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Science Forum Index » Agriculture Forum » Crops giant retreats from Europe ahead of GM report
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 Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 3:50 am |
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Crops giant retreats from Europe ahead of GM report
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
16 October 2003
Monsanto, the huge American biotechnology company which has pioneered
GM crops, is withdrawing from many of its European operations and
laying off up to two thirds of its British workers.
The announcement came on the eve of the publication of the
Government's GM crop trials today. They are expected to show that two
out of three genetically modified crops in the tests may damage the
environment. Tony Blair is thought to be in favour of GM crops,
stressing the need for Britain to be in the vanguard of new industries
that could be worth billions of pounds.
But ministers will be under pressure to limit, or scrap, further
development of GM crops in the face of public opposition. One industry
insider said the international biotechnology business was becoming
disillusioned with Europe's anti-GM stance.
"If there's no market for something, you go elsewhere," he said. "The
big companies are looking to China, South-east Asia and South
America."
Monsanto said its decision to pull out of conventional cereal crops in
Europe was not related to the continent's moratorium on commercial
growing of GM crops. But a spokeswoman added: "Monsanto is obviously
frustrated by the amount of time it has taken for GM crops to be
accepted in Europe, but this decision is part of a much bigger global
realignment."
Monsanto said it was closing its multimillion-pound research centre in
Cambridge with the loss of up to 80 highly skilled jobs.
Employees heard of the decision for the first time yesterday afternoon
even though the plan had been circulating among analysts outside the
company earlier this week.
On Tuesday, a company spokesman denied there was any intention to
close some British operations. But 24 hours later Monsanto confirmed
that it was to shut its European cereals business. "This results from
a strategic decision ... to realign the company's core businesses in
order to focus on those projects that will best capitalise on its
market and technological strengths," a spokesman said.
Today the results of the Government's farm-scale trials of three GM
crops will be released. These could give European governments the
ammunition to ban the commercial growing of some varieties if they can
be shown to damage the environment.
Last month, a test of public opinion in Britain found that the
majority of people did not want GM food in their supermarkets. In a
series of questions that formed part of the "GM Nation" debate, 85 per
cent of respondents said they believed GM crops would benefit
producers rather than consumers, 86 per cent said they were unhappy
with the idea of eating GM food, 91 per cent said they thought GM
crops had a potentially negative effect on the countryside and 93 per
cent said GM was being driven by profit rather than public interest.
Monsanto said its closure could affect up to 80 of its 125 British
employees, who mostly work on the breeding of conventional varieties
of winter wheat, spring wheat and spring barley. Crop breeding centres
in France, Germany and the Czech Republic will also be hit by the
cutbacks.
Monsanto said it was reducing its global workforce of 13,200 by
between 7 and 9 per cent, but the precise number of jobs lost in
Britain would not be announced until the end of the 90-day
consultation period required by law.
Jeff Cox, Monsanto's UK general manager, said the company hoped to
find a buyer for its conventional cereals business which could save
some of the jobs.
"Monsanto will remain in the UK as a streamlined crop protection and
oilseed rape business, with our flagship plant protection product -
Roundup - continuing to lead the market," Mr Cox said. |
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