Chapter 69 The Dakota State Candidate
Griffith, the former CEO of the Dakota Pasta Growers Company, wearing a baseball cap with his name on his head, faced thousands of supporters in the audience, and delivered his first campaign speech. As the executive of the most influential grain processing company in North Dakota, Griffith has a good reputation and rich contacts in agricultural production areas like North Dakota. After a British consortium bought his Dakota Pasta Growers a few years ago, Griffith's performance earned him the trust to continue the long-established grain processing business under new owners. branch.
Seriously speaking, in the past two years, the food industry in the United States has undergone earth-shaking changes. Investors from Europe controlled most of the wheat production in Saskatchewan, Canada, and then spread their tentacles into South Dakota and North Dakota. Griffith didn't know much about his boss. He only knows that his boss is a beautiful and young woman who lives in Switzerland all year round and also runs a gallery and art business in Europe. And now the huge grain business in the hands of the boss has been taken over by another company from Switzerland, Glencore. Not long ago, Griffith was invited to Switzerland to meet with his boss, Karim, who is already the vice president of Glencore. The two talked for a long time about the future development of the company. In, Kareem asks Griffith if he would like to leave the company and go into politics.
When he first heard this sentence, Griffith thought that he was going to be kicked out of the company that he had struggled for for many years. Fortunately, after Karim's patient explanation, Griffith finally understood what the other party proposed. The real purpose of the suggestion.
"Griffith, you have a good reputation among farmers in North and South Dakota, which is the fundamental reason why Dakota Pasta Growers can maintain its dominance in these two states. But whether it is from the company From your personal point of view, it is a pity that such excellent network resources are not well utilized! Next year will be the mid-term elections in the United States. I hope you can stand up and join the political circle. Of course, the cost of the campaign I will prepare it for you in secret!" Karim said straight to the point according to Seryozha's instructions.
"But, Miss Karim! I have never had any experience in politics. Besides, if I am a businessman and become a politician across borders, what can I bring to the company?" Although Griffith was a little moved by politics, he could I don't want to leave the big tree of Glencore. The company's treatment is not generally generous. The reason why Griffith is loyal is largely because of the company's generous treatment. But in addition, Glencore's excellent marketing capabilities are also one of the important reasons why Griffith is interested. After Kalim got fed up with Dakota Pasta Growers, the wheat and other agricultural products purchased by their company rarely had a backlog, and almost never caused any inventory problems. In Griffith's view, this It's really an ideal job with more money and less work close to home.
"Griffith, we are very clear about your concerns, but I think you should read this first?" After finishing speaking, Karim took out a thick document from the table and placed it in front of Griffith . Griffith opened the document, which was a letter of intent for an acquisition that had not yet been made public. The target of the acquisition was a small seed sales company under the name of Griffith. In the column of transaction amount, Griffith saw that it was actually vacant. He looked at Karim, wondering what the hell was going on.
"Don't get me wrong, Griffith. The company has no dissatisfaction with you taking the resources of the Dakota Pasta Growers Company to support its own seed sales company. But now the company is preparing to introduce another seed producer in the United States. The company has become a new supplier, so we are going to acquire the seed sales company under your name! Please fill in the price yourself, the company will never counter the price, and we will give you back some shares of the new seed company Family! But I hope that if you are elected to the state legislature or governor in the future,
Can you help companies market our seed products in the Dakotas? "Karim stopped making rounds, she chose to be straightforward, and explained the stakes to Griffith straight to the point.
Griffith was completely stunned by Karim's generosity. He had never encountered such a situation in his years of business experience. But Griffith was still a little worried and asked: "What kind of seed product is it, and which company produced it?"
"Oh! It is a genetically modified soybean produced by Monsanto. The biggest difference of this soybean is that it will not be killed by glyphosate herbicide. If this soybean is used, the farmer can spray the glyphosate produced by Monsanto at will. Phosphate herbicides without any effect on soybean crops, you know how much better crop yields can be if weeds are not infesting the fields!" Karim explained to Griffith .
"GMO? Is Monsanto the same company that produced DDT during World War II and defoliants during the Vietnam War? Aren't they a chemical company? When did they enter the seed production industry?" Griffith asked puzzled. He knew about Monsanto's glyphosate. This herbicide can kill almost all crops in the field, but it has a short validity period and is said to have low toxicity and will not cause any side effects on crops. Before the emergence of glyphosate, farmers in the United States mainly used Agent Orange, which was also produced by Monsanto, as a herbicide. However, after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, the media successively broke out the harm of Agent Orange to newborns and human bodies, making glyphosate It has become almost the only choice in the herbicide market. But glyphosate kills weeds, as well as crops, so the herbicide should only be used in the month before planting the bell. But now the newly produced soybean seeds are not afraid of glyphosate, which is simply amazing. Does this mean that in the future, apart from crops, there will no longer be any plants in the farmland that can survive.
Griffith was amazed at his boss's formidable means, and he even quietly won Monsanto, a chemical company, over. With this kind of seed, the production and cost of soybeans in the Dakota region may be difficult to match in the world. Griffith remembered that Karim also promised to give him a part of the shares of the seed sales company. Would anyone not like this kind of seeds? Griffith didn't hesitate, he generously filled in 100 million dollars in the amount column, and then signed his name. This deal made Griffith a lot of money part-time, and his seed sales company was worth a few million dollars at most.
Seeing this amount, Karim has no dissatisfaction. He has achieved his goal and let Griffith stand up for Monsanto's newly developed genetically modified soybeans. Although Monsanto's life sciences department has been trying to overcome the difficulties of corn for several years, it did not expect that soybeans were the first to be harvested. And Griffith's influence in agricultural states is definitely the first choice for Monsanto to promote its own products.