Genetically Engineered Menaces

Monsanto has been involved in Indonesia for more than 25 years, beginning in 1987 with the Roundup brand of agricultural herbicide. Our business has since expanded to include DEKALB hybrid corn varieties: DK77, DK979, DK85, DK95, DK888 and DK999, offering farmers with superior yield performance and served to more than 650,000 farmers across Indonesia," the company boasts on its website.

But it had looked suspicious when the highly praised seeds, 40 tons genetically modified Bollgard cotton seed, some 12 years ago arrived for the first time with a Russian Ilyusin transport plane in Makassar under the heavy guard of Indonesian military personnel. Reporters were asked to back off. "People should not worry about the negative impact of the crops," Monsanto's communications manager Tri Soekirman said. "There have been no complaints from the U.S., South Africa, China and Argentina (where genetically modified cotton has been grown)."