Financial Times (London)

June 27, 2003, Friday London Edition 2

SECTION: THE AMERICAS AND INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY; Pg. 10

LENGTH: 549 words

HEADLINE: Monsanto takes on Canada's wheat chief: 

BIOTECHNOLOGY: The agri-foods group faces a confrontation with the 
Canadian Wheat Board over its genetically modified crop, says Dan Westell

BYLINE: By DAN WESTELL

BODY:
The campaign by the US agri-food group Monsanto to win wider approval for
its genetically modified wheat has brought a confrontation between the
company and Canada's official wheat exporter, the Canadian Wheat Board.

The board, fearing approval in Canada would damage its exports, has
demanded Monsanto Canada withdraw its application for government approval
of GM wheat. This week the company refused, insisting its application was
"responsible and appropriate".

The board must now decide whether to proceed with its threats of legal
action. "We will do everything in our power to ensure that GM wheat is not
introduced in Canada until customers and farmers want it," said Adrian
Measner, the board's president.

The board, which sells up to 17m tonnes of wheat a year worth about
CDollars 3bn (USDollars 2.2bn, Pounds 1.3bn, Euros 1.9bn), does not have
anything against GM wheat itself, but its customers do.

The governments of Japan and South Korea refuse to buy genetically modified
wheat and their concerns are shared in Britain.

"We wouldn't be able to sell our bread if it had any GM wheat in it," said
an official with Warburtons, the bakery group.

Buyers in more than 80 per cent of the board's markets have expressed
concern about GM wheat. "For us, the customer is always right," said Mr
Measner.

Monsanto is seeking approval for GM wheat in Canada, the US and Japan.

The Canadian board's hard line concerns US wheat experts, who do not want
to stop research that might benefit farmers and even consumers if it
reduces the need for herbicides.

But they recognise real financial dangers in GM wheat. "There is a risk of
losing market share, or losing markets totally," said Barbara Spangler,
executive director of the Washington-based wheat export trade education
committee.

In the worst case, the wheat board's customers could stop buying Canadian
wheat if it contained even traces of material from genetically modified plants.

There is no commercial GM wheat today, but Monsanto Canada has been
field-testing it for six years under tight controls. Now it is seeking
government approval to use the wheat for food and animal feed and to grow
it unconstrained.

Monsanto's GM wheat, designed to resist its herbicide Roundup, is not the
only product being tested. Syngenta of Switzerland is working on a strain
that would resist fusarium, a fungal blight. "We are probably the farthest
along," said Trish Jordan of Monsanto.

Both the wheat board and company recognise the introduction of GM wheat
will require costly segregated grain transportation and handling systems,
and an international agreement on what is an acceptable level of GM wheat
in shipments of "regular" wheat.

But the biggest issue is consumer acceptance. Approval from the Canadian
government would give Monsanto an official endorsement that the company
could use to overcome consumer resistance.

For the same reason, the board is pushing the government to add a new test
to its health and environmental approvals: a cost-benefit analysis.

That idea and others are under consideration in Ottawa. But the government
will move carefully before it changes the present rules, because, as a
policy adviser noted, "there are other technologies in the pipeline".
www.ft.com/consumer