Monsanto
quits 4 projects in Europe
RASHMEE
Z AHMED
TIMES
NEWS NETWORK
[ FRIDAY, OCTOBER
17, 2003 02:30:33 AM ]
LONDON:
In a strategically symbolic retreat, with possible implications for
geneticallymodified (GM) food production in South Asia, American bio-tech
giant Monsanto has announced its partial withdrawal from Europe.
Monsanto,
which pioneered GM crops in the West and brought hybrid cotton, sunflower
and corn to India despite negative publicity, said it was withdrawing
from four European cereal seed development stations in the UK, France,
Germany and the Czech Republic.
Monsanto
spokesman Tom McDermott said, the decision was “totally unrelated to
the EU’s five-year defacto moratorium on (the commercial production
of) bio-tech crops”. GM crops are notoriously reviled as “Frankenstein’s
food” in Britain and other parts of the EU.
With
bad timing, Monsanto’s announcement, resounded like a thunderclap through
anti-GM Europe within hours of Britain releasing the results of the
biggest environmental- impact study of GM crops anywhere in the world.
McDermott insisted Monsanto was planning to “focus more of our energies”
on GM technology by cutting loose from its lossmaking European seed
business.
But
analysts said Monsanto’s partial withdrawal from Europe was a sign that
international bio-tech companies had despaired of the continent’s anti-GM
stance and this would automatically lead the big players to look for
markets elsewhere, in south and east Asia, China and South America.
