Monsanto was founded in 1902 producing an articial sweetener in St. Louis.  It has gorwn iinto the worlds largest producer of genetically modified seeds.  Now it proposes to enter the field of big data.  Pivot, pivot, pivot, a remarkably agile company.  From industrial chemical to the notorious Agent Orange, Monsanto has faced huge business challenges and survived.

Is it possible that its next turn will be toward Bid Data?  In its 2013 Annual Report, Mansanto blamed lost profits on failure to predict the climate properly and failure to recognize changing habits of famers.  To address both issues they are becoming information experts.   As a side effect, they will be able to contribute to knowledge about climate change and quality food production, two areas that the press has been merciless on exposing as they examine genetically modified seed produciton.  Monsanto’s Pivots