| Corporate
Watch guide to the commercialisation of GM Crops
After five years of massive public opposition
to GM crops and a nationwide public debate, Tony Blair will decide
in October 2003 whether to allow commercial growing of GM crops.
Here Corporate Watch presents a series of briefings on the three
key biotechnology companies and an overview of the industry and
its stragety for comercialisation.
GM Crops Industry Overview:
The Big Three Prepare To Commercialise
We examine the strategies of the biotechnology companies which
are most heavily involved in trying to commercialise GM crops in
Britain and the rest of the European Union - Bayer CropScience,
Syngenta and Monsanto. We ask where, as an industry, they are strongest,
and where they are most vulnerable.
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Bayer CropScience
GM crops are a key part of Bayer’s future and it, perhaps
more than any other company, has an interest in seeing them grown
in the UK and northern Europe. Bayer’s ‘Chardon LL’
GM LibertyLink fodder maize is first in line in the queue of GM
crops waiting to get approval for commercial growing in the UK.
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Monsanto
Monsanto is a US based agricultural company and is one of the big
three companies looking to commercialise GM crops in the UK in the
near future. Monsanto has a relatively small stake in the commercialisation
of the first round of GM crops in the UK, but GM crops
are vital to Monsanto’s future and it has a strong interest
in seeing them grown in the UK and Europe.
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Syngenta
Syngenta is a Swiss agricultural company formed in 2000 from
the agrochemical and seed businesses of Novartis, and the agrochemicals
and biotechnology research divisions of AstraZeneca. Of all the
major agricultural biotechnology companies currently active in the
UK, Syngenta have the biggest stake in sales of conventional seeds.
It is perhaps the most successful GM crops company at co-opting
the sustainable development agenda (through the Syngenta Foundation
for Sustainable Development), and aligning itself with GM crops
with perceived consumer benefits
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Family tree
As 3 corporations, Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta, push for the commercial
growing of GM crops in the UK, Corporate Watch brings you the biotech
family tree. The family tree shows the complex tangle of name changes,
spin-offs, joint ventures and acquisitions woven by the biotech
industry during 10 years of rapid expansion, consolidation and crisis.
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Commercialisation guides: Syngenta
l Monsanto l Resources
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