As this year’s new crop of PhD students bounce into their research, few will be willing to accept that the system they are entering could be designed for the benefit of others, that even hard work and brilliance may well not be enough to succeed, and that they would be better off doing something else.

Between 2005 and 2009 America produced more than 100,000 doctoral degrees. In the same period there were just 16,000 new professorships. This divergence in supply and demand has contributed to the declining value of a traditionally prestigious academic distinction. Today PhD may offer no financial benefit over a master’s degree. It can even reduce earnings.

In most countries a PhD is a basic requirement for a career in academia. It is an introduction to the world of independent research—a kind of intellectual masterpiece, created by an apprentice in close collaboration with a supervisor. The requirements to complete one vary enormously between countries, universities and even subjects.  One thing many PhD students have in common is dissatisfaction. Some describe their work as “slave labour”. Seven-day weeks, ten-hour days, low pay and uncertain prospects are widespread.

For most of history even a first degree at a university was the privilege of a rich few, and many academic staff did not hold doctorates. But as higher education expanded after the second world war, so did the expectation that lecturers would hold advanced degrees. American universities geared up first: by 1970 America was producing just under a third of the world’s university students and half of its science and technology PhDs. Since then America’s annual output of PhDs has doubled, to 64,000.

This shift has been motivated by the realization that PhD students are cheap, highly motivated and disposable labour. With more PhD students universities can do more research, and in some countries more teaching, with less money. A graduate assistant at Yale might earn $20,000 a year for nine months of teaching. The average pay of full professors in America was $109,000 in 2009—higher than the average for judges and magistrates.

Indeed, the production of PhDs has far outstripped demand for university lecturers. In a recent book, Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, an academic and a journalist, report that Using PhD students to do much of the undergraduate teaching cuts the number of full-time jobs. Even in Canada, where the output of PhD graduates has grown relatively modestly, universities conferred 4,800 doctorate degrees in 2007 but hired just 2,616 new full-time professors. 80% of Canadian postdocs earn $38,600 or less per year before tax—the average salary of a construction worker.  

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There are few companies in history that have attracted as much hate as Missouri based biotechnology firm Monsanto. Despite helping to feed half the planet, the company is a common target of scorn with both environmentalist and those in the agriculture industry.   The primary sources of criticism are Monsanto’s efforts to monopolize the global seed market with genetically modified products and their history of profit making from toxic chemicals like PCB’s, DDT and Agent Orange. However these activities only scratch the surface of the long and fascinating Monsanto story.

Monsanto was founded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901, by John Francis Queeny.  He funded the start-up with his own money and gave the company his wife’s maiden name. His father-in-law was Emmanuel Mendes de Monsanto, a wealthy financier of a sugar company active in Vieques, Puerto Rico. The company’s first product was the artificial sweetener saccharin, which was sold to the Coca-Cola Company.

In 1919 Monsanto expanded to Europe by entering a partnership with Graesser’s Chemical Works to produce vanillin, aspirin and its raw ingredient salicylic acid. In the 1920s Monsanto expanded into basic industrial chemicals like sulfuric acid and PCBs.

In 1946 it developed “All” laundry detergent and began to market it; they sold the product line to Lever Brothers in 1957. Also in the 1940s, Monsanto operated the Dayton Project, and later Mound Laboratories in Miamisburg, Ohio, for the Manhattan Project, the development of the first nuclear weapons and, after 1947, the Atomic Energy Commission. 

Monsanto began manufacturing DDT in 1944. In 1965 Monsanto chemists invented AstroTurf, which the company then commercialized.  In the 1960s and 1970s, Monsanto was also one of the most important producers of Agent Orange for United States Armed Forces operations in Vietnam.

In 1968 it became the first company to start mass production of light emitting diodes (LEDs), using gallium arsenide phosphide. This ushered in the era of solid-state lights. From 1968 to 1970, sales doubled every few months. Their products became the standards of industry. The primary markets then were electronic calculators, digital watches, and digital clocks. Monsanto was a pioneer of optoelectronics in the 1970s.

Monsanto scientists became the first to genetically modify a plant cell in 1982. Five years later, Monsanto conducted the first field tests of genetically engineered crops. In 1985 Monsanto acquired G. D. Searle & Company, a life sciences company focusing on pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and animal health.

In 1996 Monsanto purchased Agracetus, the biotechnology company that had generated the first transgenic varieties of cotton, soybeans, peanuts, and other crops, and which Monsanto had already been licencing technology from 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 1998 Monsanto purchased Cargill’s seed business, which gave it access to sales and distribution facilities in 51 countries. In 2005, it finalized the purchase of Seminis Inc, a leading global vegetable and fruit seed company, for $1.4 billion. This made it the world’s largest conventional seed company.

A new report states that more than 2 billion tons of food is wasted each year. The bulk of this waste is being caused by poor storage, strict sell-by guidelines, bulk offers and consumer finickiness, according to a report by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). The report also found that as much as 550 billion cubic meters of water were being used to grow crops that never made it to the dinner table.

Upwards of 30 percent of all vegetables go un-harvested because of their physical appearance alone. The finding is staggering, said IMechE’s Dr. Tim Fox, whose report found that half of the 4+ billion tons of food produced annually ends up in the garbage. And half of the food American and European consumers buy at their grocers every week also ends up being thrown away.

When it comes to supermarkets, entire crops can be rejected because they are the wrong size or have the wrong appearance, even though they are perfectly edible. While many grocery chains reject foods based on their customers’ shopping habits, many other supermarkets are guilty of encouraging consumers to buy more than they can eat, according to the report.

Sell-by and use-by dates are also contributing to the food waste conundrum. Supermarkets often use conservative estimates to avoid the threat of legal action in the case of a consumer consuming outdated food that may or may not make them sick. And more often than not, consumers are throwing their food away prematurely because the use-by date is often several days prior to when the food would have actually gone bad, if not longer.

Perhaps an even more shocking trend is that roughly 45,000 pounds of food is thrown away per restaurant per year in the UK—and thirty percent of that is off the consumer’s plate, according to Tom Tanner of the Sustainable Restaurants Association.

Fox, head of energy and environment at IMechE, said: “The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is overwhelming. This is food that could be used to feed the world’s growing population – as well as those in hunger today.” 

It’s absurd that farmers around the country are not harvesting 30 percent of their crops for fear they will not meet supermarket standards. 

As water, land and energy resources come under increasing pressure from competing human demands, engineers have a crucial role to play in preventing food loss and waste by developing more efficient ways of growing, transporting and storing foods. In order for this to happen governments, development agencies and organizations like the UN must work together to help change people’s mindsets on waste and discourage wasteful practices by farmers, food producers, supermarkets and consumers.

Source Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not, and Lawrence Leblond for Your Universe Online 

For those who can’t afford to collect antiques, buy these brands to add some history to your home.

Year Established 1366, Stella Artois - Based in Leuven, Belgium originally known as the Den Horen Brewery. 

1623, Zildjian -  Cymbal manufacturer founded in Istanbul during the Ottoman Empire.

1630, Kikkoman -  Soy sauce and food seasoning producer based in Noda, Chiba Prefecture, Japan.

1649, Fiskars - Metal and consumer brands company founded about 100 km west of Helsinki, Finland.

1670, Hudson’s Bay Company - Canadian trading company recognized as the oldest corporation in North America.

1706, Twinings - English tea company hold’s the distinction as having the world’s longest used logo.

1761, Faber-Castell -  Founded near Nuremberg, now one of the world’s largest office supply manufacturers.

1774, Birkenstock - Shoe manufacturer headquartered in Vettelschoß, Germany.

1780, Altoids - British mint maker has used the slogan “The Original Celebrated Curiously Strong Mints” for centuries.

1802, DuPont - Massive chemical company started by a French immigrant near Wilmington, Delaware.

1806, Colgate -  William Colgate opened up a starch, soap and candle factory on Dutch Street in New York City.

* This is a list of companies that have maintained widespread brand recognition over the past several centuries. None of these entities are close to being the world’s oldest commercial enterprises. Many of the oldest businesses are small hotels, restaurants and breweries based in Europe and Japan. One of the most ancient of all is the Hoshi Ryokan, a Japanese Traditional Inn based in Ishikawa Prefecture. Founded in 717, the hotel has been operated by the same family for forty-six generations.