A number of folk have expressed concern about Monsanto's motives for
purchasing Beeologics.
The Beeologics folk are unfortunately constrained by nondisclosure
agreement from answering my questions.

But it doesn't take a lot of homework and investigation to find out
Monsanto's motives--all that one need do is to read their recent patent
applications involving dsRNA technology.

The following is the most relevant that I found.  I was actually surprised
that their motives, rather than being sinister, appear to hold great
promise for more environmentally-friendly pest control, specifically
targeted to specific pests, and completely biodegradable!

Methods for genetic control of plant pest infestation and compositions
thereof

United States Patent 8088976

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8088976.html

Plants and animals are targets of many different pests, including but not
limited to nematode and insect pest species. Crops are often the targets of
nematode infestations. Chemical nematicides are not effective in
eradicating the nematode infestations. Chemical pesticidal agents are not
selective and exert their effects on non-target fauna as well, often
effectively sterilizing for a period of time a field over which the
chemical nematicidal agents have been applied. Some chemical pesticidal
agents have been shown to accumulate in food, and to exhibit adverse
effects on workers that manufacture and apply such chemical agents. Thus
there has been a long felt need for methods for controlling or eradicating
nematode pest infestation on or in plants, i.e., methods which are
selective, environmentally inert, non-persistent, biodegradable, and that
fit well into pest resistance management schemes. Plant biotechnology
provides a means to control pest infestations by providing plants that
express one or more pest control agents. Recombinant pest control agents
have generally been reported to be proteins selectively toxic to a target
pest that are expressed by the cells of a recombinant plant. Recently,
small RNA molecules provided in the diet of the pest species *Meloidogyne
incognita *have been shown to exhibit effects on the viability of the pest
by affecting gene expression in the pest cells (Tobias et al. WO 01/37654
A2). Recombinant approaches to plant pest control can be selective, and are
environmentally inert and non-persistent because they are fully
biodegradable.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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