The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

296 the world according to monsantoCry1Ac gene) so that Mahyco technicians could crossbreed it with local hybridvarieties. In April 1998, Monsanto announced that it had acquired a 26percent share in Mahyco and that it had set up a 50-50 joint venture with itsIndian partner, Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (MMB), for the purpose of marketingfuture transgenic cotton seeds. At the same time, the Indian governmentauthorized the company to conduct the first field trials of Bt cotton.“This decision was made outside any legal framework,” said VandanaShiva, whom I met in her offices at the Research Foundation for Science,Technology and Ecology in New Delhi in December 2006. The holder of aPh.D. in physics, this internationally known figure in the antiglobalizationmovement received the “alternative Nobel Prize” in 1993 for her service toecology and her efforts against the control of Indian agriculture by multinationalagrichemical corporations. “In 1999,” she told me, “my organizationfiled an appeal with the Supreme Court denouncing the illegality of the trialsconducted by Mahyco Monsanto. In July 2000, although our petitionhad had not yet been considered, the trials were authorized on a larger scale,on forty sites spread over six states, but the results were never communicated,because we were told they were confidential. The Genetic EngineeringApproval Committee had asked that tests be done on the food safety ofBt cotton seeds, used as fodder for cows and buffaloes, which thus might affectthe quality of milk, as well as on cottonseed oil which is used for humanconsumption, but that was never done. In a few years, Monsanto had carriedoff a hijacking of Indian cotton with the complicity of government authorities,who opened the door to GMOs by sweeping away the principle ofprecaution that India had always upheld.”“How was that possible?” I asked.“Well, Monsanto did considerable lobbying. For example, in January2001, an American delegation of judges and scientists very opportunely metChief Justice A.S. Anand of the Supreme Court and vaunted the benefitsof biotechnology at the very time the court was supposed to issue a decisionon our appeal. The delegation, led by the Einstein Institute for Science,Health, and the Courts, offered to set up workshops to train judges onGMO questions. 5 Monsanto also organized several trips to its St. Louisheadquarters for Indian journalists, scientists, and judges. The press wasalso extensively used to propagate the good news. It’s appalling to see howmany personalities are capable of stubbornly defending biotechnology whenthey obviously know nothing about it.”