AVENTIS WANTS TO SELL AG BIOTECH SECTOR BUT WHO WANTS TO BUY A BIOTECH SEED COMPANY? THE DES MOINES REGISTER ASKS June 11, 2001 Planet Rice Tom Hargrove http://www.planetrice.net/newspub/newstory.cfm?id=924 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, USA-- European farm and pharmaceutical giant Aventis Corp. wants to sell its agricultural sector--and rid itself of a hard time in the biotech seed industry, the Des Moines Register reported on June 9. The story says that Aventis CropScience is the company behind the genetically modified (GM) StarLink corn that became one of the biggest fiascos of the crop biotechnology era. Next, Aventis had problems with GM rice. The industry giant used 18-wheel trucks and bulldozers to bury almost 5 million pounds--2,272 metric tons-- of genetically modified rice in a landfill near Alvin, in southeastern Texas. PlanetRice was there, and reported from the site as the world's largest--and maybe the world's only--rice burial began on March 21 (http://www.planetrice.net/newspub/newstory.cfm?ID=877). The rice-called "Liberty Rice"--had been approved for food and feed consumption, but had been treated with Liberty, a herbicide not yet approved for use on rice, Margaret Gadsby, an Aventis spokeswoman, explained. Liberty Rice carries genes from a soil microbe that confer resistance to the non-selective herbicide Liberty, or glufosinate. Farmers may someday use Liberty Rice to protect fields from "red rice," one of the most serious weeds of rice in the southern United States. Red rice, ironically, is also rice. That makes it tough to control because herbicides that kill red rice also kill its domestic cousin. Liberty Rice has genes that make it resistant to Liberty herbicide, so the weed killer can control most weeds--including red rice, because it doesn't have the resistance gene. "Liberty prevents weeds from detoxifying ammonia, a product of plant metabolism," an Aventis press release explains. "When ammonia builds up to a critical point, the weeds die." Liberty-resistant varieties of corn, canola, and cotton are on the market. But Liberty has not yet been approved as a rice herbicide. The Starlink corn connection Meanwhile, StarLink corn, another GM product, had made global headlines when traces showed up in taco shells. Starlink had been approved for use only as animal feed. Its discovery in the human food chain prompted a wave of food product recalls. Aventis then announced that it would increase focus on pharmaceuticals, and shed other businesses, including its 76% ownership of Aventis CropScience. European drug maker Schering AG owns the rest of Aventis' biotech seed business, and has said it will not sell at a low price. It's not clear yet how the legal issues will play out for Aventis CropScience, the Des Moines Register reported on June 9. So far, almost 80 seed companies want to take part in a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that has the government buying up StarLink-tainted seed to keep it off the market. The figure means more than one-quarter of the nation's seed companies have found at least a trace of StarLink somewhere in their product supplies. The cost to the Agriculture Department is expected to be about US$20 million. With even a minuscule amount of StarLink still sitting in grain elevators or on-farm storage silos, it could be a while before the final chapter in Aventis's StarLink saga is written. Meanwhile, the company continues to try to close the book on the mess. Aventis, which contends its product is safe, is asking regulators to clear the product for human consumption. So, who wants a seed company? Even at a bargain price, it's unlikely one of the few large U.S. companies will buy the business, the Des Moines Register reported. St. Louis-based Monsanto Corp., once a farm and pharmaceuticals business like Aventis, spent a long time trying to shake the anti-biotechnology activists that made the company their favorite target. Eventually, with environmentalist pressure weighing on its stock price, Monsanto was acquired by Pharmacia. It added the drug business to its own operations and held a public stock offering for the farm sector operations. So far, this so-called "new" Monsanto hasn't been the lightning-rod of the past, the Des Moines Register editorialized. It's highly unlikely the company would invite that kind of trouble. Additionally, with its strong position in the seed biotechnology sector, such a deal likely would draw protest from not only environmentalists but also farmers who are leery of agricultural sector consolidation. Any deal involving DuPont likely would draw the ire of farmers and, perhaps, regulators. DuPont already owns Des Moines-based Pioneer Hi-Bred, the largest seed-maker in the United States. That deal came as a handful of chemical giants and drug makers raced to gobble up virtually all of the large publicly traded U.S. seed companies at a time when seed biotechnology was heralded. Although proponents still tout the technology, Pioneer has kept a relatively low profile as a unit of DuPont and it seems unlikely that the chemical giant would try to expand the business. Last month, DuPont officials said they don't plan any large acquisitions soon. Dow Chemical, the other big U.S. player in that late-1990s buying binge, continues to wade through its integration of the Union Carbide business. Work within its seed unit has also been relatively low profile. Although mentioned as potential Aventis suitors, none of the three U.S. companies has publicly expressed an interest in the unit. Meanwhile, Europe's Bayer AG and BASF have indicated interest in parts of a business that Aventis wants to sell as a single unit. If either Bayer or BASF wants the whole thing, it is likely theirs, the Des Moines Register reported. Liberty was highest-yielding rice Jacko Garrett, the Texas farmer who grew the destroyed Liberty Rice under Aventis contract, said it was the highest-yielding, most-weed-free rice he planted last year. Jacko and wife Nancy own Garrett Farms, a major rice seed company near Danbury in southeast Texas. "The rice was being grown for seed increase," Garrett told PlanetRice. Aventis had hoped to make Liberty Rice available to U.S. rice growers by 2003, PlanetRice reported on Jan. 10. Aventis decided to destroy the rice rather than risk that it be shipped outside the United States, the Houston Chronicle reported on May 18. The company does not want the potential liability if some Liberty Rice should reach markets not approved for the technology. "They're doing what they consider a prudent thing, not taking the chance that this rice could get into the food chain until it's approved," said Garrett, who said he understood Aventis' legal concerns. "They don't want to create unnecessary problems." But the rice farmer, who is also a humanitarian, added, "I wish the rice could have been used to feed hungry people or for other beneficial purposes. The food is as safe as can be." Garrett founded the nonprofit Share the Harvest foundation through which Texas rice farmers donate grain to the poor. He wishes the rice could help the needy. "It just bothers me so bad when I'm sitting here trying to find food to feed people and I've got to go bury 5 million pounds of rice when we know it won't hurt a soul." It would take 95 truckloads to take all of the Liberty Rice from seven bins on Garrett's farm to the landfill, PlanetRice reported on May 18. "And here I could be sending it to USA food banks or foreign countries in famine," Garrett said. "They're dying, because there's no food and here we are burying food, simply because it's genetically modified." Garrett also discussed the controversial golden rice with PlanetRice. "It's a shame that golden rice is not being accepted. It provides vitamin A that people need in underdeveloped countries where malnutrition is prevalent, and 1 to 2 million children go blind yearly because of vitamin A deficiency. "We need to make people aware that technology advances have been happening for years, and more will come. Ninety percent of our insulin is bioengineered. "Technologies will come to both improve rice yields and control insects and diseases without pesticides. That will help feed the world in an environmentally sustainable way." "Somehow, we need to educate consumers, worldwide, of the benefits of biotechnology," the rice farmer added. "It will be a long, hard battle, but it must be done." A recent poll shows Americans generally do not have strong opinions about genetically modified food, but opposition is strong in Europe and Japan. Genetically altered corn, soybeans, and cotton have been grown in the United States for more than 5 years and the Grocery Manufacturers of America estimate that 60 to 70% of all processed foods may contain biotech soy or corn.