Roundup Ready - Monsanto

GLOBAL CHALLENGE #3: FOOD FOR THE HEART
THE ISSUE
According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 12.5 million Americans have
coronary heart disease and more than 500,000 people die each year from it, making it one of the leading
causes of death in the U.S. Better nutrition can help reduce saturated fats, trans fats and dietary cholesterol,
which can all contribute to coronary heart disease.
Trans-fat is an unsaturated fat that occurs naturally in low levels in milk and beef. However,
80 percent of the trans-fat Americans consume is from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. 15
Until around 1990, trans-fat was considered as innocuous as other unsaturated fats (such
as those in olive oil.) Then studies demonstrated that trans-fat, like saturated fat, increases the “bad” (LDL)
cholesterol in our blood. One study, published in 2001 by Nicole M. de Roos, a Ph.D. fellow at Wageningen
University in the Netherlands, found that trans-fats — common in margarine, packaged baked goods and
restaurant fried foods — reduced human blood vessel function by a third and lowered “good” (HDL)
cholesterol by a fifth compared to saturated fats. 16 That provided solid evidence that trans-fat increases
the risk of heart disease and is even more harmful than saturated fat.
These findings have led the United States government to require food manufacturers to
disclose the amount of trans-fat on food labels by 2006. Consumer advocates such as the Center for Science
in the Public Interest (CSPI) have petitioned the government to prohibit the use of partially hydrogenated oil
as a food ingredient and launched a grassroots campaign called TransFreeAmerica (www.transfreeamerica.org). 15
The American Heart Association (AHA) now recommends that consumers use unhydrogenated oil such as
canola or olive oil when possible, and to look for processed foods made with unhydrogenated oil rather than
hydrogenated oil or saturated fat.
THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURE
Today’s consumers have become the key driving
force in determining which foods farmers produce, how those foods
are produced and what level of health and nutrition are achieved
from those foods. The demand for healthier foods has caused food
companies to work with suppliers to source agricultural products with
more favorable nutritional profiles — such as unhydrogenated oils.
With soy oil accounting for 65 percent of edible vegetable oil used
in the U.S. and 33 percent worldwide, the race is on to create oils
that remain stable for long periods of time without requiring hydrogenation.
Some food companies are reformulating their products or
adding trans-fat free versions to their product lines.
MONSANTO’S CONTRIBUTION
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
WILL REQUIRE TRANS-FAT
LABELING BY 2006.
Agriculture companies like Monsanto are helping lead the way toward heart-healthy foods by
developing new vegetable oils that don’t need to be hydrogenated and with higher monounsaturated fat and
lower saturated fat content. The process of hydrogenation reduces the amount of linolenic acid in soy oil and
creates trans-fatty acids. Monsanto researchers are applying conventional breeding and biotechnology techniques
to develop soybeans that will produce oil that doesn’t need to be hydrogenated to be functional in many foods.
{ MONSANTO COMPANY 2004 PLEDGE REPORT: PAGES 14-15 }