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The Green Guide

Monsanto Claims Fears About Frankenfoods Are Subsiding

GM food fear to pass, Monsanto Argentina contends
By Brian Winter

ZARATE, Argentina (Reuters) - The fear of genetically modified (GM) food is
just a phase that will pass when more scientific evidence is made available,
the head of agribusiness giant Monsanto's Argentine wing contends.

Monsanto Argentina President Carlos Popik told Reuters in an interview that
he supports labeling GM foods as a way to pacify those who worry about the
consequences such products may have on health and the environment.

``I think people have a right to know what they're consuming. I believe that
the lion's share of their fears will subside once that kind of information
is made available,'' Popik said after the opening of a new Monsanto plant in
Argentina on Thursday.

Monsanto, an agricultural unit of Pharmacia Corp., plans an initial public
offering (IPO) of stock on the New York Stock Exchange during the week of
Oct 16.

The company produces herbicides such as Roundup, seeds and related genetic
trait products to help farmers grow crops with higher yields while
controlling weeds, insects and diseases.

Extremely heavy security at the inauguration of Monsanto's new $137 million
herbicide plant in Zarate, about 50 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, guarded
against what Popik described as the ``terror'' campaigns by those who oppose
GM foods.

Organizations like Greenpeace have led a swell of public sentiment,
especially in Europe, against what they derisively describe as
''Frankenstein foods'' on the grounds that not enough is known about
gene-altered crops to deem them safe.

Protesters have vandalized and burned biotech laboratories at U.S.
universities, started a riot at an international biotech industry meeting in
Italy and ambushed a U.S. cargo ship in Wales carrying GM soybeans.

SAYS PUBLIC OPINION TURNING BACK IN FAVOR

Popik said that growing opposition to GM products had resulted in lower than
expected growth for Monsanto over the last three or four years but he
believed the trend was slowly changing as more scientific studies were made
public.

``This isn't the end of the story,'' Popik said. ``Of the news coming from
Europe now...the positive is beginning to outweigh the negative for the
first time in three or four years. I think growth will return to what was
previously planned.''

Argentina is the world's second-largest producer of GM crops but concern has
grown about their viability as its No.1 trading partner Brazil has lately
stiffened its ban on GM crops and their import.

Popik said that Monsanto Argentina's production levels remained near those
expected three years ago in soybean seeds -- which constitute about 90
percent of the crop -- and cotton, but had lagged in certain types of corn
seeds.

After cutting the ribbon on the Zarate plant, Argentina's Agriculture
Secretary Antonio Berhongaray proclaimed that ``biotechnology is here to
stay'' and criticized the ``economic interests campaigning for its
destruction.''

Monsanto has set a price range for its IPO of between $21 and $24 a share.
Pharmacia will hold 220 million of the 255 million shares that Monsanto will
have outstanding when the IPO is completed.

12:33 10-06-00