Fwd: Wall St Journal - Monsanto dumps GM potatoes

[GRAIN - Anna-Rosa Martinez <annarosa@grain.org>]

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From: "NLP Wessex" <nlpwessex@bigfoot.com>
To: <Undisclosed Recipients>
Subject: Wall St Journal - Monsanto dumps GM potatoes
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 08:50:53 -0000
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1

Monsanto's Genetically Modified Potatoes Find Slim Market, Despite
Repelling Bugs
By SCOTT KILMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Monsanto Co. is quietly mothballing its six-year-old 
genetically
modified potato, the first bioengineered crop it launched.

Monsanto, a St. Louis agricultural biotechnology and  herbicide
company
85%-owned by Pharmacia Corp., of Peapack, N.J.,  confirmed Tuesday
that
it will stop selling genetically modified seed to  U.S. and
Canadian
potato farmers after this spring.

Launched in 1995, Monsanto's NewLeaf potato is  equipped with a
gene
from a microorganism to make a toxin that repels a  bug called
the
Colorado potato beetle. Monsanto advertised the potato to  farmers
as a
way to greatly reduce their spending on pesticides, but  NewLeaf
never
captured more than 5% of the potato-seed market.

Many potato farmers, hard pressed by a price-depressing glut of
spuds,
haven't
been willing to pay the premium Monsanto  charges for its
genetically
modified seed.
Meanwhile,  some food companies have shied away  from using
the
genetically modified potato to avoid getting  wrapped up in the
debate
over the safety of bioengineered food.

Last year, for example, fast-food giant McDonald's  Corp. told
its
french-fry suppliers to stop using the potato from Monsanto, the 
only
U.S. company to launch a genetically modified version of the tuber. 
As
a result, J.R. Simplot Co., a major maker of french fries,
instructed
its farmers to stop growing NewLeaf potatoes.

At its peak in 1999, NewLeaf potatoes were planted on  about
55,000
acres in North America. NewLeaf acreage shrank by roughly half last
year. Monsanto's decision to add a new genetically engineered feature
to
its potato -- resistance to the Leaf Roll virus -- did little to perk
up
sales.

Monsanto spokeswoman Lori Fisher said the company decided several
months
ago to shelve the NewLeaf potato in order to focus its research and
marketing funds on four far bigger markets for genetically modified
seed: oilseeds, cotton, corn and wheat. Last year, for instance,
U.S.
farmers grew on 45 million acres soybean plants genetically 
modified to
tolerate exposure to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.

"Potatoes are a great niche product," said Ms. Fisher. "We
hope some day
we can come back to it."

Monsanto said the dozens of employees who worked on its NewLeaf
potato
are being reassigned to other departments or have left the company.
The
NewLeaf marketing organization was based in Boise, Idaho, and field
research was conducted in Maine.

Write to Scott Kilman at scott.kilman@wsj.com