ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Monsanto Company announced today that it is joining the Human Rights Campaign Business Coalition for Equality, a group of leading U.S. employers supporting the Equality Act. The Equality Act is federal legislation that would provide the same basic protections to LGBT people as are provided to other protected groups under federal law. “Monsanto is proud of our company’s diversity and focus on inclusion which helps ensure that every voice is heard and every person is treated equally,” said Steve Mizell, executive vice president of human resources for Monsanto. “We believe that an inclusive workplace allows people to truly bring their best and most innovative ideas to the organization which is critical to our success.” Monsanto has a long history of employing a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive environment for its employees, including recruiting, hiring, retaining and promoting employees from all dimensions of diversity, including sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. The company remains steadfast in its commitment to diversity and inclusion for all, including its LGBT employees, as demonstrated by Monsanto’s ranking on the Human Rights Campaign’s Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality list and signing the “Equality is Our Business” pledge launched by the Human Rights Campaign to strengthen support for diversity and inclusion for all, including the nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Third-party organizations continue to recognize Monsanto as an employer of choice. FORTUNE® magazine recently ranked Monsanto No. 1 in its industry sector on the FORTUNEs The Worlds Most Admired Companies® list. Great Place To Work® Institute named Monsanto No. 9 among the 2015 World’s Best Multinational Workplaces, and WorldatWork awarded the company with its Alliance for Work-Life Progress (AWLP) Work-Life Seal of Distinction in 2016. The company also received awards recognizing its employees’ innovation, leadership and workplace by Computerworld (100 Best Places to Work in IT), DiversityInc® magazine (Top 50 Companies for Diversity®) and CR Corporate Responsibility Magazine® (100 Best Corporate Citizens). 2015 was also the first year that Monsanto was recognized as an employer of choice by Great Place to Work Institute in every region it operates. About Monsanto Company Monsanto is committed to bringing a broad range of solutions to help nourish our growing world. We produce seeds for fruits, vegetables and key crops – such as corn, soybeans, and cotton – that help farmers have better harvests while using water and other important resources more efficiently. We work to find sustainable solutions for soil health, help farmers use data to improve farming practices and conserve natural resources, and provide crop protection products to minimize damage from pests and disease. Through programs and partnerships, we collaborate with farmers, researchers, nonprofit organizations, universities and others to help tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges. To learn more about Monsanto, our commitments and our more than 20,000 dedicated employees, please visit: discover.monsanto.com and monsanto.com. Follow our business on Twitter® at twitter.com/MonsantoCo, on the company blog, Beyond the Rows® at monsantoblog.com or subscribe to our News Release RSS Feed.