Associated
Press

Monsanto Vows To Open Dialogue On Biotech Issues

"We are listening, and will seek common ground where every it is available," Monsanto chairman Robert B. Shapiro said in a satellite video address to a business conference sponsored by the environmental movement Greenpeace.

"We continue to believe in this technology. We think it can bring benefits to people around the world," Shapiro said, referring broadly to what he called "bio-technology," including the development of genetically modified crops.

Responding to Shapiro's remarks made live by satellite the head of Greenpeace Britain, Peter Melchett, accused Monsanto of "bullying" the public into accepting genetically modified soy beans and other bio-technology products.

Shapiro responded: "If I'm a bully, I'm not a very successful bully."

In the past, said Shapiro, "we tended to see it as our task, to convince people that this was good technology, that we are right ... and that people who have different points of view are wrong or at best misguided."

"We have irritated and antagonized more people than we persuaded," he said.

The British media, unlike those in the United States and much of the rest of Europe, have campaigned against genetically modified foods, with tabloids carrying banner headlines about "Frankenstein Foods" and "Kill Korn."

Melchett said that the public outcry showed that "people are increasingly aware, and mistrustful, of the combination of big science and big business."

Shapiro's disclosure that Monsanto had decided not to experiment with "terminator seeds," as disclosed in a letter sent to Gordon Conway, president of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York.

Producing crops with infertile seeds could prove valuable to agribusinesses, say Shapiro and other supporters of the technology. Opponents fear companies could begin offering those traits only in sterile seeds, which would require farmers to buy them each year rather than replanting seeds gathered from mature crops.

Although Monsanto has been criticized over the issue, it did not develop the technology, hasn't done research on making sterile seeds and doesn't expect sterile seeds to become a commercial prospect for at least five years.

The technology was patented in 1998, two months before Monsanto offered to buy Delta, a bid awaiting antitrust review by the Justice Department. Delta said Monday that it would continue trying to commercialize the seed sterilization technology based on an agreement with the U.S. Agriculture Department.