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From: Richard Wolfson, INTERNET:rwolfson@concentric.net
To: Patricia Dines, 73652,1202
Date: Sun, Mar 1, 1998, 7:32 PM
Subject: GE News
To: info@natural-law.ca
Financial Times (London)
February 25, 1998 USA EDITION
Monsanto to pay cotton farmers
Monsanto, the pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and agriproducts company,
confirmed yesterday that it was paying compensation to settle complaints
brought against it by several dozen farmers in the Mississippi Delta, who
claimed that the company's genetically engineered cotton seed resulted in
inferior yields last year. The company, which has always maintained that
the problem was an isolated incident and probably the result of extreme
weather conditions, said it had been working in recent months to calculate
the shortfall in yields, compared with other recent crops.
The total monetary compensation was not disclosed but is understood to be a
few million dollars.
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MONSANTO WITHDRAWS 5 TYPES OF COTTON SEED
Bloomberg News
Saturday, February 21, 1998
Section: BUSINESS
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* Company says its genetic technology wasn't the problem. Monsanto Co.
said Friday that it has withdrawn five genetically engineered cotton seed
varieties from commercial sales because of substandard seed quality.
The withdrawal is the latest blow to Roundup Ready cotton, which contains
a synthetic gene produced by Monsanto that makes cotton plants tolerate
Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. Last year, some farmers in the Mississippi
Delta complained that the cotton was not growing properly. "The withdrawal
is related to the quality standard of the varieties and has nothing to
with the technology," said Gary Barton, a spokesman for Monsanto.
The seed was produced by Paymaster, a subsidiary of Delta Pine Land Co.
of Scott, Miss.
All five varieties allow farmers to spray Roundup over their crops,
killing weeds without damaging plants. One of the five contains an
additional gene, also produced by Monsanto, that makes the plant resist
certain major pests. The gene is derived from the soil bacterium Bacillus
thuringiensis.
The companies expect farmers to plant more than 4 million acres of Roundup
Ready cotton this year, up from about 800,000 acres last year, Barton
said.
The companies will continue to sell other Roundup-resistant varieties.
Monsanto does not expect the withdrawal of the seed to affect its sales
goals, although "preferred varieties might be tight in certain geographic
areas," Barton said.
St. Louis-based Monsanto first introduced genetically enhanced insect
resistant cotton in the United States in 1996.
_________________________________________________________
Richard Wolfson, PhD
Consumer Right to Know Campaign,
for Mandatory Labelling and Long-term
Testing of all Genetically Engineered Foods,
500 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, ON Canada K1N 6N2
email: rwolfson@concentric.net
Our website, http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/geindex.html
contains more information on genetic engineering as well as
previous genetic engineering news items
Subscription fee to genetic engineering news is $35 for 12 months
See website for details.
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INFORMATION COURTESY OF: Patricia Dines, Community Action Publications,
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