Chapter 506 Hugh Grant
Prior to this, Guo Yang had already communicated with the higher-ups about this matter, and the information he received was that the Hongqi River project was ready to be launched.

But there is no clear route.

The second Hongqi River route involves domestic territory, and domestic practice has always been to be very cautious.

Won't take any particularly big risks.

Even though this opportunity is particularly good.

Although the "world police" America has many internal problems and contradictions, its strength is still relatively strong, and it has a large number of younger brothers around it.

Without absolute certainty, the top leaders will not rashly change their foreign policy.

Unless America is also broken apart.

And now the person in the country who has the ability to fan the flames, to be precise, is Guo Yang.

To be honest, Guo Yang was a little annoyed.

He felt like he was being used as a tool, with his superiors repeatedly testing his bottom line.

The overall situation is important. These four words conveyed by the upper level through Mr. Liu mean a lot.

But he is not a politician. To put it nicely, he is an entrepreneur, and to put it more simply, he is a capitalist. The boundary between the two is very vague.

But when faced with power, most of the time they are just fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

The only thing he could rely on was that Jiahe's industrial scale was large enough, involving the livelihoods of tens of millions of people, so anyone who wanted to touch it had to think twice.

However, it is not impossible.

The sea buckthorn berries outside the floor-to-ceiling windows have turned yellow again, and the trees have become tall and lush, overlapping each other densely and extending all the way to the horizon. It is impossible to tell that this was once a desert.

Guo Yang said to himself: "We need to be more prepared. A cunning rabbit has three burrows. Now, apart from China, there is only one other place, the Democratic Republic of the Congo."

Who should be sent?
Yu Honghai may not be reliable now. After all, he has an official background and is only suitable for doing business. He is not free to do other things.

Guo Yang's gaze lingered on Luo Xiu at the door for a moment.

Just then, Qu Yang walked in.

"Boss, the American matter has already been arranged. This time the American farmers will have to pay a heavy price again."

Guo Yang said calmly: "It's not enough to just peel off a layer of skin. This time we have to completely destroy his agriculture!"

The United States is the representative of agricultural industrialization in the world and the number one agricultural power. It has won over a number of younger brothers by relying on its food hegemony.

Once agriculture collapses completely, a cornerstone will be lost. If there is also industrial hollowing out, the edifice may collapse.

Qu Yang hesitated and said, "Will this cause too much noise? Jia He might be suspected."

Guo Yang pondered and said, "Monsanto is also in its heyday, and at the same time it is in constant trouble. This pot will not fall on Jiahe's head."

There might be accidents in India and South America, but in America, Monsanto has no choice but to take the blame.

...

"If you have information about stolen torrents, press 2."

Arkansas farmer Ray Dawson called a toll-free hotline set up by Monsanto and heard a friendly female voice on the line.

He chose 2.
The call was immediately connected to an operator from Monsanto’s “plantation management team.”

Then, he took a few seconds to report his neighbor for possibly pirating torrents.

Just two weeks ago, Ray Dawson was also reported and suffered a huge blow.

He eventually had to pay $20 before Monsanto stopped harassing him.

This incident brought great pressure to his family.

At one point, Monsanto’s attorneys threatened to have Dawson’s wife thrown in jail, saying she had lied under oath during a statement.

Dawson, the brave man who often wears a 'Dawson's Farm Shut Down by Monsanto' hat, ultimately decided that paying Monsanto was a better option than watching his family fall apart.

Others will make the same choice.

According to calculations by relevant American agencies, Monsanto has filed thousands of lawsuits against farmers as of this year.

In a small town square in Little Rock, Arkansas, Professor Jason Noseworthy from Arkansas is shouting at the top of his lungs to denounce Monsanto's crimes.

“The average compensation paid to each farmer in these cases is a whopping $10!”

“Some farmers refused to comply.”

"They waged fierce legal battles against the so-called increasingly powerful 'Police State', however, most lost the ultimate battle!"

“Most of them have never even bought Monsanto seeds!”

"It's possible that pollen from the farm next door or seeds dropped by a passing truck brought these transgenic traits into his fields."

“In 2006, just a decade after the Roundup revolution began, scientists discovered glyphosate-resistant weeds in more than 20 states.

The list of resistant weed species grew to include common and giant ragweed, Palmer amaranth, and ryegrass.

In 2005, a strain of herbicide-resistant Palmer amaranth swept across the southern United States, causing major problems for farmers who had relied entirely on the Roundup Ready system.

However, guys, you all know that the disaster has just begun.

Because, the caltrops are coming.

A superweed that overwhelms existing herbicide regimens.

The red fire ants are here too.

Federal farmers paid a heavy price for this, with many farms going bankrupt and then being bought out by the powerful and wealthy.

Monsanto can no longer deny this problem because farmers can see it quite clearly in their fields.

For about a decade, Monsanto had done little to address the problem of drug resistance.

There is even a reluctance to remind farmers to reduce overuse of glyphosate, but the resistance problem will not go away easily.

However, the years-long disaster caused by caltrops and red fire ants caused Monsanto to suffer heavy losses.

They had to take this problem seriously and developed a new solution: an upgraded version of Roundup Ready.

A seed that has a combination of genes for Roundup resistance and dicamba resistance.

This is good news.

But even greater misfortune soon came.

Dicamba has a high tendency to evaporate and drift from farm to farm, especially in hot weather.

Monsanto knew that the spread of this herbicide to farms that did not grow dicamba-tolerant crops would cause catastrophic losses to farmers who did not purchase the upgraded Roundup-Ready seeds.

But they didn’t try to solve the problem by inventing a new dicamba formulation that wouldn’t evaporate.

Instead, they are rushing to get new seeds to market.

And in a bold move, Monsanto has prohibited university and other agricultural scientists in Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois from conducting volatility tests on Monsanto’s newly formulated dicamba blend.”

More and more people gathered in the square, many of them holding signs protesting Monsanto. Professor Jason Noseworthy took a quick look and saw that almost all of them were farmers who had gone bankrupt because of Monsanto.

He angrily said: "This is the first time Wo has heard of strict guidelines on what can and cannot be done with herbicides sold on the market!"

"It's ridiculous! But this is very Monsanto. They can even intercept the profits after the farmers harvest the food!"

“Dicamba-tolerant seeds are finally available, and farmers eager to address the growing problem of weed resistance are beginning to plant dicamba-tolerant cotton, soybean and corn seeds.”

“But the system is still under compliance review at this time and has not been approved by the EPA.”

“However, in just two farming seasons, the volatile dicamba formulation had spread throughout the southern part of the federal government.

It was a disaster.

Arkansas was one of the states hardest hit.

The local plant commission received more than 2000 complaints from farmers complaining that dicamba had drifted onto their farms and damaged their crops.

The committee was overwhelmed.

The problem is concentrated in the hot South, but it also occurs throughout all agricultural areas of the federation, from Georgia to North Dakota!
Drift problems forced farmers to turn to Monsanto's new seed system.

Farmers who choose to refuse are likely to face serious economic losses caused by dicamba.

Who would take that risk?
For many farmers, there is only one way out: buy these seeds.

As of today, dicamba is everywhere.

Many innocent farms suffered devastating disaster!
And Monsanto became the biggest beneficiary!
They are deceiving the whole world. I cannot bear to see what they are doing. This is a heartless business!
How they pretend the whole thing has nothing to do with them!

Its product is defective!
We must unite and defeat Monsanto!"

At the rear right of the square, there is a two-story building, in which stand two sales managers from Tianhe Seed Industry, one yellow and one white.

Xia Yaohua's English was not bad, and he understood Professor Johnson's speech completely. "It really makes my blood boil!"

Garn Burton, a white man who does not understand Chinese, thought Xia Yaohua also hated Monsanto. "Monsanto is really abominable! Our seeds cannot withstand the erosion of dicamba. Farmers simply do not want to buy our seeds."

Xia Yaohua smiled and said in English: "Monsanto has been deserted by everyone because of its bullying, corporate monopoly and pesticide-resistant weeds."

"But it hasn't fallen yet," Garn Burton said.

"All we need is a lead, or a fair judge, or a fair law." Xia Yaohua looked at Garn Burton, "Do you believe in federal law?"

Garn Burton said disdainfully: "Federal laws are shit!"

Xia Yaohua pondered and said, "But there will be a day when a fair judgment will come."

Half an hour later, Professor Johnson finished his lecture and came to the house, but he only saw Garn Burton.

Garn Burton smiled and said, "Professor, that's a great speech, but I think you should change your Chevrolet truck. How about a Ford?"

Johnson was puzzled: "My truck drives fine, why should I change it?"

Garn Burton said: "Because it is sponsored by Monsanto, Monsanto is now the devil, which is not worthy of you as a professor."

Jason agreed, "Then let's change it."

Xia Yaohua was also riding in a Ford truck, driving on the road from Little Rock to Memphis.

The farms along the country road have a good harvest, with cotton, soybeans, corn and wheat interweaving into a pastoral beauty.

However, Xia Yaohua ignored the beautiful scenery and sat on the tall truck, looking for weeds in the farmland.

New dicamba formulations killed the tribulus, but entirely new weeds appeared on federal fields.

In the suburbs of Memphis, Xia Yaohua saw the same speech scene as in Little Rock.

In other words, such meetings were held throughout the central and southern parts of the federation, and the voices against Monsanto were growing louder and louder.

Tianhe's move to fund agricultural scientists is not rash; it is normal in the federation.

Professor Johnson of Little Rock has been sponsored by Monsanto for more than a decade, but he is not a Monsanto employee.

There are many people like him.

St. Louis, Missouri.

Hugh Grant is a 45-year-old scientist who grew up in an old coal mining and textile town in Scotland and has a thick Scottish accent.

As the anti-Monsanto wave intensified, Monsanto's board of directors chose him to replace the original CEO Brett Biggman.

Brett Biggman took Monsanto to a new peak through the acquisition of Syngenta and the upgraded Roundup Ready system.

A super agricultural group with a market value of over 100 billion US dollars.

Roundup-resistant seeds have once again become a money-printing machine.

However, when the federal government launched an anti-Monsanto wave, Europe banned genetically modified seeds, South America's approval process was slow, and the Chinese market collapsed, Brett Biggman was no longer favored by the company.

The appointment of Hugh Grant is better for Monsanto's image because he rarely brags or talks big.

Of course, he also has his crazy and casual moments.

For example, when Grant was accompanying a National Geographic expedition to investigate melting ice sheets due to global warming, he impulsively plunged into the freezing waters of the Arctic Ocean.

He also once took a group of farmers out for a passionate karaoke session.

But, mostly, Grant is known for his Zen-like calm and clarity.

Unlike Brett Biggman, he chose a small cubicle office at Monsanto headquarters rather than a luxurious corner suite filled with mahogany furniture.

Kind, friendly, gentle, quiet... these are the labels that media reporters have given to this middle-aged manager of Monsanto.

For a company with an image problem, Grant's calm was exactly what Monsanto's board wanted.

Grant started from the bottom and worked his way up.

At the age of 23, he saw a recruitment advertisement from Monsanto and immediately became a Roundup salesman for Monsanto in Scotland.

Because of his outstanding performance, he became the leader of a Roundup team in Northern Ireland.

He was then transferred back to St. Louis and appointed the new chief strategist for the Roundup brand when he was only 30 years old.

As chief strategist, Grant shrewdly preserved Roundup's market share when the patent for Roundup glyphosate was about to expire.

In 2001, Roundup glyphosate alone still had revenues of $28 billion.

He also designed the sales strategy for the upgraded Roundup Ready system after the Tribulus terrestris outbreak, including allowing dicamba to drift into neighboring fields.

This once again brought Monsanto amazing profits.

Grant was therefore a 'Roundup' man.

His career success is all due to the powerful chemical 'Roundup'.

Now, as the helmsman, Grant faces new challenges.

(End of this chapter)