Monsanto was founded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901, by John Francis Queeny. He gave the company his wife’s maiden name. His father in law was Emmanuel Mendes de Monsanto a wealthy sugar financier active in Vieques, Puerto Rico and based in St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies. The company’s first product was the artificial sweetener saccharin, which it sold to the Coca-Cola Company. It also introduced caffeine and vanillin to Coca-Cola, and became one of that company’s main suppliers.

1920s, Monsanto expanded into basic industrial chemicals like sulfuric acid. The 1940s saw Monsanto become a leading manufacturer of plastics, including polystyrene, and synthetic fibers, taking over most of the market in these areas left by the criminalization of Marijuana. Other major products have included the herbicides 2,4,5-T, DDT (The use of DDT in the U.S. was banned by Congress in 1972 as a major toxin) and Agent Orange (later proven to be highly carcinogenic), the artificial sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet, thought to cause Brain Lesions), bovine somatotropin (bovine growth hormone,100% banned in Canada, the European Union, Australia and New Zealand.), and PCBs causing Large-scale environmental contamination events. Monsanto scientists became the first to genetically modify a plant cell in 1982. Five years later, Monsanto conducted the first field tests of genetically engineered crops (AKA Frankenfoods).

Monsanto has patent claims on breeding techniques for pigs grants them ownership of any pigs born of such techniques and their related herds.

In January, 2010, Monsanto was named company of the year by Forbes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_Company

http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/localities.caribbean.usvi.stthomas/47.48.49.51/mb.ashx

They are descended from a Jewish family from Spain and Portugal which was enobled but left due to persecution from the Spanish Inquisition. The majority of the descendants of the family are now Christian but branches which retain their original religion still exist.

The international chemical company Monsanto was financed by catholic Don Emmanuel Mendes de Monsanto of St Thomas who made a fortune financing the sugar industry in Puerto Rico notably Vieques, he was made a baron by Spain. The founder was John Patrick Queeney his son-in-law a chemist who made saccharin in competition with a German company who had previously monopolized it.