RANK PREVIOUS COMPANY
1 1 Maui Land & Pineapple
2 2 Hawaiian Telcom
3 3 Alexander & Baldwin
4 4 Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
5 6 Maui Electric Co.
6 7 Dowling Co.
7 8 Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.
8 5 Monsanto Hawai’i
9 9 Makena Resort
10 10 Trex Enterprises
Huge move down the chart this week for Monsanto, stemming from the Jan. 13, 2006 revelation from BusinessWeek Online that the giant GMO maker paid $60,000 to a Scripps-Howard columnist in exchange for a favorable book about biotechnology. The report says that in 1999 Michael Fumento asked Monsanto for the money so he could write a pro-GMO book “I’ve got to be honest,” he told BusinessWeek Online, “I told them them that if I tell the truth in this book, the biotech industry is going to look really good, and you should really contribute.” Fumento says he did nothing wrong, even though he never disclosed in the book or in any of the eight pro-GMO columns he’s written since then that he got cash from Monsanto. Scripps-Howard disagreed, and has terminated its relationship with Fumento, robbing the biotech industry and Monsanto in particular of one of its friendliest mainstream voices. MTW
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