Monsanto: Winning the Ground War

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Grant's stance took shape, he says, when he was still COO. An executive from Royal Dutch Shell spoke to a handful of Monsanto executives about his experience on the receiving end of heated criticism from Greenpeace over the fate of a decommissioned offshore oil rig. Shell ended up following Greenpeace's advice about how to deconstruct the rig. The Shell executive "talked about societal shift," says Grant. The message was clear: "Trust me' doesn't work anymore."

The change hasn't gone unnoticed. At academic conferences in the early '90s, "Anyone who talked about risks would get really hostile questions...from industry people," says Allison A. Snow, a botanist at Ohio State University who has sparred with other biotech companies over her research, which shows that transgenic plants can spread in the wild and end up promoting the growth of stronger weeds. These days, she says, Monsanto and other companies in the industry are much "more respectful and interested in what we are doing."

These types of conciliatory words were once rarely uttered by company critics. Over the years, Monsanto has been involved in a series of controversies that have given it a hard-nosed reputation. In 2005, for instance, the Justice Dept. fined the company $1.5 million for bribing an Indonesian official (the company says the bribes were contrary to corporate policy). The company has a long history of suing farmers for unauthorized use of its seeds, a strategy that has prompted adversaries to label it a corporate bully.

But the initial wave of seeds has not yet created any immunological or ecological disasters, and that has assuaged some skeptics. Margaret Mellon, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, like many of her peers, has come to the conclusion that currently available GMO seeds are probably safe to eat. But she points out that researchers often spot risks for potential allergies and for environmental contamination. She argues that seeds must receive more rigorous testing. "There are many things about the technology that are reassuring," says Mellon. "[But] we don't really have a good way of testing whether there are going to be human allergies."

PRODUCTIVITY PERSUADES

As the debate quiets down, demand for genetically modified crops has exploded. The economic emergence of China and India lifted income levels for billions, who, like their wealthier middle-class counterparts in the West, are now eating meat several times a day. That has driven a surge in demand for animal feed. Although Monsanto seeds cost several dollars more per bag than conventional ones, farmers buy them because they are much easier to cultivate. Monsanto's latest corn seed, for instance, has three special genetic traits: pesticide to kill the European corn borer, a caterpillar that eats through the top of a stalk; pesticide to kill the rootworm, a beetle that eats the roots of a cornstalk; and resistance to Roundup weed killer. A farmer spends, on average, up to $36 more per acre for Monsanto's three-trait corn seed. But the company says he can save twice that on chemical insecticides and herbicide.

These types of productivity improvements are a big reason farmers in Brazil seem to have fallen in love with Monsanto soybeans. It's quite a reversal: During President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's 2002 run for office, his agriculture policy adviser told reporters, "We want to establish a reputation as GM-free. We get premium prices that our competitors—the U.S. and Argentina—don't because they plant GM." At the time, however, biotech soy seeds were already being spirited across the border from Argentina into southern Brazil. Usage exploded, and the government, which had no policy on GMO seeds, had no choice but to legalize them because the country was going to lose its biotech-free status in any event. "The amount of [GM] crops being planted was so big that they couldn't stop GM's expansion," says Marcelo Duarte, the executive director of Aprosoja, a soy growers' association in Mato Grosso. "It wasn't really even a choice." Monsanto said that it was upset about the smuggling, which it considers piracy. But the company also began taking legislators on "fact-finding trips" to learn more about GMO products, says David Fleischer, a professor in Brasilia. By 2005, Brazil's legislature opened the country to GMO adoption.

Monsanto has remained an effective lobbyist in Brazil. This February, Greenpeace fought a proposal that would allow new GM technologies to be approved by a simple majority of Brazil's biotech advisory board, rather than two-thirds. After a long battle to be heard by high-ranking officials, activists won an audience with the powerful Casa Civil, or Executive Office. Gabriela Vuolo, who heads Greenpeace's GMO campaign in Brazil, says Greenpeacers "almost literally" crossed in the hallway with Monsanto reps who, minutes before, had their own meeting with the same officials. Vuolo says the meeting was marred by the sensation that the pro-GM camp "got there first," and that they seemed to have swayed Executive Office officials in favor of easing restrictions on GM. The new Biosecurity Law passed with President Lula's approval the next month.

Today, Monsanto executives consider universal adoption of GMO seeds simply a matter of time. Even in hostile climes like Germany, France, and Portugal, Monsanto seeds have started to be planted after a moratorium on GMO plantings was lifted by the EU in 2004. As for the organic movement, it is "not going to replace how the vast majority of food and produce is grown," says Monsanto strategist Casale. "Quite frankly, it can't. There are not enough cities to tear down to bring the extra land into production that we would need to farm with those practices to feed this country and this planet."

Today, more than 90% of the genetically modified seeds in the world are sold either by Monsanto or by competitors that license Monsanto genes in their own seeds. And Monsanto has no intention of giving up its lead. Around the world, 3,000 company research scientists are coming out with the next generation of genetically modified seeds. Much of the fruits of their labor was on display at the annual Farm Progress Show, held in August in Decatur, Ill. Squared off by a barbed-wire fence, Monsanto showed off what it auspiciously called its "Golden Acre"—a panoply of experimental crops, from soybeans that produce omega-3 fatty acids to drought-tolerant corn. It was the company's research pipeline in plant form.

In a speech during the show, chief technologist Robb Fraley described the coming "step change in yield." In 1970, the average corn harvest yielded 70 bushels an acre. In 2006 the average yield was 150 bushels an acre. And by 2030, Fraley predicts, yields will push 300 bushels an acre. Monsanto is now working on a super-seed that will have eight specific biological traits baked into it, set to hit the market in 2010. Although the debate over genetically modified foods still has plenty of years to run, Grant is confident this little grain will be his best weapon in it. "Once farmers see this stuff," he says, "they don't want to go back."

Join a debate about GMO-crop safety.

With Joshua Schneyer in Rio de Janeiro