Britons Ask Will Monsanto Conquer the World?

Independent on Sunday (UK)
March 31, 2002

GM-FREE NATIONS FALL TO MONSANTO

BY: Geoffrey Lean and Sue Branford

Genetically modified foods are poised to slip back into Britain
after major advances by Monsanto in countries that have so far refused to grow
them.Last week, India lifted a four-year ban on growing GM crops to allow
production of three bio-engineered types of cotton and hinted that it will also
give the go-ahead to GM foods such as soya and corn.

And earlier this month, the Brazil's commission on GM foods
recommended the immediate authorisation of GM crops and foods, despite a similar
ban. The recommendation would particularly benefit Monsanto, which has been
lobbying hard for approval to grow pesticide-resistant soya. Brazil and India
have been important sources for British and European firms that have been
forced to drop GM materials from food and animal feeds. If bio -engineered crops
now sweep through the two countries, companies will find it hard to find
non-GM supplies.

Brazil, for example, is the world's second biggest producer of soya.
The first and third biggest, America and Argentina, already grow GM varieties,
and the three countries together account for 80 per cent of soya production.
Monsanto's victories are a blow for environmentalists who had thought their
success in turning consumers against GM foods in Europe and Japan
would have global repercussions. As consumers refused to buy, the argument
went, exporting countries would be forced to grow GM-free crops in order to reach
their markets. Eventually even America would come under pressure to change
course.

Now environmentalists fear firms and supermarkets will be forced to
buy GM ingredients again, restricting choice to consumers.

The blow is all the more bitter because their strategy had seemed to
be working. Over the past two years, Brazil has increased its share of
world soya trade from 24 to 36 per cent, while the US share fell from 57 to 46
per cent.

As a result, many Brazilian farmers' leaders want to keep the ban.
"Three quarters of our exports go to countries that don't accept GM," said
Agide Meneguette, president of the Farming Federation of Parana, the
country's second largest soya-producing state. "It is beginning to look foolish to
switch to GM crops."

The recommendation to lift the ban has yet to be approved by the
full parliament, but President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is determined to
push it through. Earlier this month, the anti-GM environment minister, Jose
Sarney Filho, resigned.

Monsanto refuses to comment beyond saying that it "remained
committed to bringing the benefits of biotechnology to Brazilian farmers"