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livingontheland - [Livingontheland] Burpee bought out by Seminis, bought out by Monsanto

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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Burpee bought out by Seminis, bought out by Monsanto
  • Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2007 07:05:15 -0700

http://www.idigmygarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2245

A recent merger now announced says that W.Atlee Burpee & Co. Seeds has
accepted a deal to be bought out by Seminis. This will mean that from
the beginning of 2007 onward, Burpee will be operated as a subsidiary of
Monsanto (a.k.a. Monsatan) Co., which has already bought out Seminis.
Seminis and Burpee were the two largest American seed companies not
affiliated with Monsatan until both were recently bought out by the
multi-billion-dollar corporation.
Burpee & Co. was started in 1876 when 18-year-old Washington Atlee
Burpee started a small seed business with the help of his mother. The
business took off like a space shuttle, and supplied money to buy a
second seed-growing farm in California (in addition to the Burpee's
famous Fordhook farm in Pennsylvania). They also built "The House" at
Fordhook (which looks simply like a huge farmhouse but is a mansion
inside), and converted the old family farmhouse to a seed-cleaning
facility.
Behind the scenes, W.A. Burpee was an alcoholic. His drinking led to his
untimely death in 1915, at the age of 49. His son David Burpee, aged 22,
left Cornell University to take up the reins of the company.
David Burpee became the P.T. Barnum of the seed business, famous for his
use of bells-and-whistles, smoke-and-mirrors advertising hype. He made
hybridization mainstream in the seed industry, and helped develop
chromosomal modification, a predecessor technology to genetic engineering.
In 1991 Hall Co. bought out Burpee seeds. The Hall leadership conflicted
often with Jonathan Burpee (heir to the company fortune), so they fired
him in 1993 and took away the money that he would have received after
retirement. Burpee & Co. began to use Fordhook less for trials, and the
California farm more.
It is unknown as of yet what the Monsanto/Seminis buyout will do to
Burpee Seeds.





  • [Livingontheland] Burpee bought out by Seminis, bought out by Monsanto, TradingPostPaul, 01/05/2007

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