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Monsanto Website Attacks Patagonia for GE Fear Mongering

This is from the Monsanto website: <www.monsanto.com>

Environmentally Fashionable Act As Agents Of Fear On GMOs
by Dean Kleckner, former president of the American Farm Bureau, now
chairman of Truth About Trade based in Des Moines, Iowa

Patagonia, maker of "environmentally conscious" sportswear and enemy
of conventional agriculture, issued a "chicken little" alert to its customers
over genetically modified crops. Employing the usual bad science and scare
tactics, the trendy clothing manufacturer is calling GMOs "a dark threat to
all that is wild." Instead of making use of proven new methods that have fed
billions of hungry people, Patagonia is urging its customers to "Go organic!

Only certified organic food is guaranteed to be free of genetically
engineered ingredients."

Consumers are used to Patagonia latching on to fashionable environmental
causes to sell $110 fleece pullovers, but this campaign comes at a
particularly critical time in the debate over biotechnology. With the
support of the farm community, North Dakota's Legislature is weighing a
bill that would impose a two-year moratorium on planting genetically modified
wheat. Farmers point out that their support isn't based on principle -half
the soybeans and cotton American farmers plant are genetically modified -but
on fear. The global propaganda campaign against biotechnology, aided and
abetted by the capitalists-cum-fearmongers at Patagonia, convinced them that
their exports to Europe and Japan will suffer if North Dakota wheat is grown
from genetically modified seeds. The Patagonia campaign implies that new
Food and Drug Administration rules will allow genetically modified products
to reach supermarkets without scientific review of safety for humans and the
environment. No U.S. farmer is interested in marketing products that are
unhealthful and unsafe. Safety is determined through testing and peer
review. The American Medical Association recently published a study that
concluded these foods are safe for people and won't harm the environment.

It is critical for farmers to stand together to expose the cynicism of
anti-biotech campaigns. U.S. farmers brought about the "green revolution"
that is credited for saving a billion people from starvation. It continues
with the help of biotechnology. By 2050, there will be 9 billion people to
feed. Only biotechnology can bridge the gap between the growing population
and shrinking amount of arable land. Genetically modified crops produce
higher yields of more nutritious crops. One day genetically modified foods
will contain vital vaccines to fight disease.

Biotech advances are ridding agriculture of the environmentally damaging
practices that Patagonia condemns. Products in use and others in development
reduce the need for chemicals to control weeds and insects and produce
higher-yielding crops without cultivating more land. But instead of
embracing biotechnology as the key to enviro-friendly agriculture, Patagonia
advocates its opposite. It proudly advertises the claim that its sportswear
uses only "organic" cotton. In fact, organic methods use more farmland and
often produce crops with lower nutritional value -and pass the higher costs
to consumers. Conventional farming methods often surpass organic yields
while using fewer acres. Less land use prevents soil erosion.

Farmers have two roles that are being enhanced by biotechnology. Farmers
are in business to produce and sell a product. That means we have to worry
about having markets for our product.

But farmers also are part of a larger, moral mission to feed people who
otherwise wouldn't be able to feed themselves. Instead of capitulating to
the agents of fear, farmers should seize the moral high ground that is
rightfully theirs in the biotechnology debate.

Ask those who demagogue the issue of biotechnology: How many vitamin
A-deficient, blind children will you allow to achieve your objective? How
many iron-deficient women must die in childbirth so you can sell outdoor
gear to the "environmentally conscious"? How many more lives will you
sacrifice for your "cause"?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dean Kleckner, former president of the American Farm Bureau, is chairman of
Truth About Trade based in Des Moines.