Meet the world's main producer of GMOs - the monster corporation Monsanto. Monsanto. The Feeding Hand of the Beast Monsanto Company

The State Duma adopted in the third reading a bill that prohibits the cultivation and breeding of genetically modified plants and animals in Russia, “It is prohibited to use for sowing (planting) seeds of plants whose genetic program has been changed using genetic engineering methods, containing genetically engineered material, the introduction of which cannot be the result of natural processes, with the exception of sowing (planting) such seeds during examinations and research work,” the bill says. MOSCOW, June 24 - RIA Novosti.

25.02.2017. The world leader in the field of GMOs opened the first plant in Russia – 300 km from Tatarstan

The world leader in the cultivation of genetically modified organisms - the American company Monsanto - inaugurated a seed plant near the village of Oktyabrsky, Zuevsky district, Kirov region. Thus, the company’s first plant in Russia occupied an area of ​​63 thousand hectares, approximately 300 km from Tatarstan.

"We wanted to settle on Russian market before, but we were hampered by national legislation. However, the other day we received pleasant news from the Academy of Sciences about the lifting of the ban on GMOs in the country. We have great ambitions. We plan to feed with our products great amount of people. We hope to provide our agricultural products retail chains, catering establishments, as well as schools and kindergartens,” said the head of Monsanto Russia Isaac Lowenstein, reports the publication “Current News”.

Let us recall that RT previously reported that the RAS commission on combating pseudoscience and falsification scientific research is preparing a memorandum refuting the harm of genetically modified organisms.

Monsanto is a diversified multinational company founded in the United States in 1901. It specializes in genetically modified agricultural products: corn, soybean, cotton seeds, and also produces various insecticides and the most common herbicide, Roundup.

The company is also engaged in the production of military products, from rocket fuel to chemical weapons and elements of nuclear warheads.

http://m.business-gazeta.ru/news/338208

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I would like to immediately note that the “RAS Commission for Combating Pseudoscience” is a public organization of scientists within the RAS, and does not have any high powers, much less power and real estate, either from the RAS or from the state.

So citizen Isaac Lowenstein, Referring to this justification for the sabotage and terrorist activities of Monsanto in Russia, it is clearly trying to divert public attention from its real Russian “ROOF”, which seems to be firmly established in the sovereign Kazan Khanate.

And it is possible that by agreement with some high-ranking people from the high offices of the Kremlin. Much more influential than the haven of corrupt parasites - the State Duma.

Monsanto is a colorful example of a global multinational that does not hesitate to use any means in its policies on world markets for the sake of high profits: from trivial bribery of necessary government officials to organizing conspiracies against unyielding national governments.

Russian mechanism democracy is structured in such a way that it completely lacks grassroots public organizations who would be able to ask the authorities questions about serious social, social and political problems and are guaranteed to receive answers from the authorities. Therefore, the people have to passively wait for the development of any events until they turn into an acute crisis. So it is in the case of Monsanto and the State Duma.

But it seems that just recently the Russian man in the street was extremely excited and with all passion condemned Bandera’s Ukraine for the sale of several hundred thousand hectares of Ukrainian fertile land to Monsanto for the production of GMO seeds. Was worried that self-pollination of farmland would occur on Russian territory and there were even calls to urgently go to Kyiv with the entire armored army, against GMO Monsanta. Just yesterday I admired the patriotic feat of the State Duma with its impregnable chest, which closed Russia from the vile “Monsanta”. And here it is, on you!

While we were getting ready, the armored campaign against Kyiv against GMOs became irrelevant. The enemy has already broken through to the Volga and is advancing towards Kazan.

During the 1960s, Monsanto was the leading manufacturer of Agent Orange, which was used to defoliate vegetation during the Vietnam War. For this, the company had to pay compensation to veterans Vietnam War in 1984. According to the Vietnam Dioxin Victims Society, of the three million Vietnamese exposed to dioxin poisoning, by 2008, about a million people under the age of 18 had become hereditarily disabled. The Vietnamese were denied compensation.

In 1954, together with the German chemical giant Bayer, it established the production of polyurethanes in the USA.

In 1960, it launched the first plant for the production of synthetic acetic acid by catalytic carbonylation of methanol. The process is now commonly known as the Monsanto acetic acid process and is the main commercial method for producing acetic acid (more than 50% of the world's acetic acid production).

In 1982, a group of Monsanto researchers (Robb Fraley, Robert Horsch, Ernest Jaworski, Stephen Rogers) carried out genetic transformation of plants for the first time in history, for which they received the US National Medal of Technology in 1998.

In 1987, Monsanto conducted the first field trials of genetically modified plants.

In the fall of 1987, a delegation from the USSR State Agricultural Industry visited the Monsanto Research Center (St. Louis, Missouri). As the Vremya program reported (October 10, 1987), “...at present, cooperation programs between Monsanto and the State Agricultural Industry of the Soviet Union are being implemented over a total area of ​​30 thousand hectares in 13 different places in 5 Soviet republics.”

In 1996, for the first time in the world, it entered the market with seeds of genetically modified major agricultural crops - soybeans and cotton.

Between 1996 and 2002, through a series of acquisitions of smaller biotechs (Agracetus ( English), Calgene ( English)) and seed companies (“Asgrow”, “Dekalb”), as well as a branch of the chemical business (Solutia ( English)), Monsanto has transformed itself from a chemical industry giant into a pioneer in the emerging agricultural biotechnology industry.

In June 2007, Monsanto acquired Delta and Pine Land, a leading US cotton seed company.

In 2008, Monsanto acquired the Dutch seed company De Ruiter Seeds.

year 2001 - former employee Monsanto William Knowles was awarded the Nobel Prize for his research into asymmetric catalysis at Monsanto from the 1960s until his retirement in 1986.

Monsanto activities in Russia

In Russia, the company's activities are represented through its subsidiaries Seminis (eng. Seminis ) and De Ruiter Seeds. The official representatives of which are Agrofirma SemAgro LLC, ATF Agros LLC and Agrosemtsentr LLC. Seeds with the prefix to the name of the F1 variety are on sale throughout the country. These varieties are first generation hybrids with good presentation and yield, stability to cracking, insects, diseases and ultra-long storage.

There are also attempts to introduce transgenic potatoes resistant to the Colorado potato beetle, the technology for which Monsanto donated to the Bioengineering Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2000. GM potatoes have been approved for human consumption by the Institute of Nutrition and have been certified state registration. However, permission to grow it has not yet been obtained.

Genetic engineering technologies

• Transformation using agrobacteria. At the end of the 20th century, scientists came to understand that the genomes of living organisms are quite unstable, and the process of exchanging genetic information in evolution is the rule rather than the exception. A breakthrough in plant genetic engineering occurred in 1977, when it was discovered that soil bacteria from the class Agrobacterium ( English) are capable of transferring their DNA into the genomes of many plants. Bacteria have adapted to do this in order to reprogram the genome of plant cells to produce nutrients available only to these bacteria. As the mechanism of DNA transfer became increasingly understood in the early 1980s, scientists learned to modify it, so that instead of genes “beneficial to bacteria,” they began to transfer genes “useful to people,” which are stably inherited according to the laws of classical genetics. This method is called agrobacterial transformation and is today the most common method of plant transformation.

• Gene gun. In 1988, another method was proposed that was suitable for genetic transformation of most organisms, including plants. It is based on the mechanical transfer of DNA sorbed on microparticles of a solid substance (initially gold), which accelerate to high speeds using a gene gun and are shot into the tissues of the transformed organism. When foreign DNA enters cells, it is randomly inserted into chromosomes and is also inherited according to the laws of classical genetics. This method is convenient for transforming plants that are difficult to undergo agrobacterial transformation. For example, RR soybeans, which dominate the GM crop market today, were produced using this method at Agracetus ( English) in 1988, when the agrobacterial transformation of this crop was still poorly established.

• Herbicide resistance. RR plants in most cases contain a complete copy of the enolpyruvyl shikimate phosphate synthetase (EPSPS or EPSP synthase) gene from the soil bacterium Agrobacterium ( English)sp. strain CP4, but sometimes mutant copies from other plants. RR rapeseed (canola) contains a gene for glyphosate oxidase, which destroys the active principle of the herbicide Roundup.

• Insect resistance. The second direction of modification is to obtain crops that are resistant to the negative effects of harmful insects. Today, such stability is achieved in the only way - by introducing genes from another soil bacterium. Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt). Such plants are often named by the first letters of the Latin name of this bacterium (Bt-corn, Bt-cotton). The Bt genes used encode proteins that are toxic to insect pests but completely harmless to mammals and humans.

Main Products

1973 - Roundup herbicide. The patent on Roundup expired in 2000, and since then Monsanto's share of global glyphosate production has been steadily falling.

2005 - Roundup Ready Flex, 2nd generation of herbicide-resistant cotton, expanding the window of use of Roundup.

In 1999, the company announced its decision not to use "termination" technologies ( English), preventing the germination of seeds obtained from the harvest of its GM seeds. Although Monsanto claimed that it had no intention of using these technologies in India, there have been cases of farmers attacking fields where Monsanto was allegedly testing its products.

Controversy and criticism

Protests

Monsanto is a constant target of criticism from opponents of genetically modified organisms. The issue of the safety of transgenic plants is the subject of extensive debate involving all sorts of parties, including scientists, government commissions and non-governmental organizations such as "

It all started out simple and seemingly innocent when people first learned to grow their own food. After the harvest, farmers stored their seeds until the next season, often hand-picking the best and brightest seeds to reap a bountiful harvest the following season. Eventually, several farmers and naturalists observed naturally occurring hybrid plants and they came up with the idea of ​​conducting an experiment in which they decided to cross different kinds plants. Then in 1900, thanks to the use of genetic Mendel's theories on manipulation different types plants through a process called traditional breeding, it was already possible to achieve the desired result. IN next year a man named John Francis Quiney founded a small chemical company in Creve Coeur (Missouri) and named it Monsanto .

After 40 years, Monsanto has become largest producer plastics (including polystyrene) and synthetic fibers. Then in 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published material on the discovery of a three-dimensional double helical structure. This discovery ultimately leads to the practical ability to connect genes from different organisms. 20 years later, in 1973, Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen create recombinant DNA of an organism for the first time.

In 1980, the stage was set for what happened this week in America, when the Supreme Court ruled that genetically modified life forms could be patented, giving Exxon the right to create food microorganisms. From that point on, the creation gates were wide open for Monsanto.

1982 - The US FDA approves the first genetically engineered drug "Humulin" Genentech company.
1986 - Field trials of genetically modified plants (tobacco) were carried out for the first time in Belgium.
1987 - the first field to test GMO tobacco and tomatoes in the USA.
1992 - Ministry Agriculture The US allows Calgene's Favr Savr tomato to be used commercially.
1992 - The US FDA declares that GMOs are not dangerous and does not require special regulations or changes in legislation.
1994 - the first GMO is approved for use in the EU (tobacco).
2000 - in Canada at the Convention on biological diversity 130 countries have approved the International Biosafety Protocol. This protocol provides for the labeling of foods containing GMOs... but it must be ratified by 50 countries before it can take effect, and it still contains many weaknesses and loopholes. 50 countries ratified only in 2003, although 194 countries were present at the signing.
1997-2002 - Monsanto divests itself of most of its chemical companies and focuses exclusively on agricultural biotechnology development.

Since 2002, Monsanto's influence on food has grown even darker. First, they started simply buying up every grain company they could. Those who did not want to sell were convinced that they were better off playing golf or were generally deprived of the right to manage their business. Once the foundation was in place, they decided to work directly with farmers. Monsanto has pioneered a biotech business model that allows patents to be used as a kind of biopiracy, something we haven't seen since Blackbeard. Only this piracy is completely legal. Here's how it works. Farmers can only buy and use seeds from Monsanto. They are prohibited, under penalty of law, from growing any plants or harvesting crops grown from non-GMO seeds!

Monsanto is using one nasty tactic against farmers who don't play by its rules. Almost all of their fields are surrounded by the fields of other farmers who are “friends” with Monsanto and representatives of the company, along with the police, enter the land of the offenders, and then magically present evidence that the farmer is using Monsanto products, violating their patent rights. If you've ever been on a farmland, you know what it's like... Mother Nature doesn't build fences, so seeds can naturally end up in other people's fields, which helps Monsanto accuse farmers of infringing their patent. It doesn’t matter to them how the “illegal seeds” got onto the ground and what made them germinate. Have you ever heard of blind justice? And this can be called a mutation of the blind justice used by Monsanto as a bludgeon for farmers to agree to all their rules or go bankrupt.

Since their advanced product Agent Orange , which was used during the Vietnam War as a defoliant, Monsanto is increasingly associated with death and mortification. Many millions of both Vietnamese and American military personnel were exposed to Agent Orange, and the effects of this chemical can still be seen today. Agent Orange is basically a 50/50 mixture chemical substances 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. The well-known carcinogen dioxin has one nasty habit - hiding in the inactive fat layer of infected people; if you allow a weight loss of 10 percent or more, deadly chemicals are released into the blood, which become active.

I would like to talk a little about the activities of the Monsanto Corporation in the Russian Federation. For those who don’t know what Monsanto is, I recommend watching the film “The World According to Monsanto.”
Briefly:
"Monsanto Company is a transnational company, a world leader in plant biotechnology. Its main products are genetically modified seeds of corn, soybeans, cotton, as well as the world's most widely used herbicide, Roundup." - Wikipedia. They also produce bovine growth hormone and other delights of genetic engineering. Almost a monopolist in the seed market in the USA and Europe.

I tried to collect as much information as possible about the activities of this company in our country.

For some reason, the official website of the representative office in Russia does not work, and on the international website there is practically nothing said about Russia. All the criticism I have seen is based on foreign studies. However, I was surprised to learn that the company has been present on our market since 1956.
1956 - supply of specialized chemicals for the tire industry to the USSR
1980 - registration of the herbicide ROUNDAP
1983 - registration of the herbicide AVADEX
1987 - a delegation of the USSR State Agricultural Industry visited the Monsanto scientific center (St. Louis). As the Vremya program reported (October 10, 1987), “...at present, cooperation programs between Monsanto and the State Agricultural Industry of the Soviet Union are being implemented over a total area of ​​30 thousand hectares in 13 different places in 5 Soviet republics.” That same year, Monsanto tested GMO plants in the field for the first time.
1989 - registration of the herbicide HARNES
1993 - education legal entity Monsanto company in Russia
1998 - acquisition of seed companies Dekalb, PBI, Asgrow and the seed division of Cargill.
I also learned from official information that the company is actively not only distributing, but also testing new crops, for example, in 2007, “hybrids” of sunflower and corn were tested.
For several years now, scientists have been trying to introduce transgenic potatoes, the technology for which Monsanto donated free of charge to the Bioengineering Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2000. GMO potatoes have been approved for human consumption by the Institute of Nutrition and have received a certificate of state registration. However, permission to grow it has not yet been obtained. The question immediately arises:
Monsanto is quite aggressive in protecting its copyrights, for example, they are currently patenting New Product, which will “revolutionize” the pig farming market. They always firmly defend their interests. And here they transfer technology for free for the most massively grown product by the people!? It's obviously not easy. Perhaps this was an exchange for the removal of bureaucratic barriers to promoting the company in Russia. It is also curious that in that very year 2000, scientists from the Research Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences gave a positive conclusion on the Elizaveta+ potato variety, while abroad this variety was rejected due to unsuccessful tests on animals. Hiding internal research results is also one of Monsanto’s tricks.

In almost every region of Russia where at least something is grown, there is a representative office of this company. How many fields with pure crops have been contaminated by GMO crops as a result of natural crossing.

Today, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation has officially allowed the consumption of 8 varieties of GM products: two varieties of potatoes and soybeans, three of corn and one of sugar beets. By the way, GM plants are not officially cultivated in Russia, but no one gives guarantees - no one simply knows what kind of seeds are contained in a bag sent from the USA or Canada.

Lobbyists for GM crops, like Academician Scriabin, focusing on the fact that almost half of the potato harvest (Russia ranks second in the world in terms of its consumption) is lost due to pests, are in every possible way accelerating the official recognition of GM crops in our country. And it must be stated that they are succeeding - the Center for Biotechnology, led by Scriabin and openly financed by Monsanto, is conducting a skillful and competent PR campaign and, it should be noted, far from being fruitless - in March 2002, according to sociologists, 43% of Russians did not see There is nothing wrong with growing transgenic plants. For example, in EU countries this figure is only 7 percent! These are the miracles that competent PR and massive investments can create...

The situation with the Ekaterina+ potato is not the only precedent for the Research Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Thus, in 2007, scientists from the University of Rouen (Mont-Saint-Aignan) conducted an independent verification of Monsanto’s data on the transgenic corn it sells, approved in the Russian Federation. The study examined the effects of GM corn MON 863 on experimental animals. This GM crop contains the gene from the earth bacterium Cry3Bb1, which encodes the production of a toxin that repels diabrotics (insect pest). The researchers published their data in the March issue of the peer-reviewed scientific journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. The product, approved for human consumption in the European Union and Russia, turned out to be toxic to the liver and kidneys.

At a meeting of the International Agribusiness Club in Moscow, Gennady Onishchenko said that he considers genetically modified products to be a benefit for Russia. The chief sanitary doctor of our country believes that the state is not able to provide all citizens with organic food.
“Yes, this is a blessing, because we can simulate the properties of a particular product in a very short period of time,” Onishchenko said, the Russian News Service reports. However, the head of Rospotrebnadzor still did not rule out that genetically modified products are fraught with danger. In this regard, he emphasized the need to ensure control over their production. As Onishchenko recalled, the Russian Federation imports 40% of meat, including meat from GMO-fed animals. Well, GM soy is used everywhere - from sausages to sweets. In this sense, Russia has long been in the zone of “genetically modified defeat.”

Here is what Monsanto itself says about its plans in our country:
“For 2011, Monsanto offers commercial supplies of 13 corn hybrids with FAO from 200 to 410. Corn is supplied in paper bags of 50 thousand seeds, treated with Maxim XL (a fungicidal preparation of contact-systemic action. Designed to protect corn from diseases , caused by fungi from the classes Ascomycetes, Basidiomycetes, Oomycetes and imperfect fungi, which are transmitted with seeds and through the soil, without having a negative effect on beneficial microorganisms). In the last two years, we have significantly strengthened the mid-early group of hybrids by including 5 new hybrids in the State Register , three of which - DKS 2960, DKS 3472 and DKS 3476 - are suitable for the production of cereals. The line of mid-season FAO has also been replenished with new products; in 2010, two hybrids were registered: DKS 3871 (300) and DKS 4964 (390). I would like to add that all supplied hybrids are hybrids of traditional selection.
As for corn, it is impossible to breed for any one trait. From an agronomic point of view, it is very important in production that hybrids have a complex of such characteristics. DEKALB hybrids are characterized by high yield potential, resistance to lodging, drought resistance, rapid moisture release, and disease tolerance. Based on the results of tests around the world, and this is over 40 thousand experiments, DEKALB corn hybrids are superior to their nearest competitor in moisture transfer by 1.5%, and in final yield - by 4 c/ha.
Corn is the main crop for Monsanto, but not the only one. Thus, in 2010, a hybrid of winter rapeseed brand “DEKALB” was included in the State Register? - DK Secur, packaged in paper bags of 1.5 ml of seeds, treated with Cruiser Rapeseed. This is the first hybrid of winter rapeseed on the Russian market with low biomass. Due to the fact that the hybrid is a semi-dwarf type, it has a number of advantages over traditional hybrids. One of the main features is high winter hardiness. By the way, we can add that DK Secur is the standard of winter hardiness in Europe. Valuable traits such as powerful branching, yield potential, oil content above 42%, low erucic acid content add arguments to growing DK Secur on your farm.” So, Monsanto says it doesn't supply us with genetically modified crops, but that's all official.

About the situation with this company in Ukraine at the moment (December 2010):

In Ukraine, the registration process of GM plants is intensifying. This was stated by Alexey Stetsenko, sales manager for the western region of Monsanto Ukraine LLC, speaking on December 3 at international conference"AgroResources-2010" in Kyiv.
According to him, Monsanto has now filed for registration of the use of GM soybeans for feed and food. Registration for other crops is still delayed, since Ukrainian legislation allows the use of only GM soybeans for food and feed. Ukraine is harmonizing its legislation with the EU, where it is allowed to use GM products with special markings indicating the presence of GMOs. The expert believes that in Ukraine the process of harmonization of legislation will last approximately 3-5 years. According to him, biotechnologies (GMOs) are currently intensively developing in the world. About 160 million hectares in the world are occupied by GM crops.

In Ukraine, a study was conducted on Nutrilon Soya infant formula, intended for infants who do not digest milk protein. According to the results of the analysis in baby food discovered genetically modified soybeans, the presence of which the manufacturer, Nestle, “forgot” to indicate. Despite the unprecedented nature, this fact did not receive any publicity and did not cause any consequences. The results of the control purchase of products in Kyiv supermarkets are shocking: out of 42 samples of boiled and smoked sausages, frankfurters, ham, and dumplings examined, 18 products contained GMO content that far exceeded the maximum permissible norm in Europe of 0.9%. And not by a couple of percent, the figures were much higher than 5% - it is quite likely that they could have reached 40-50%, but the purchased tests were simply not designed for such numbers.

There is a lot of critical information on GMOs in general in our country on the Internet.

On the exchange

Story

Monsanto was founded by John Francis Quiney in 1901, a 30-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry. Using own funds How start-up capital, he started by producing saccharin and named the company after his wife's maiden name (Monsanto).

Starting with the successful sales of Coca-Cola saccharin, Queenie quickly mastered the production of other ingredients she needed, such as caffeine and vanillin, and through a short time became its main supplier. This was followed by expansion into pharmaceuticals (aspirin and salicylic acid) and rubber.

In 1928, management of the company passed to the son of the founder, Edgar Monsanto Quini.

In the 1940s, Monsanto became a leading manufacturer of plastics (including polystyrene) and synthetic fibers. Since then, it has always been among the top ten leading chemical companies in the United States.

The company's other products included the sweetener aspartame (under the trade name NutraSweet), bovine somatotropin (BST), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Polychlorinated biphenyl, PCB) and the infamous "Agent Orange" (containing the herbicide 2,4,5-T with an admixture of dioxins).

During the 1960s, Monsanto was the leading manufacturer of Agent Orange, which was used to defoliate vegetation during the Vietnam War. For this, the company had to pay compensation to Vietnam War veterans in 1984. According to the Vietnam Dioxin Victims Society, of the three million Vietnamese exposed to dioxin poisoning, by 2008, about a million people under the age of 18 had become hereditarily disabled. The Vietnamese were denied compensation.

In 1954, together with the German chemical giant Bayer, it established the production of polyurethanes in the USA.

In 1982, a group of Monsanto researchers (Robb Fraley, Robert Horsch, Ernest Jaworski, Stephen Rogers) carried out genetic transformation of plants for the first time in history, for which they received the US National Medal of Technology in 1998.

In 1987, Monsanto conducted the first field trials of genetically modified plants.

In the fall of 1987, a delegation from the USSR State Agricultural Industry visited the Monsanto Research Center (St. Louis, Missouri). As the Time Program reported (October 10, 1987), “...at present, cooperation programs between the Monsanto company and the State Agricultural Industry of the Soviet Union are being implemented over a total area of ​​30 thousand hectares in 13 different places in 5 Soviet republics.”

In 1996, for the first time in the world, it entered the market with seeds of genetically modified major agricultural crops - soybeans and cotton.

Between 1996 and 2002, through a series of acquisitions of smaller biotech (Agracetus, Calgene) and seed companies (Asgrow, Dekalb), as well as a spin-off of the chemicals business (Solutia). )) Monsanto has transformed itself from a chemical industry giant into a pioneer in the emerging agricultural biotechnology industry.

In June 2007, Monsanto acquired Delta and Pine Land, a leading US cotton seed company.

2001 - Former Monsanto employee William S. Knowles is awarded the Nobel Prize for his research in asymmetric catalysis at Monsanto from the 1960s until his retirement in 1986.

Genetic engineering technologies

Transformation using agrobacteria. At the end of the 20th century, scientists came to understand that the genomes of living organisms are quite variable, and the process of exchanging genetic information in evolution is the rule rather than the exception. A breakthrough in plant genetic engineering occurred in 1977, when it was discovered that soil bacteria from the class Agrobacterium (English) are able to transfer their DNA into the genomes of many plants. Bacteria have adapted to do this in order to reprogram the genome of plant cells to produce nutrients available only to these bacteria. As the mechanism of DNA transfer became increasingly understood in the early 1980s, scientists learned to modify it, so that instead of genes “beneficial to bacteria,” they began to transfer genes “useful to people,” which are stably inherited according to the laws of classical genetics. This method is called agrobacterial transformation and is today the most common method of plant transformation.

Gene gun. In 1988, another method was proposed that was suitable for genetic transformation of most organisms, including plants. It is based on the mechanical transfer of DNA sorbed on microparticles of a solid substance (originally gold), which are accelerated to high speeds using a gene gun (English) and shot into the tissues of the transformed organism. When foreign DNA enters cells, it is randomly inserted into chromosomes and is also inherited according to the laws of classical genetics. This method is convenient for transforming plants that are difficult to undergo agrobacterial transformation. For example, RR soybeans, which dominate the GM crop market today, were obtained by this method at Agracetus in 1988, when agrobacterial transformation of this crop was still poorly established.

Herbicide resistance. Roundup Ready (RR) plants in most cases contain a complete copy of the enolpyruvyl shikimate phosphate synthetase (EPSPS or EPSP synthase) gene from the soil bacterium Agrobacterium sp. strain CP4, but sometimes mutant copies from other plants. RR rapeseed (canola) contains the gene for glyphosate oxidase, which destroys the active principle of the herbicide Roundup.

Insect resistance. The second direction of modification is to obtain crops that are resistant to the negative effects of harmful insects. Today, such stability is achieved in the only way - by introducing genes from another soil bacterium. Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt). Such plants are often named by the first letters of the Latin name of this bacterium (Bt-corn, Bt-cotton). The Bt genes used encode proteins that are toxic to insect pests but completely harmless to mammals and humans.

Main Products

1973 - Roundup herbicide. The patent on Roundup expired in 2000, and since then Monsanto's share of global glyphosate production has been steadily falling.

2005 - Roundup Ready Flex, 2nd generation of herbicide-resistant cotton, expanding the window of application of Roundup.

In Russia, scientists have been trying to introduce transgenic potatoes, resistant to the Colorado potato beetle, the technology for which Monsanto donated to the Bioengineering Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2000. GM potatoes have been approved for human consumption by the Institute of Nutrition and have received a certificate of state registration. However, permission to grow it has not yet been obtained.

Controversy and criticism

Competition

Monsanto is known for protecting its modifications of living organisms through patents.

In 1999, the company announced its decision not to use “termination” technologies that prevent the germination of seeds harvested from its GM seeds. Although Monsanto claimed that it had no intention of using these technologies in India, there have been cases of farmers attacking fields where Monsanto was allegedly testing its products.

Safety

Monsanto is a constant target of criticism from opponents of genetically modified organisms. The issue of the safety of transgenic plants is the subject of extensive discussion with the participation of all sorts of parties, including scientists, government commissions and non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace. All transgenic plant varieties are thoroughly tested for safety for humans and the environment before entering the market. This leads to the fact that the cost of developing and bringing to market a new transgenic plant product is extremely high (from $50 to $200 million). In this regard, transgenic plants are much more studied than, for example, varieties obtained by conventional breeding methods. To date, there is not a single scientifically proven case of the negative impact of transgenic plants on human health, despite the more than 10-year history of their use in the USA and other developed countries. However, the main argument of opponents of GM organisms is that not enough time has passed to make definitive conclusions about their safety, and it is possible that negative consequences will affect future generations.

Notes

see also

Links

• S. O. Melik-Sarkisov. Biotechnology in the US agricultural sector: Economics of development. Chapter 5
• Scriabin K.

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