Monsanto Company through a June 23, 2009 press release announced a “collaboration agreement” with Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc. “to develop new products that will enhance consumer vegetable choices.” Brace for the next round in the GMO War that has been raging for over a decade.
The Monsanto-Dole agreement is for five years of collaboration with a focus on developing new versions of spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, and lettuce. Their goal is to “improve” the taste, texture, flavor, aroma, and even the nutrition of these foods. Monsanto brings expertise in making rapid advances in agricultural development to the table, while Dole excels in marketing the fruit of big agriculture to the public. Pun intended.
Genetically-modified food (GM), also known as genetically-modified organisms (GMO) has become a battleground between “natural” food proponents and the big agriculture “biotech” business. As with all battles of this type, there is bound to be plenty of misinformation and exaggeration on both sides, and with accusations flying it can be difficult to detect the sane and thoughtful voices among them. The issue is complex and worthy of study.
Monsanto is firmly in the biotech camp, with a stated commitment to the development of modern agricultural practices to increase crop production, thereby conserving resources. Dole has taken some steps to straddle the fence with consumers by offering organic prepackaged salad greens, pineapples, and bananas, along with their traditionally grown produce. It will be interesting to see what if any effect this move to produce new versions of vegetables will have on Dole’s organic consumers.
Monsanto is a dominant player in the development and advancement of biotech agricultural methods and is closely watched by opponents to the genetic engineering of food. Perhaps for this reason, Monsanto spokeswoman Riddhi Trivedi-St. Clair was quick to state that this agreement between Monsanto and Dole will involve breeding research and will not involve the genetic engineering that Monsanto employs with its herbicides, soybean, and corn products. According to Ian Sherr of Reuters in his article, Monsanto, Dole to collaborate on veggies, this is one more step in Monsanto's efforts to expand the vegetable segment of their business.
Monsanto and Dole Combine Strengths in New Collaboration to Bring Innovations to Vegetables
Monsanto website
Dole website
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Comments
I'm not the biggest monsanto fan, but you misunderstood the agreement. The agreement does not involve genetic modification. The companies made that clear. And besides, they will work on improving vegetable taste and quality, which as far as I know are traits not ammenable to straight-forward genetic modifcation. So they will have to deal with tedious plant breeding processes.
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Leon - You are right. The article reads like a total hit-job, first she rolls out the name Monsanto then proffers scare stories about GM foods before burying the fact that GM food is not what is being proposed. The death of journalism couldn't come fast enough!
With Monsatano's record I wouldn't purchase or EAT any food that they have had ANYTHING to do with. Better smart & safe than sorry...Monsatano should be the top company in the world NOT to trust. Slick P.R. article. Dole just lost my business too. Go local, go organic!!
I don't trust Monsanto and now I don't trust Dole. They should be tried for crimes against humanity, killing animals that grazed on their GM cotton, driving thousands of farmers out of business, ruining the pristine island of Hawaii with their Frankenfoods, poisoning thousands of people with their never-been-tested- "crops." Dole, you just lost 5 customers, ie me and my family.
Even my wife Lily is hip to your BS, Dole and Monsanto.
There were tests that went on from Monsanto's scientists and the tests all proved that GMO's were dangerous. They are pretty much a combination of different plant, animal, virus, and bacteria to make lets say, corn........ and to have it withstand much drought and Monastanto's weed killer "Round-up". These weeds get stronger and stronger with the weed killer making Monsanto to make stronger and more potent and toxic weed killer, it's a never ending process! When you eat the GMO's your eating roundup! you cannot wash that off with water!!! false false false As the Dole potatoes are concerned they are made to produce an insecticide called BT toxin, known and proven to cause much bodily disease and changes in many farm animals fed these potatoes. It has definately been tested and proven. Go to fruitsticker.com to learn about how to identify true organically grown produce in the supermarkets.
I don't put alot of faith in what Monsanto claims their intentions are. Really. If Monsanto says the new variants will not be genetically modified, I believe them-to a point. For they have probably come up with a whole new way of destroying our food. "Also known for its herbicide business, Monsanto has been aggressively growing its vegetable business with recent moves such as the 2005 acquisition of Seminis, which gave Monsanto control over more than 30 percent of the North American vegetable seed market."
They control the food, they control the world. I for one feel they are on their way. They don't need to be honest.
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