Monsanto Company today promised full support to European food companies and regulatory agencies in response to unproven activist allegations about the corn in taco chips and is acting to protect markets for farmers and their grain.

Hugh Grant, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Monsanto, also urged food
authorities in the United Kingdom to obtain the data and samples used by an anti-biotechnology
activist group, the Friends of the Earth.

"There are absolutely no safety concerns with Roundup Ready corn or DEKALB Bt-Xtra,'' said
Grant. The activist group claims to have found both products in taco shells in the United Kingdom.
Grant said all resources of Monsanto will be made available, including technical experts, to determine if the claims have any basis in fact.

"While we are fully confident of the safety of our products and the quality of food available for
consumers, we recognize that our grower customers need assurance that the market for the crops they grow will not be disrupted,'' Grant said.

"To that end, we will not commercially launch new genetically improved commodity crops for planting in the United States until they have received full approval for food use and animal feed in the United States and Japan,'' he said.

"We would like to make the same commitment for European approval but we cannot do so at this
time because of the gridlock in the European regulatory system.''

The industry has a comprehensive channeling program for products that are still pending European approval, designed to allow U.S. growers to find domestic markets for these products. The channeling program requires a specific written acknowledgment in the technology agreements that all growers must sign before planting and it is reiterated in grower contacts in person, by telephone and by mail to provide domestic market options.

The channeling program is a collective effort of the seed industry, grain companies, commodity
organizations, processors and others. The American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) has worked
with the stakeholders involved in the channeling program, including Monsanto, to create an
industry-wide database of confirmed domestic-use locations on its Web site (www.amseed.org ).

The activist group claimed it found Roundup Ready and DEKALB Bt-Xtra corn in store-brand taco
chips in the United Kingdom, but these claims have not been verified by any independent source.

Both products have complete approval for both human and animal consumption by regulatory agencies in the United States, Canada and Japan, and they have been routinely processed and consumed with other corn in those countries.

In the European Union, import approvals for Roundup Ready corn have been stalled by a regulatory process that has caused a de facto moratorium on all new biotechnology products unrelated to the specific safety data of any one product. Both products received favorable recommendations from the European rapporteur countries leading their approval submissions.

DEKALB Bt-Xtra was grown on limited acres in 1998 and 1999. After Monsanto acquired
DEKALB, production of Bt-Xtra was halted in 1999 after a strategic portfolio consolidation and none of the product was sold in 2000.

Roundup Ready corn was grown on approximately 2.6 million acres in 2000 and 2.3 million acres in 1999. It has not only been approved by regulatory agencies in the United States, but also approved for importation into other major markets, underscoring the widespread regulatory confidence in this product. The European Union is the major exception.

Kline & Company, an independent consulting firm based in New Jersey, recently released a report indicating that biotechnology crops -- including Roundup Ready corn -- will be responsible for reducing the annual use of herbicides by 45 million-pounds in the next nine years and projecting that insect-protected crops will reduce insecticide use by 13 million pounds per year by 2009.

"The use of biotechnology clearly reduces the amount of pesticides that are used in agriculture,'' said Grant. "Targeting a technology that has such an enormous benefit toward the reduction of chemicals on our food, in the ground and in our water risks compromising very real benefits to consumers who want healthier food and a healthier planet.'' 

Company news release
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