Things that are more expensive...

Than glyphosate.

• Scotch (I just happened to remember Dewars' costs $32 per 1.5 l.)
• Shampoo
• Ceiling paint
• Keepsake water  (Nah - I'd never heard of it either.)

Here's why.

In its fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2009, Monsanto's glyphosate-based herbicide business generated $1.8 billion in gross profit on sales of $3.5 billion. But with the influx of generic glyphosate, Monsanto, whose patent on the molecule expired in 2000, expects Roundup's contribution to its gross profit to tumble to between $250 million and $300 million annually.
Its pullback on Roundup increases pressure on Monsanto's seed-and-crop biotechnology business to make good on Mr. Grant's April guidance to investors that the company will be able to generate earnings growth at a mid-teens percentage rate.
On Thursday, Monsanto cut its earnings target for its fiscal year ending in August by 70 cents to between $2.40 and $2.60 a share.
The company also projected profit for the quarter ending Monday of 75 cents to 80 cents a share, well below the $1.32-a-share average predicted by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
In 4 p.m. composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Monsanto's shares, which have lost nearly 40% of their market value since the start of the year, were down $2.39, or 4.5%, on Thursday at $50.27.
Prices for glyphosate have been hurt by a sustained glut, fueled by China, which has the capacity to make twice as much of the herbicide as the world needs. Mr. Grant said "antidumping actions" might be needed to preserve the industry in the U.S., Argentina and Brazil. Dumping is exporting goods at below the cost of production.
According to Monsanto, the retail price of a gallon of generic glyphosate has dropped to the $10 to $12 range, as much as $4 below what farmers had been paying for nearly a decade. Monsanto said it expects glyphosate prices to settle at between $8 and $10 a gallon. [More]

Well, this helps pay for the residual I have to use now.