the interests of their citizens.