Swiss Alpine Resort Replaces Dow Chemical

We at The World's Fair are proud to bring on the Grand Hotel Regina as our alternative sponsor for the month. It isn't just that we see a natural fit between the two of us -- they, in complete harmony with majestic Eiger and Jungfrau vistas; we, in complete unanimity with our distaste for the moral degradation of Dow Chemical. The thing is, if you talk to Alfred Krebs, the owner-manager of the Grand Hotel Regina, you don't end up with a megaton of carcinogenic chemicals in your watershed. Nor, as Alfred would be the first to tell you, could you get the same fine array of tennis courts, health pavilions, indoor and outdoor pools, saunas, massages, or access to all winter sports in your quest to cross-license with Monsanto to develop the unprecedented "eight-way gene stack" (which, as Monsanto helpfully notes in this powerpoint presentation -- slide 6 -- is "not registered with the EPA," thus making it illegal to actually use).

I won't even get into the grandeur of the salad buffet at the Grand Hotel Regina, but I will say this: it is mmmmmm good, and it has actual food, food grown by farmers, food that is considered part of a stable cultural experience, food that is the prodcut of planting seeds into the ground and bringing them to harvest. This, as opposed to, say, food as the product of an ardent Wall St.-viable market strategy to define corn as an element in technology innovation portfolios. Those 4th Quarter projections might smell mmm mmm good, but that's just artificial cookie scent being piped through the heating ducts.

Oh I'm sorry, is this too obscure? Perhaps this story "Dow and Monsanto to Develop Eight-Way Gene Stack for Corn," will help. It's about Dow and Monsanto teaming up to promote something called "SmartStax(TM), the most complete yield protection ever made available in a corn hybrid, featuring eight different Dow AgroSciences and Monsanto herbicide tolerance and insect-protection genes." On the other hand, it's a good statement for insight into how agro-business understands, defines, and then treats the land in a particular way, a way ecologically askew and eventually materially, culturally, and morally destructive.

The challenge for Dow is to thread this needle: play big in the agro game to appease shareholders and do so through "targeted acquisitions as we deliver on our commitment to become a predictable, long-term earnings growth company." You might be thinking agriculture has something to do with food, but you'd be wrong. It has to do with "technology leadership" and value-added product lines. Here's Dow's CEO:

"Once again, we are reaping the benefit of our commitment to drive technology leadership in our Performance businesses, focusing on projects that deliver significant value to our customers . . . and create long-term growth opportunities for our Company," said Dow's chairman and CEO, Andrew Liveris. "This agreement provides a further endorsement of our strategy: we're being patient, we're being disciplined and we're investing in both organic opportunities and targeted acquisitions as we deliver on our commitment to become a predictable, long-term earnings growth company."

He expects their "Mycogen Seeds business to rapidly expand its platform and develop new products carrying SmartStax."

These too are wonderful additions to the portfolio: "SmartStax will include above- and below-ground insect protection systems, including Dow AgroSciences' Herculex(R) I and Herculex RW technologies; Monsanto's YieldGard VT Rootworm/RR2(TM) and YieldGard VT PRO(TM) technologies; and the two established weed control systems, Roundup Ready(R) and Liberty Link(R). Both Dow and Monsanto will cross-license, under royalty- bearing agreements, their respective systems."

Shudder to think someone might object to agro-corporate dominance or observe that Dow and Monsanto are little interested in the goal of feeding the world.

We won't get into that. Instead, we'll write in our dream journal about that wonderful vision of Swiss hospitality in the Bernese Oberland, awaiting us with the smiles of Alfred Krebs, owner-manager. And we'll admit the image of what an eight-way gene stack looks like (is it like a can of Pringles?) still eludes us.

Now don't forget to visit our other sponsors -- Kaspar Schott's "How to Determine Depth of a Well," Bell Telephone, Encyclopedia Britannica, Cutter Bill, Hungarian cookbooks, and Fellman Shoes. They too want to bring you high quality blogging, just as Seed has allowed Dow Chemical to do.