Monsanto Company

Monsanto Response To Christian Aid Report

Re: The sustainability of GM agriculture for the third world.

Monsanto is committed to helping farmers – small and large – around the world improve the abundance, quality and affordability of food production. Our products have demonstrated the ability to help farmers increase crop yields and reduce chemical inputs. For example, farmers growing our herbicide tolerant soya beans last year used 22% less herbicide compared with conventional soya. And American cotton farmers saved approximately 3 million litres of insecticide through the use of Monsanto's insect-resistant cotton over the last three years.

No one forces farmers to buy or sow GM seeds in the third world or otherwise. However, because the benefits of plant biotechnology are delivered in value-added seeds – which any farmer already knows how to plant and cultivate – small and large growers alike can benefit. Ultimately, farmers will only plant a GM crop if it meets their needs and performance expectations.

Biotechnology is a "size-neutral" technology. It helps small and large farmers alike improve their production and lower costs on an acre-per-acre basis.

Smaller farm operations may find the GM choice of weed and insect control to be more economical with reduced cost of equipment, chemicals and fuel. And, many farmers with fewer acres also work off the farm. For them, reducing the time they spend scouting fields for insect damage and weed pressure can be an important benefit.

In India, 40% of the cotton crop is grown from hybrid, rather than saved seed (see 'key facts' and 'notes to editors' overleaf).

Re: The ability of GM crops to solve hunger in the third world.

Demographers around the world agree that today's global population of six billion will roughly double in about 40 years time. Using today's agricultural production methods to feed twice as many people will require more than twice the six million acres currently used for farming. Therefore, agriculture in the future must focus on increasing the production and sustainability of the amount of arable land in use today annually, we already loose more than 25 billion tons of top soil to erosion.

We know that more chemicals are not the solution for higher yields. And we have never claimed that modern biotechnology is the panacea either. However, we believe biotechnology will be one important tool, with its proven ability to reduce chemicals inputs and increase yields and quality, in meeting the needs for a stable and sustainable global food supply in the future. The World Bank and the United Nations together with the Royal Society and the House of Lords agree.

China: Last year, 650,000 farmers planted Monsanto's Bollgard GM cotton. This year it's over one million.

This is due to a 90% germination success rate, compared to just 40% from their own saved seed. Furthermore, Monsanto's GM cotton entirely eliminated the need for chemical insecticide use.

India: In this country, cotton is the largest commercially grown crop. Early results from last year's harvest show a 25% increase in yield coupled with a 70% reduction in chemical sprays, compared to the previous season.

Notes to Editors:

1. With its record of reducing the applications of chemicals, biotechnology crops may in fact be more helpful to the smaller farms that don't benefit from the economies of scale enjoyed by large farms when buying chemical inputs.

2. Monsanto has not applied for patents on the so called 'terminator' technology as stated in the 'key facts' of the Christian Aid press release. In fact, terminator technology does not exist. It is a theoretical technology patented by the United States Department of Agriculture and an American cotton company called Delta & Pine Land. Monsanto is in the process of acquiring Delta & Pine land. This technology is the biological equivalent of hybrid seeds, which farmers have used for decades, and which are bred for sterility requiring farmers to repurchase them annually. Monsanto has pledged to full public discussion before any decision is taken whether to commercialise this theoretical patent. It is already discussing with InterAction, an umbrella organisation representing 160 development and humanitarian aid organisations about how they should be developed, under what conditions or circumstances they should be utilised and who should own them.

3. Finally, more than 10 government-funded Indian research institutes are working on their own version of this technology.

4. According to Donald J. Johnson, Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Editorial, OECD Observer No. 216 - March 1999, "....it is the developing world that has the greatest need for the new knowledge and techniques promised by biotechnology. Unnecessary delay could have disastrous consequences for the food security of millions."

   "And there should be no illusions about what is at stake for the environment either. Crops like cotton, whether in the United States or India, receive vast tonnes of chemical pesticides which linger in the environment and accumulate in food chains. Crops with built-in pest resistance via modern biotechnology greatly reduce the need for pesticides. The simple fact is that current, so-called 'traditional' agricultural practices are polluting. In contrast, cultivation using biotechnology can reduce pollution."

5. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, Fifteenth Session, Rome, 25 - 29 January 1999, "Biotechnology offers a potential solution for many problems affecting crops and livestock production in developing countries."

6. "Rural Asia: Beyond the Green Revolution," commissioned by the Asian Development Bank says the world's poorest countries could face increasing poverty and malnutrition -- possibly leading to civil unrest -- if they do not embrace biotechnology.

7. According to a press release from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), 1 October 1998, Scientists predict that the key contributions of biotechnology could include the following:
   • Producing more food on the same area of land, thereby reducing pressure to expand into wilderness, rain forest or marginal lands that support biodiversity and vital ecosystem services;
   • Reducing post-harvest loss of food and improving the quality of fresh and processed foods, thus boosting the "realising nutritional yield" per acre;
   • Encouraging reduction of environmentally damaging agricultural practices and adoption of more sustainable practices, such as conservation tillage, precision agriculture, and integrated crop management.