SUNS #4345 Tuesday 15 December 1998



INDIA: MONSANTO CHARGED WITH MISINFORMATION

Geneva, 12 Dec (TWN) -- Monsanto, the chemical/seed TNC has launched an advertisement campaign in newspapers in response to the public opposition to their field testing of genetically modified cotton.

While the corporation's attempt to explain itself is welcome, the advertisement masks the real issues and paints an innocent picture of the transnational agrochemical giant, according to S. Fawzi Secretary of the Bio-Diversity Forum and a consultant ecologist

In a communication from Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala, India), Fawzi says that the rapidly expanding role of Monsanto in Indian agriculture poses a new and serious threat to the way India has been doing agriculture since its very beginning. The suspicion about the use of terminator seeds is, of course, at the apex of our concern.

The danger to Indian society posed by Monsanto is multi-pronged.

Firstly, the Bt gene, infused into cotton, constitutes a misappropriation of farmers' knowledge and resource. Bacilus thuringiensis (Bt), a soil bacterium, has been used by organic farmers since the 1960s because of its ability to produce a protein that destroys the gut walls of several insect pest species.

It was this collective innovation of the farmers that was pirated by Monsanto and a number of 'life industry' companies for providing a wide range of genetically modified crops such as cotton, soybean, maize, potato, tobacco, rice, etc. The farmers were the losers when about 440 Bt related patents were granted, by 1995.
Now Monsanto wants the Indian public to believe that Monsanto will increase the choice for Indian farmers. Monsanto and its brand of agriculture industry have reduced crop genetic diversity by 75% and this genetic erosion continues at the rate of 2% per annum.

It has been totally inappropriate on the part of the Indian authorities to have permitted Monsanto to undertake field trials of a genetically modified organism, when the country is yet to develop the required regulations and institutional mechanism to monitor/control such a potentially dangerous exercise.

India has been on the forefront of those who have been demanding a strong biosafety protocol within the Convention on Biological Diversity. Yet the Indian government has permitted Monsanto to
undertake field trials to test transgenic cotton at 40 locations. This is a 'betrayal' and one that will have unpleasant repercussions on the biosafety protocol negotiations.
Monsanto's game plan will prove to be lethal to Indian farmers. The company, which had a revenue of US$ 3000 million from the sale of agrochemicals in 1996 has fast expanded into life industry by taking over or buying shares of major life industry companies. The objective is to produce genetically programmed seeds that require proprietary chemicals manufactured by Monsanto.

The Roundup Ready soybean case illustrates the gravity of the tragedy that Monsanto can cause. The sale of seed by Monsanto was subject to the condition that they will be treated with only Monsanto's herbicide. The farmers were also obliged not to re-use the seeds obtained from the harvest of Monsanto seeds.

And this was done even without employing terminator technology. The farmers who broke this condition were to be heavily penalised. Monsanto holds the right, according to a 'growers contract', to inspect the holdings of all farmers who buy their seeds!

With Monsanto doubling the number of patents from 288 in 1993, they are set to control food security in several countries in a major way. By taking over the Indian subsidiary of Cargil and buying shares in a few agri-companies, Monsanto is making India a home turf. With an obliging
bureaucracy and technocracy, they find India a soft target.

It is this bio-pirate who robbed the centuries old knowledge of Indian farmers on the use of neem, and totally disregarded India's sovereignty over biodiversity in claiming three patents on neem in USA and Europe. And they now make the claim they are in India to help our farmers!

Monsanto has been a crusader against the demand for labelling genetically modified farm products. They have succeeded in USA. But in Germany the angry consumers have forced Nestle and Unilever to cancel all their orders for soybean from USA.

It is indeed unfortunate that Indian officialdom did not take note of the fact that the US government, which always aggressively seeks to protect the interests of its transnational corporations, has asked the patent office to revoke the cotton patent granted to Monsanto. In Europe, the patent has been challenged.

Ignoring all these, some Indian officials have come out of their shell to argue for the TNC.

But the terminator technology is the last thing India can afford if Monsanto is, by any chance, clandestinely involved in it in the country.

This is a corporate challenge to India's farming sector. A committee of the Parliament should investigate the whole range of issues related to the loss of agricultural biodiversity, including how Indian Basmati germplasm went to the RiceTech laboratory through the International Rice Research Institute.

It is also necessary for the departments of agriculture and biotechnology to immediately make public all information pertaining to the field trials conducted by Monsanto, including the conditions
imposed by the government and the mechanism available to monitor the program.