12/16/99
MONSANTO: GM protesters file lawsuit
By Patti Waldmeir in Washington
Monsanto, the US biotech group, is facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit over claims that it introduced potentially dangerous genetically modified seeds to world markets without adequate testing.
The lawsuit, although filed on Tuesday in US federal court, targets worldwide operations of Monsanto, making it the first global legal challenge to the spread of GM crops.
The suit, which says the company formed a worldwide cartel to monopolise the market for the seeds, aims to capitalise on the mounting international backlash against such crops and anxiety over social and economic changes from globalisation.
Monsanto on Tuesday dismissed the suit as groundless, and part of a political campaign against genetically modified foods. "Efforts to block technology should not be undertaken in the courts but in the regulatory context," the company said, stressing it had met all US and overseas regulatory requirements for testing its products.
Monsanto is the target defendant in the suit, which also names other agricultural biotech companies, including DuPont, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Dow Chemical, Novartis and AstraZeneca, as "co-conspirators".
The plaintiffs, who seek class action status, are individual farmers from the US and France, named as representatives of farmers worldwide. The suit was drawn up by the leading US class action firm Cohen Milstein Hausfeld & Toll on behalf of a consortium of other firms, who have taken the case on a no-win, no-fee basis.
It makes a combination of public health and antitrust claims.
On the public health front, Monsanto is accused of violating international human rights by rushing genetically modified seeds to market "before sufficient testing of the environmental and human health effects ... have proven the seeds and crops grown therefrom to be safe".
The suit does not allege the seeds have caused public harm, merely that they might do so.
The antitrust claim is that Monsanto created a cartel to monopolise genetically modified corn and soyabean seed markets, to restrain trade in those markets and fix prices.
The suit claims an unspecified amount in damages on behalf of farmers worldwide, seeking action under, among other things, little-known United Nations guidelines set up in 1980 to control "restrictive business practices".
Legal experts said the case was based on novel legal theories in US and international law, and compared it with recent "social issue" litigation aimed at the tobacco and gun industries, where the chief goal is to force a settlement.
The driving force behind the suit, US biotech activist Jeremy Rifkin, says the goal is to change worldwide regulatory policy.