Monsanto copyediting. Monsanto regularly lobbies the US government with expenses reaching $8.8 million in 2008 and $6.3 million in 2011. In comparison, the 20th highest spender, Pfizer, spent $12.9 million. $2 million was spent on matters concerning "Foreign Agriculture Biotechnology Laws, Regulations, and Trade". Some US diplomats in Europe at other times worked directly for Monsanto. Monsanto made political contributions of $186,250 to federal candidates in the 2008 election cycle through its political action committee (PAC) (42% to Democrats, 58% to Republicans) and $305,749 in the 2010 election cycle (48% Democrat, 52% Republicans). California's 2012 Proposition 37 would have mandated the
Monsanto Eli Lilly and Company. In 1996, Monsanto purchased Agracetus, the biotechnology company that had generated the first transgenic cotton, soybeans, peanuts and other crops, and from which Monsanto had been licensing technology since 1991. Monsanto first entered the maize seed business when it purchased 40% of Dekalb in 1996; it purchased the remainder of the corporation in 1998. In 1997, the company first published an annual report citing Monsanto's Law, a biotechnological take on Moore's Law, indicating its future directions and exponential growth in the use of biotechnology. In 1998, Monsanto purchased Cargill's international seed business, which gave it access