You have half the picture. It was basic scientists, most importantly Norman Burlaug, "Father of the Green Revolution", that developed the high-yield, disease-resistant varieties of wheat that more than doubled and tripled agricultural production in Mexico, Pakistan, and India, allowing Mexico to become a net wheat exporter in 1963 and allowing Pakistan and India to avoid starvation. He literally saved billions of people from death via starvation and resource wars.
The reason Monsanto is hated is because the only thing they did was to commercialize these seeds by making them incapable of reproduction, thus allowing them to continue reaping profits off them year after year. This actively limits the seeds' usefulness for the sole reason of transferring wealth from poorer countries to richer countries.
It's the old, old story. Government funds basic research, taking on 99% of the risk and effort, for 1% reward. Private companies spin off the technology and commercialize it for 1% of the effort and 99% of the profits. Governments only tolerate it because it does after all make money for their respective economies, but this is why Big Agro and Big Pharma are so hated. Today it's playing out with Astra-Zeneca and Oxford.
If you want to remember a name, remember Norman Borlaug. He is the most deserving winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in the award's history. Read science fiction from the 1950s and see how much people worried that food insecurity would destroy the world. Without him our history would be utterly different and infinitely more miserable.