Monsanto pledges GM dialogue with Greenpeace
Date: 07-Oct-99
Country: UK
Author: John O'Callaghan
"Our confidence in this technology and our enthusiasm for it has widely
been seen - and understandably so - as condenscension and, indeed,
arrogance," Shapiro told a Greenpeace business conference in London in a
video link from Chicago.
"We are no longer going to engage in a debate. We are now publicly
committed to dialogue with people and groups who have a stake in this
issue."
The debate over the safety of GM foods has been particularly fierce in
Britain, with companies saying biotechnology offers better, hardier
crops and critics such as Greenpeace countering that the long-term
effects are far from clear.
"No one would argue that biotechnology alone is the solution to issues
of sustainability in agriculture or food security for the world,"
Shapiro said.
"It unquestionably can improve productivity while reducing some of the
negative effects of current agricultural practices like excessive
pesticide usage."
Peter Melchett, executive director of Greenpeace UK, told the conference
that public concern about GM foods in Britain and elsewhere in Europe
showed that Monsanto and other biotech companies were patronising and
out of touch with comsumers.
"Your vision fails because it is highly selective, driven by a blinkered
view of the technological possibilities rather than by a balanced
understanding of social and environmental realities," he said.
"It promotes false promises of easy alternatives via short-term fixes."
The solution was organic farming because it "goes with the grain of what
people understand to be good for themselves and for the environment",
Melchett said, adding that Greenpeace would be happy to help "produce a
new Monsanto".
Shapiro said on Monday that Monsanto had decided not to develop the
"terminator" gene which prevents GM plants from producing fertile seeds,
forcing farmers to buy new seeds every year.
But he stressed the agrifood giant was committed to biotechnology and
"to developing good, safe, useful products".
Critics say "terminator" technology is just the tip of the iceberg in
how Monsanto and other firms such as Novartis, AstraZeneca and DuPont
control food production through interdependent crops and chemicals.
