COURTS FORCE BRAZIL GOVT TO RETREAT ON MONSANTO GMO SOY
August 20, 2001
Dow Jones

SAO PAULO - According to this story, Brazil's agriculture minister
apparently overstepped his bounds when he said he'd let U.S. biotechnology
giant Monsanto Co. (MON) sell genetically-modified seeds to the world's
second-biggest soybean grower. The unexplained attempt by Agriculture
Minister Marcus Vinicius Pratini de Moraes to trump a three-year court
battle sent Monsanto's shares rallying, but a subsequent legal filing has,
the story says, cut short the company's celebration by forcing the dispute
back into the courts.

And the outlook for Monsanto getting GMO approval in Brazil looks
increasingly bleak. Besides the legal battle that consumer and environmental
groups are fighting here, reports that European researchers found
unidentified genetic material in the soybeans provided local activists with
further ammunition.

The story says that an Agriculture Ministry spokesman declined to comment on
Pratini's motives, saying only that "the minister always intended to wait
for a judicial resolution before making a decision (on the approval of
Monsanto soy)."

After being notified by the judge, Pratini reversed his position on Aug. 8
and said he would only register the herbicide-resistant soybeans when the
issue is eventually resolved in the courts.

News of the reversal sent Monsanto's shares plummeting the next day on Wall
Street, dropping 5.6% to $33.50.

Meanwhile, the obstacles facing Monsanto continue to mount. Earlier Friday,
the story says that Brazil's biosafety commission moved on reports out of
Europe and said it intends to request additional information from Monsanto
about the make-up of Roundup Ready following the discovery of an
unidentified DNA sequence in the product.

In a statement regarding the DNA sequence, Monsanto said that it stands by
the safety of Roundup Ready soybeans because the DNA sequence mentioned in
the scientific paper was already present in original crops subject to safety
tests when the product was launched.