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CARE, International Charity Organization,
Rejects Alliance with Monsanto

Posted: Friday, March 12, 1999

CARE rejects plan to work with Monsanto
By Bill Lambrecht
Of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

After meetings in St. Louis this week,
the international relief
agency CARE said it would not enter a
partnership with Monsanto
Co. because of worries by farmers in
developing countries about
Monsanto's genetically engineered crops.

Milo Stanojevich, CARE's chief of staff,
said Thursday that it
became clear at the end of two days of
discussions that brought
CARE representatives from around the
world that his organization
had no interest in an alliance that St.
Louis-based Monsanto was
suggesting.

The partnership could have meant
contributions from Monsanto for
CARE's projects. The rejection is a
setback for Monsanto, which
stood to boost its image around the world
and perhaps counter
suspicion of its genetic technologies
that exists widely outside of
North America.

But Stanojevich said his organization
wasn't persuaded that
genetically modified crops would benefit
subsistence farmers in
developing countries where CARE works. He
said the concerns
reflected fears by many farmers that they
could become dependent
on Monsanto if the use of modified seeds
becomes dominant in
farming.

"There are concerns about the dependence
it may create on one
company," Stanojevich said, speaking by
telephone from Atlanta.
"What we said was that at this point,
there are open questions
about this technology and that we didn't
really see how continued
bilateral talks would be fruitful."

But he added that CARE hopes to involve
other organizations in
future discussions about genetic
engineering with biotechnology
companies.

CARE is one of the world's largest
privately run relief and
development organizations, operating in
60 countries. It was
founded in 1946 as a means to help
European survivors of World
War II.

Monsanto's chief operating officer,
Robert B. Shapiro, had
suggested the St. Louis meetings, which
drew a 10-member CARE
delegation to St. Louis from as far away
as Africa and Asia.
Shapiro also took part in the
discussions.

Monsanto asserts that its technologies
can help farmers in
developing countries to combat pests and
drought, and that farmers
will always have a choice in the seeds
they plant.

Philip Angell, Monsanto's chief of
corporate communications,
described the meetings with CARE as
preliminary. He said that they
were not aimed at reaching an agreement
on details of a
partnership, although such an arrangement
might have evolved
later. "It was designed to start these
two organizations talking to
each other," he said.

A partnership, Angell added, "would only
have been a decision
after dialogue and more back and forth."

Soybeans, corn and other crops modified
by genetic engineering
are rapidly taking root in the United
States. But in most of the rest of
the world, it is another story. Europe
and many developing
countries have erected barriers to
commercial production of
modified crops. They worry that the
safety hasn't been
demonstrated over time and that its
introduction could disrupt their
farm economies and give a few companies
too much control over
their food and farmers.

Those concerns were voiced loudly last
month at U.N. biosafety
negotiations in South America. In those
talks, the United States,
Canada and a handful of allies blocked a
drive to establish global
regulations governing the trade in
modified organisms.

Monsanto tried last year to establish an
alliance with another
respected international entity -- the
Grameen Bank of Bangladesh.
The Grameen Bank is famous in development
and lending circles for
"microcredit" -- loans to small farmers
and the disadvantaged. But
after being scolded by advocacy groups
around the world, the
bank backed out of an arrangement in
which Monsanto had
promised $150,000 to support its
activities.

Exactly what kind of partnership that
Monsanto and CARE were
talking about was unclear. CARE's
Stanojevich said that
"philanthropy" by Monsanto had been
discussed but that the talks
hadn't reached the point of specifics.

CARE has a range of partnerships from
licensing agreements in
which companies use CARE's name on their
products to simpler
deals in which companies donate to help
with projects in parts of
the world where they do business. Two of
CARE's best-known
partnerships are with Starbucks and Delta
Airlines.

The main critic of Monsanto's attempted
alliances is Rural
Advancement Foundation International, an
advocacy group with
offices in the United States and Canada.
With its e-mail and fax
network, the foundation already had begun
to pressure CARE to
avoid an alliance with Monsanto.

Rural Advancement's executive director,
Pat Mooney, said: "I think
some of this is quite genuine on
Monsanto's part and that they might
have something to help solve problems.
The danger in working with
farmers who are the poorest of the poor
is giving them loans tied to
Monsanto's technology."