Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 12:13:29 -0800
From: radman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [radtimes] # 145
===================================================================
Tuesday January 30, 2001
Monsanto sees U.S. bio-crop growth despite GM row
By Ben Hirschler
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Agricultural biotechnology giant
Monsanto Co (NYSE:MON - news) said on Tuesday U.S. farmers would plant more
land with its genetically modified seed in 2001, despite global concerns
about such crops.
``We are very confident that in 2001 there are going to be more biotech
acres than there were in 2000,'' Chief Executive Officer Hendrik Verfaillie
told Reuters on the fringes of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.
``The intention surveys indicate we are going to have significant growth in
Roundup Ready soybeans, moderate growth in corn and good growth in
cotton...our seed sales in December confirm that.''
U.S. farmers buy most of their seed for spring sowing between November and
February and widely plant genetically modified crops, despite consumer
resistance in major markets like Europe and Japan where health concerns
have been raised.
More than half the U.S. soybean crop, 25 percent of corn and over 70
percent of cotton output is produced from GM seed, analysts estimate.
Monsanto's Roundup Ready varieties are resistant to the weedkiller Roundup,
allowing more effective crop management, while its Bt corn contains an
in-built pesticide.
Controversy over GM crops reached a new peak at the end of last year
following the discovery that many brands of taco shells and chips contained
StarLink, a biotech corn variety sold by Aventis SA which is not approved
for human consumption.
StarLink's Cry9C protein was also found in another variety of corn, raising
fears about the uncontrolled spread of foreign crop genes.
Monsanto, a unit of drug group Pharmacia Corp (NYSE:PHA - news) which
listed on the New York Stock Exchange in October, has been at the forefront
of controversy over GM crops.
Verfaillie said his company was listening hard to activists. The company
two months ago issued a pledge on GM food, including a commitment not to
use animal genes in food or feed crops.
SPREADING IN LATAM, ASIA
Farmers around the world were following the U.S. example of buying more of
the company's GM seed, he said.
``We expect the whole of Latin America is going to move very rapidly. In
Argentina we went in three years from zero to 90 percent market share in
soy,'' Verfaille said.
"I think we are going to see the same kind of penetration in corn in
Argentina and with soybean, corn and cotton in Brazil.
In Asia, biotech crops were making ``very good progress'' in India,
Thailand, Malaysia, China and Australia.
``Even in Europe, Bulgaria and Poland have gone biotech...Western Europe is
the only one holding out.''
According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech
Applications, an independent agency tracking the use of biotech crops, a
total of 13 countries planted GM crops in 2000.
The U.S. accounted for 68 percent of the world's transgenic crop, followed
by Argentina with 23 percent and Canada with seven percent.
Monsanto plans to build on that market in the years ahead by extending its
gene-splicing technology to other crops. It hopes to introduce a new GM
wheat variety in the United States as early as 2003.
[rest clipped - ADMIN]
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