The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

11Transgenic Wheat: Monsanto’sLost Battle in North AmericaWe will listen carefully to diverse points of view and engage in thoughtful dialogueto broaden our understanding of issues in order to better address theneeds and concerns of society and each other.—Monsanto, Pledge Report, 2001–2002The story goes that the champagne corks popped in the Greenpeace officein Ottawa on May 10, 2004, and elsewhere among its allies in North America.That day, Monsanto announced in a laconic press release: “The companyis deferring all further efforts to introduce Roundup Ready wheat” after“extensive consultation with customers and leaders in the wheat industry.” 1“Dialogue leads to wheat decision,” it claimed in the 2004 Pledge Report. 2Monsanto Flops with WheatThis evasive language masked an extraordinary struggle that had led to thegreatest defeat ever suffered by Monsanto. For the first time in its history,the company had been forced to give up the marketing of a product forwhich it had invested several hundred million dollars in research and development.When I met him in October 2004, Dennis Olson, an economistwith the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis, who hadbeen a very active participant in the American campaign against RoundupReady wheat, told me: “For us, it was an unexpected victory that confirmed