Latest News on Monsanto

May 17 2010: Monsanto plant in The Netherlands shut down by activists

Action group "Round Up Monsanto" successfully shut down the main Monsanto plant in the Netherlands, formally De Ruiter Seeds. Forty people chained themselves to the entrance gate at the wake of day and prevented personnel from entering the office buildings and greenhouses. Thierry Boyer, head of Monsanto's European vegetable division, contacted his superiors and decided not to press charges. As a result the police will not interfere. "The company will be effectively closed for the day", the police chief in charge confirmed. 350 people are employed at the plant. Many employees welcomed the action and said they were not happy with the take over of De Ruiter Seeds by Monsanto in 2008.De Ruiter Seeds is the third Dutch vegetable seed company that was bought up by Monsanto. With these acquisitions the company aims to monopolise the vegetable seed market.

Banners on the gates and on the Monsanto logo on the premises said:
"Monopoly on food and toxic agriculture - the world according to Monsanto" and "Imagine...agriculture without poison and without GMO's - a world without Monsanto".

April 2010: Monsanto faces farmer resistance to high prices - Company earnings disappoint, scraps target to double profits in 5 years. Monsanto's second quarter earnings did not match their projections, though the company is still robust (some were expecting worse results). There was a 19% drop in fiscal second quarter earnings. One equities analyst refered to Monsanto's arrogance as its ambitious growth projections were unrealistic. Farmers are refusing to pay the new high price for Monsanto's eight trait GE corn "SmartStax" @ $75/bag. Farmers are also refusing to pay high prices for Roundup Ready2 soy. Monsanto's results have been effected by the fact that their claims to higher yields are not substantiated with third-party data. Monsanto is now reducing its prices including heavily discounting SmartStax. Monsanto calls this "penetration pricing" because it is designed to penetrate the market - gain market share.

March 2010: Seven US State Attorneys General Investigating Monsanto's Monopoly Practices (Business Week, March 10, 2010)

March 2010:Monsanto Admits Bt Cotton has Failed in India For the first time anywhere in the world, biotech agriculture giant Monsanto has admitted that insects have developed resistance to its Bt (insect resistant) cotton crop. Evidence was observed by Monsanto from Gujarat province.

March 2010: A ruling in the US that prohibits the planting of GE alfalfa in that country may soon be overturned. In 2007 a judge ruled that the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) approval of GE alfalfa was illegal and ordered the Department to conduct an environmental risk assessment to look into farmer concerns about contamination. Click here for information about Canadian action and updates.

February 2010:India has halted the commercial cultivation of what would have been its first GE vegetable crop - eggplant. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said more studies were needed to ensure GE aubergines were safe for consumers and the environment. The GE vegetable received approval from government scientists in 2009 but opposition was widespread: "Public sentiment is negative. It is my duty to adopt a cautious, precautionary, principle-based approach," Minister Ramesh said.

November 2009: Monsanto has sued four Ontario farmers for saving and reusing Monsanto's patented herbicide tolerant soybeans called Roundup Ready. Not only did the courts rule that the farmers must pay Monsanto any profits they derived from growing the soybeans, they must also pay a significant portion of Monsanto's costs for taking them to court -- amounts ranging from $9,000 to $63,000 per individual. As well, the four farmers are among the first to be confronted with Monsanto's new "Violator Exclusion Policy". They will be placed on an "Unauthorized Grower List" and denied all access to Monsanto's current and future technologies forever. Monsanto calls this "Seed Piracy" - Click here to see Monsanto's Seed Piracy Newsletter!

July 15, 2009:Monsanto has invested in developing new GM wheat. Monsanto bought WestBred, a Montana company specializing in wheat germplasm. Monsanto stated they will now develop new GM wheat varieties. Monsanto's announcement follows the May statement from industry groups in Australia, Canada and the US stating that they would work together to synchronize commercialization in the three countries. Join the Global Rejection counter statement - sign on here!

May 2009: Monsanto says it expects its U.S. gross profit from sales of seeds and traits to double by 2012 from the 2008 level, while its international businesses should grow by 85 percent. Monsanto says it will launch a "high impact technology product" every one to two years, with the goal that each project will deliver more than $300 million in gross revenue opportunities by 2020 in the country where it is launched. Check the story.

Monsanto's Reach:

Agrofuels
Monsanto now talks about the “world’s growing food, feed, fiber, and fuel needs” (Annual Report 2007). Monsanto stands to gain substantially from the rush to produce fuels from our agricultural base - biofuels (agrofuels) - because the acreage of GE crops could now be expanded to grow fuel as well as food. Monsanto’s major GE crops of corn, canola and soy are all used for ethanol or biodiesel in the current so-called "first generation" biofuels. To counter the public relations problem of the world food crisis and the problem of “food vs fuel” Monsanto with Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), DuPont, John Deere (Deere and Company) and the Renewable Fuels Association had set up a new lobby group called the “Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy.” Monsanto is looking towards owning the seeds for food and fuel. Click here for more information on agrofuels.

Bovine Growth Hormone
In August 2008 Monsanto sold its controversial and widely rejected recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH), a genetically engineered veterinary drug designed to boost milk production in dairy cows, to pharmaceutical company Eli Lily. Rejected in 1999 by regulatory agencies in Canada, BGH is still used in the United States.
Click here to read the book chapter about what happened in Canada to BGH.

Patents
Monsanto owns patents on its genetic sequences and enforces its patent rights over these traits by suing farmers it believes have saved and used its seeds without authorization. When farmers buy Monsanto’s seeds they must sign a “Technology Use Agreement”, a contract with Monsanto whereby farmers agree not to save Monsanto’s seed for planting again. Monsanto now owns Terminator technology which would be the perfect tool for the corporation to protect its patents, without the bad public relations of suing farmers (see below).
Click here to see an example of a Technology Use Agreement.
Click here to see Vandana Shiva describe what patents mean to Monsanto.
Click here to read the report Monsanto vs Farmers from the Center for Food Safety.
Click here to see Percy Schmeiser’s website

Terminator Seeds
• Terminator seeds are genetically engineered to be sterile after first harvest in order to prevent farmers from saving and reusing seed.
• The technology would be the perfect tool for Monsanto to protect its intellectual property without costly legal action against farmers.
• Monsanto recently bought the original patent on Terminator as well as the most advanced research when it purchased the cotton and soybean seed company Delta & Pine Land.
• In 1999, when Monsanto was first preparing to buy Delta & Pine Land, the Rockefeller Foundation wrote a letter to Monsanto pleading the company to disavow Terminator. Monsanto responded with a pledge never to commercialize Terminator. However Monsanto never pledged to stop research.
• The technology has never been field tested or commercialized but when Monsanto bought Delta & Pine Land in 2007, the company had the most advanced Terminator research in the world including greenhouse tests in the US.
• Due to international protest, a moratorium on Terminator seed field testing and commercial use was established at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in 2000, and strengthened in 2006.
• For details on Terminator click here to see the website of the International Ban Terminator Campaign.

Vegetables
Though fruits and vegetables remain, for the most part, free of genetic engineering (some GE squash and papaya varieties have been commercialized), Monsanto now owns a large part of the fruit and vegetable seed market. In 2005 Monsanto bought fruit and vegetable company Seminis, giving Monsanto control over more than 30 percent of the North American vegetable seed market, as well as more than 20 percent of the world's tomato seed market and more than 30 percent of the global hot pepper seed market. (Monsanto To Buy Vegetable Seed Company, Carey Gillam, Reuters, April 1, 2008) Seminis had already developed a genetically engineered virus resistant squash (their online catalogue includes GE varities of yellow crookneck and straightneck, zucchini) – Seminis’ squash is currently the only GE vegetable on the market. In 2007 Monsanto formed the International Seed Group, a holding company to invest in vegetable and fruit seed businesses. And in early in 2008 Monsanto bought De Ruiter Seeds Group BV for $860 million – the company sells tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and other produce that grow in greenhouses.

Resources about Monsanto:

Combat Monsanto: Building a World Free From Monsanto - new website dedicated to exposing Monsanto

Monsanto’s 7 Deadly Sins, Greenpeace

New Film: The World According to Monsanto