28. WORRIED ABOUT BECOMING A "HIRED HAND" FOR BIG SEED FIRMS? Agnet May11, May 11/98 Profarmer Online http://www.profarmer.com/

Worried about becoming a "hired hand" working for seed firms? Monsanto’s acquisition of Dekalb Genetics today raises an issue that’s in the back of farmers’ minds a lot lately: Acceleration of genetic technologies, say the big seed firms, will give you a widening spectrum of specialty crops with unique traits, and a correspondingly wider market. Up to 25% of U.S. corn could be "specialty" corn in a few years. The good news is that you’d be able to negotiate with a wider array of buyers for what you raise. And if you’re disgusted with the yo-yos injected into Chicago corn futures prices, going the specialty route would be your way to avoid those unpredictable markets for generic corn, soybeans and other grains.

But other farmers fear a darker side of seeing just a few seed firms dominating the business, even though the research expense is so great that there’s no other way to do it besides concentrating the work into a few camps. What farmers are concerned about: Buying a seed engineered for a specific weed control chemical, and a specific end use, could mean contracting the entire production package with a single firm... like Pioneer, Monsanto, Novartis, DuPont or Cargill. The "CORN" grower thus would become the same kind of contract producer as the broiler house owner who contracts with Tyson Foods, worry some farmers.

20. URGENT APPEAL TO ALL GOVERNMENTS TO REVOKE THE MARKET APPROVAL OF MONSANTO’S RR-SOYBEAN Agnet May 19, May 19/98 Dorset, Hampshire And Isle OfWight News Release

We the undersigned scientists ask all governments to use whatever methods are available to them to bar from their markets on grounds of injury to public health Monsanto’s genetically engineered Roundup Ready (RR) SOYBEANS. In the case of the European Union, of course, we urge the individual governments to invoke Article 16 (Directive 90/220). We make this appeal on the following bases:

1) There is clear scientific evidence that application of glyphosate can increase the level of plant estrogens. This has been shown for the bean Vicia faba by German researchers (Sandermann and Wellmann, 1988, in Biosafety, p. 285-292, ed: German Ministry of Research and Technology). SOYA belongs to the same plant family (legumes) as these beans.

2) Plant estrogens are known to affect mammals including humans.

3) Feeding experiments were done on cows with transgenic and ordinary soybeans by Monsanto. A statistically significant difference in the daily milk fat production between the test groups was found. Those fed transgenic RR-soybeans produced more fat per day than those fed ordinary SOYA. All test groups had the same intake of soya per day (Hammond et al., Journal of Nutrition, 1996). We conclude that this is an indication of a substantial difference between the transgenic and the non-transgenic soybean.

4). Monsanto’s application for market approval provided no data on estrogen levels of RR-soybeans sprayed with glyphosate. All data provided on the concentration level of different compounds in RR-soybeans was derived from unsprayed beans. Despite the lack of information on sprayed beans, RR-SOYBEANS were approved. And sprayed beans have since entered the food chain.

We are concerned that the increased milk fat production by cows fed RR-soybeans may be a direct consequence of higher estrogen levels in those soybeans. Growing numbers of children are dependent on soy-milk due to allergic reactions to cow’s milk. Young children are especially susceptible to elevated levels of estrogen. Thus there is a clear and serious health issue at hand. There is urgent need for further and independent scientific investigation. In adherence to the precautionary principle, until these investigations are completed, RR-soybeans should no longer be allowed to enter the food chain.

Dr. Brian Goodwin, UK Dr. Mae Wan Ho, UK Dr. Hartmut Meyer, Germany Dr. Peter Saunders, UK Dr. Vandana Shiva, India Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher, UK Dr. Beatrix Tappeser, Germany Christine von Weizsacker, Germany Montrial, 13 October 1997 Third Meeting of the Open-ended Ad hoc Working Group on Biosafety of the UN-Convention on Biological Diversity References: