How Monsanto sees themselves;
According to the company, Monsanto believes they are the source of empowerment to farmers both large and small. In their about me statement they claim to help farmers "produce more from their land while conserving more of our world's natural resources such as water and energy." And they are able to do this with their seed brands in crops such as corn, cotton, oilseeds and fruits and vegetables.
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How the World sees Monsanto
Many sites that talk about the Monsanto company describe Monsanto as a monopoly and a bully. There are many claims that Monsanto purposely runs small farmers out of business. How? They are able to do this by filing lawsuits against these small farmers for having traces of Monsanto patented crops on their farmland. Even if the majority of crops are produced from the famers own seeds, or despite the fact that many have accused Monsanto for purposely placing their crops near the farm, Monsanto is always able to get a ruling in their favor. There has even been an issue with the fact that Monsanto crop pollen from nearby farms can easily blow onto other farms who are not using Monsanto crops.
With stories like this it certainly does not appear that Monsanto is as "empowering" as they claim.