The veteran rocker has taken aim at the food and drink giants for using genetically modified seeds in tracks like A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop and Monsanto Years, but company executives insist Young is misinformed.

A spokesman for Monsanto tells Billboard.com, "Many of us at Monsanto have been, and are, fans of Neil Young. Unfortunately for some of us, his current album may fail to reflect our strong beliefs in what we do every day to help make agriculture more sustainable.

"We recognise there is a lot of misinformation about who we are and what we do - and unfortunately several of those myths seem to be captured in these lyrics."

And a statement from executives at coffee firm Starbucks reads: "Starbucks has not taken a position on the issue of genetically modified organism labeling. As a company with stores and a product presence in every state, we prefer a national solution."

The Monsanto Years is released on 29 June (15).