Gigliotti stayed on in the Bloomfield Technical Center until June 1977 to assist Monsanto in its honorable effort to find equal or better employment for every one of its displaced LOPAC project employees, and to assist Monsanto in activating its court suit against the FDA, which resulted in the world famous "minimus"� ruling, favorable to Monsanto.

In the 1970s a small group of early plastics industry pioneers formed the PLASTICS INSTITUTE OF AMERICA, headquartered at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, and Mr. Gigliotti quickly became Monsanto's representative on the Board of Directors.  In the years that followed, Michael was reelected and became Corporate Secretary, until finally, in 2005, he tried to retire from the Board, but the Board gave him an emeritus status, and he continues to participate in PIA activities.  Originally the Plastics Institute of America focused on granting specific fellowships to promising young engineers, leading to their doctorates in plastics and polymer technology.  In the 1980s, after Mr. Gigliotti left Monsanto as PIA's Director of Research, Michael joined with Melvin Druin, PIA's Director of Conferences, to format a series of seminars that would enable the food industry to become technically and commercially educated in the use of plastic packaging.  They called these conferences FOODPLAS, and hired Henry Griffith as the first Conference Coordinator/Manager.  FoodPlas ran from 1983 for thirteen years, and was considered by almost everyone in the food and plastics industry as the source of the microwavable plastic food packaging explosion.  For each of these conferences Gigliotti gave either the keynote address or an opening technology overview, in which he expanded his version of "megatrends"� to guide FoodPlas attendees.  PIA is now headquartered at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

MICHAEL GIGLIOTTI & ASSOCIATES, INC. (MGA, INC.)

In January 1977, before the closure of Monsanto's LOPAC project had begun, Michael had decided to start a technical management and professional services, staffed with retired/independent engineering and research development managers and directors, from the worldwide plastics industry.  This led to the organization of MICHAEL GIGLIOTTI & ASSOCIATES INC. (MGA, INC.).  The objective of this company was to assist corporate technical executives to create, evaluate and commercialize technical programs, particularly in plastics packaging for the food and beverage market, in response to environmental and commercial market realities.