Monsanto (MON) the New Sheriff ... its Own!

Monsanto (NYSE:MON) will be allowed to conduct its own environmental impact studies as a result of a two-year experiment by the USDA, effectively making them the sheriff of its own town.

They are not the only biotech company to be handed its own policing powers, as others will also be able to conduct their own assessments, or have it farmed out to contractors.

According to the USDA, by allowing the companies to do this, the process will be more "timely, efficient, and cost-effective," according to the Federal Register.

What will probably happen from all this will indeed be a smoother process, but also the gradual release of crops and pesticides to farmers in a way that won't appear alarming to those that don't understand the overall process.

This is true of anything as far as speed goes, as anything that changes too quickly, will be considered suspect by most people.

It remains to be seen whether this is a good or bad move by the USDA.

But with the food crisis hitting the world and the need for answers, it appears they've passed the responsibility on to those part of the industry itself because they don't want to deal with the consequences on either side of the issue.

Monsanto closed Monday at $65.99, falling $1.53, or 2.27 percent.

Monsanto's (MON) Alfalfa Faced with Another Lawsuit

Monsanto's (NYSE:MON) genetically modified alfalfa is indirectly under another lawsuit, as federal regulators were used by the Center for Food Safety, saying the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent approval of genetically modified alfalfa was illegal.

The complaint alleges the approval is based on faulty information, and that genetically modified alfalfa will damage the organic industry because it could contaminate conventional or organic alfalfa. The alfalfa, developed by Creve Couer-based Monsanto, is engineered to withstand applications of the herbicide Roundup, which kills weeds but not the crop.

Monsanto said in a statement: "We are aware that CFS has filed yet another lawsuit, and we will be reviewing allegations. In late January, the USDA authorized planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa after preparing an extensive Environmental Impact Statement, providing several public comment opportunities and determining that Roundup Ready alfalfa is as safe as conventional alfalfa."

One plaintiff, Ed Maltby, head of the Northeast Alliance of Organic Dairy Producers, said, "Approving the unrestricted planting of GE alfalfa is a blatant case of the USDA serving one form of agriculture at the expense of others."

This is an odd comment in that the so-called organic farmers are doing the exact same thing Malty just accused the USDA of doing, creating an industry which is expected to be treated better at the expense of other forms of agriculture.

Monsanto closed Friday at $67.84, gaining $0.64, or 0.95 percent.

Monsanto (NYSE:MON) Gets Go Ahead for GMO Alfalfa

The USDA gave farmers the go ahead to plant GMO alfalfa developed by Monsanto (NYSE:MON).

Also included in the decision is the allowance to plant alfalfa with no restrictions; something opponents of GMO though would be included in the decision, if the planting was allowed to go forward.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, "After conducting a thorough and transparent examination of alfalfa ... APHIS has determined that Roundup Ready alfalfa is as safe as traditionally bred alfalfa."

APHIS refers to Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an arm of the USDA, and which made the decision.

While saying he understood the concerns of opponents, Vilsack added farmers in the U.S. need to be allowed to have a choice in whether or not they want to plant GMO alfalfa or other varieties.

Vilsack concluded, "I'm trying to bring people together. This set of actions, it seems to me, provides opportunities for preservation of choice in agriculture, creates a set of forms for building trusting relationships that could lead us to better policy in the future,"

Monsanto was trading at $72.36, falling $1.32, or 1.79 percent, as of 11:02 AM EST.

Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) Lands USDA Cloud Computing Deal

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) has landed a major deal in their cloud computing segment, securing a agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to supply a variety of online applications to the government agency, including e-mail collaboration.

The USDA has approximately 120,000 employees.

By Microsoft standards the deal is tiny, as it is valued at $27 million over a period of three years, with an estimated savings of $6 million for the USDA during that time over the technology it's now using.

The key for those providing cloud computing services is to get their foot in the door with various government agencies in hopes of expanding across various government entities.

From a government standpoint, they've been migrating to cloud services because of the lower costs in a tough economic climate which isn't going to improve for years.

Competitors like Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) and Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) have complained of Microsoft being favored in these types of deals, the USDA's chief information officer Chris Smith responded, saying, they already had a large investment with Microsoft and its software, and it was taken as "an opportunity to parlay this investment into the cloud solution."