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December 1999

European Patents Office Allows Patents On Genetically Modified Plants
21/12/99, AFX News
The European Patents Office said it will allow patents for genetically modified plants to be lodged, enabling holders of patents on genetically modified plants to charge fees for their use.

Monsanto Shifts Focus To Consumer Benefits
20/12/99, Chemistry & Industry
Monsanto has developed its first genetically modified crop with direct benefits to the consumer - a new variety of oilseed rape that cures vitamin A deficiency.

Monsanto And Pharmacia & Upjohn To Merge
19/12/99, Monsanto
Monsanto Company and Pharmacia & Upjohn today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to create a dynamic and powerful new competitor in the global pharmaceutical industry.

Why Our GM Policy Is The Only Safe One
17/12/99, The Express
GM food may have benefits for the environment, by using less pesticide, and there may be benefits for the consumer in terms of choice and better products. In medicine we are already seeing GM products used to produce insulin for diabetics, to help cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and to improve blood products for haemophiliacs.

Lawsuit Based On Unfounded Claims
14/12/99, Monsanto
Allegations made by longtime opponents of biotechnology in the context of a lawsuit filed today in Washington, D.C. are absolutely baseless, Monsanto officials stated on Tuesday.

Background Statement On Rifkin Lawsuit
14/12/99, Monsanto
Long time opponents of biotechnology filed yet another lawsuit in a series of unsuccessful attempts to stop a technology with the potential to improve our environment, increase food production and improve health. This action also is intended to deny farmers around the world the choice of using improved seed.

Biotechnology 'Can't Be Ignored'
08/12/99, The Irish Independent
Starvation or else ploughing up public parks and the Amazon Basin are the alternative scenarios to ignoring the benefits of applying technology to agriculture, an agri-food conference was told yesterday. Addressing the controversial issue of GM foods, Dr Martina McGloughlin, a Galway-born scientist told the Teagasc Agri-Food Millennium Conference in Dublin that: "Biotechnology is the low risk alternative to current practices."

Are We Really Destined To Destroy This Eden?
08/12/99, The Express
Genetic engineering is as big a development for our future as modern medicine has been for our past. It raises rather the same balances - ethical and technical - of benefit and risk. The same sort of voices are raised in protest at the onset of the New World as were raised during the Enlightenment: science and technology were to be distrusted then as now.