The Associated Press / August 8, 2000
On one hand, Novartis A.G. says it's eliminating genetically modified ingredients from its foods. On the other, the agriculture and pharmaceutical giant is selling the crops to farmers through its Minnesota-based international seed unit.
Midwestern farmers say it's unfair to sell the biotech seeds and then shun the harvest.
The Switzerland-based company, which announced last year that it would eliminate genetically modified ingredients from its Gerber baby foods, confirmed last week that its food-processing subsidiary has taken steps to avoid biotech ingredients in all of its products. The company also makes Ovaltine, Wasa crackers and several items that are sold as health and diet foods.
Reaction from farmers ranged from resigned patience to outrage.
"They are promoting something that they won't buy back," said Mike Yost, who farms near Murdock, Minn., and serves on the boards of directors of the Minnesota and national soybean growers' associations.
Yost has joined other soybean growers in meetings with Novartis officials in recent months to argue that it's also inconsistent for the company to sell drugs made with genetically engineered ingredients while rejecting foods made with the technology.
"Where they are saving lives every day with biotech pharmaceuticals, nobody has a problem," Yost said.
But Yost and other farmers said they aren't surprised by Novartis' response to conflicting market signals. Consumers, especially in Europe, are boycotting biotech foods despite assurances from government officials that there is no scientific evidence that the products aren't as safe as conventional fare.
Meanwhile, farmers, especially in the United States, overwhelmingly have adopted biotech varieties since the mid-1990s because the technology offers them better control over pests, sometimes with reduced need for synthetic pesticides.
At Novartis Seeds Inc. in Golden Valley, Tony Minnichsoffer acknowledged that the conflict has created "a difficult image problem for us."
As the spokesman for Novartis' largest international seed unit, Minnichsoffer said he has spent half of his time facing criticism and questions from farm groups since Gerber publicly rejected biotech crops last year.
Novartis' food-processing unit answers to a consumer market that takes its cues from Europe, and the seed business answers to farmers, he said.
"We run our business, and they run theirs," he said. "It's not easy for us in the agricultural divisions in North America to deal with that. We don't agree with their decisions, but we can't control what they do. Farmers may see that as a betrayal by the company, but it isn't by the company. It's by a part of the company."
Crop-marketing experts say that farmers' losing Novartis as a customer would have little impact on overall sales of biotech crops. The company's niche in food processing is relatively small compared with giants such as Kellogg Co. and Campbell Soup Co., which have said they will not sort biotech varieties from the rest of the harvest unless there is a scientific reason to do so.:
