Throwing around a few grand here & few grand there to buy off politicians is really nickels & dimes compared to the vast amount of money Monsanto has spent lobbying Congress.
Over the last 10 years Monsanto has spent over $52 million dollars making sure they get the most favorable legislation possible. Of that $52 million, nearly $11 million was paid to outside lobbying firms (listed below) to lobby on behalf of Monsanto, while the rest of the total (over $40 million) was spent on Monsanto’s staff lobbyists.
The results? More pesticides, more GMOs, and more of why we will Occupy Monsanto this fall!
| Recipient | Total |
|---|---|
| Russell Group (formerly Lesher & Russell & Russell & Barron, Inc) |
$1920000 |
| Washington Tax Group (formerly Angus & Nickerson) |
$1050000 |
| Sidley, Austin et al | $930000 |
| Bockorny Group (formerly with Bockorny Petrizzo Inc) |
$900000 |
| Nickles Group | $853500 |
| Akin, Gump et al (formerly with Parven, Pomper & Schuyler) |
$780000 |
| Crawford, Quilty & Mauro | $750000 |
| TCH Group (formerly with Tongour, Simpson et al) |
$690000 |
| Ogilvy Government Relations | $640000 |
| Troutman Sanders | $470000 |
| Bergner, Bockorny et al | $460000 |
| Mayer, Brown et al | $270000 |
| American Continental Group | $250000 |
| Arent Fox LLP | $240000 |
| Noble Strategies | $220000 |
| Bryan Cave LLP (formerly with Powell, Goldstein et al) |
$200000 |
| Baker, Donelson et al | $60000 |
| Barbour, Griffith & Rogers | $20000 |
| Gallatin Public Affairs | $10000 |
Source: Center for Responsive Politics (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)
Note #1: When compiling this list it was shown that many of the lobbying firms no longer exist because many of the lobbyists merged their firms together. When a firm was found to have merged with another, the dirty money Monsanto paid them was added together in the table above.
Note #2: In 2000 Monsanto merged with Pharmacia & Upjohn and was later spun off into the “New Monsanto.” However, the data for 2002 includes Pharmacia as Monsanto’s parent company and show that there was lobbying money spent on the pharmaceutical industry. For the table above, only the lobbying money spent on Agricultural Services & Products was included.