Monsanto is delivering on promises it made

In cookies and crackers made without trans fats, and soy milk that doesn't feel gritty, Monsanto Co. is consummating a promise made to consumers.

After years in development, the Creve Coeur, Mo., agribusiness giant is delivering the first seeds from a pipeline aimed at making foods healthier, tastier, easier to ship and store, or better for processing. It adds to Monsanto's booming business of improving crops for farmers by boosting yield and reducing the need to apply pesticides and herbicides.

This fall, contract farmers harvested the first commercial crop - 100,000 acres of Vistive soybeans, bred by Monsanto to contain a reduced level of linolenic acid. This change makes the soybean oil more stable, so it doesn't need to be partly hydrogenated for longer shelf life. Partial hydrogenation creates unhealthy trans fats.

The oil will be in some consumer products by Jan. 1, when a new government regulation requires trans fat content to be included on food labels, Monsanto said.

"It will be out in crackers and cookies in a couple of months," said Robb Fraley, Monsanto's chief technical officer.

Coming close on the heels of Vistive are other consumer-benefit products:

-Soybeans bred with higher levels of beta-conglycinin, which will improve taste and texture in products such as soy milk, meat alternatives and energy bars.

-Vegetables bred for a variety of consumer characteristics, such as melons that last longer after cutting, or sweeter corn.

-Soybeans genetically modified to contain Omega-3 fatty acids, which improve heart health and may have other benefits such as reducing swelling in arthritis.

-Later versions of Vistive soybeans, genetically modified for further oil profile improvements - making the oil stable for baking uses; and adding oleic acid, a healthy monounsaturated fat that boosts good HDL cholesterol.

Monsanto will begin marketing these food offerings at the same time it introduces a next generation of beneficial agronomic traits in soybeans, corn, cotton and canola, Fraley said. Monsanto hasn't said how much of its business the food products eventually will comprise, but the company is promising strong overall growth in the foreseeable future.

"We are entering an exponential phase of research and development discovery," Fraley said. "I'm excited because ... this is absolutely an unparalleled pipeline in our history."

All of the products are the result of genetic technology - but only some are genetically modified, a controversial practice that has raised opposition primarily in Europe.

Monsanto scientists analyze the genetic makeup of particular seed varieties and mark genes that are responsible for desirable traits. They cross-breed plants to combine and bring out those traits, informing and speeding up a practice used in agriculture for centuries based on simple observation.

In the case of genetic modification, they are adding traits across plant or bacteria species. The Omega-3 enriched soybeans, for example, likely will contain traits from algae, fungi or other things eaten by fish, which are naturally high in the fatty acid.

In both of these cases, Monsanto has a deep pool from which to draw because it owns a lot of seeds that provide the germplasm or genetic material, Fraley said.

The company was criticized by Wall Street for a string of expensive seed-company acquisitions in the 1990s. But those buys were necessary, Fraley said, because the company needed a business beyond genetically modified crops.

"We started to get a sense that (breeding) was not only going to be really important but that it was going to undergo a big change," Fraley said. "For all practical purposes, breeding today is molecular breeding. ... And all of this is based on the same fundamental technology in being able to characterize and understand genes."

The ability to produce valuable crops that are not genetically modified gives Monsanto an entry into markets, such as much of the European Union, that continue to resist the technology. But in the United States, Brazil, Argentina and other countries, the hybrid seeds will carry biotech traits demanded by growers - most notably, the Roundup Ready trait that allows them to more efficiently use glyphosate weed killer.

More than 80 percent of the soybean crop in the United States, Brazil and Argentina - the top three soybean producers - are Roundup Ready. So, American consumers of most processed foods containing soybean oil already are eating a genetically modified ingredient - though 58 percent do not realize it, according to a study released in November by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, a Washington-based nonprofit that works to stimulate debate.

Half of Americans in the survey said they oppose genetically modified foods. But, in a related string of questions, respondents who opposed genetically modifying or cloning animals in general were more accepting of that technology if it reduced the transmission of potentially deadly diseases such as avian flu and mad-cow disease.

"One interpretation of that data is that people are asking, `What will be the benefit to me?' And that would suggest that some of these kinds of products that have direct consumer benefits ... might be expected to meet with greater consumer acceptance," said Michael Fernandez, executive director of the Pew initiative.

Those who strongly oppose the technology are unlikely to be swayed, he said. But that represents less than 20 percent of Pew's poll respondents.

Stephanie Childs, spokeswoman for the Grocery Manufacturers Association (of which Monsanto is a member), said that GMA companies are seeing demand for improved foods.

"Consumers are looking for the best of all worlds. They (want) improved health and taste. And innovations in food science are allowing us to give them ingredients that meet all of their demands," she said.

At Monsanto, Fraley said he has seen a shift in the food-processing industry over the last five years. Where he once had trouble getting companies' attention, now they are calling him. Demand for the first generation of Vistive soybeans is high.

Ventura Foods LLC, a large food service company based in Brea, Calif., is using the new Vistive oil in a zero-trans-fat frying oil product. If the response is good, it will become a principal brand for Ventura - and the company is likely to follow up with the next generation of Vistive products, said Kelly Brintle, senior vice president of corporate strategy and business development.

Ventura supplies industrial operations such as hospitals, universities and nursing homes, as well as smaller food-service providers. But it recently acquired the Marie's brand of salad dressings, which will lead it to the consumer market.

Brintle sees strong demand for healthier foods, driven by the aging and more affluent baby boomer demographic. He believes people not only will accept biotech foods with such benefits, but will pay a premium for them.

"There's a new, higher level of expectations" for so-called functional foods such as calcium-enriched juices and fortified cereals, he said. Monsanto products such as soy foods with added Omega-3 nutrients, and biotech soybean cooking oil that is as healthy as olive oil, are a natural extension of that trend.

"Those types of products are going to become our normal foods-they won't be `functional foods' any longer," Brintle said.

Yet other observers say there's a line that many consumers aren't ready to cross with biotech foods: the division between processed items, with long lists of often unintelligible ingredients, and fresh produce.

"People feel differently (about biotech) if you're going to bite into an apple," Fernandez said. The introduction of more identifiable genetically modified products, such as cooking oil or soy foods, "is going to be the toe in the water" that could indicate consumers' ultimate reaction.

In the meantime, Monsanto is content to use its molecular breeding technology when it comes to fruits and vegetables. The company recently acquired Seminis Inc. of Oxnard, Calif., and became one of the world's largest providers of produce seeds.

It is just beginning to comb Seminis' germplasm for valuable traits, and already has identified genes that could give tomatoes resistance to nematodes, a common pest. In the first four weeks after the acquisition, Monsanto found 1,000 markers to help with sweet corn breeding. It also is studying peppers and melons.

"These are the types of examples that you will see repeated in hundreds of thousands of (cases) as molecular breeding gets fully applied in the vegetable world," Fraley told financial analysts during a recent conference that was Webcast to the public.

Monsanto is enthusiastic about providing consumer benefits, Fraley said. But that will go hand in hand with continuing to develop traits that are useful for farmers - otherwise, no one will grow the crops.

"The key is, you can't go overboard one way or the other," he said. "You have to have good yield, good properties for the (animal) feed market, for seed production and the farmer, and for processing. We're not one-dimensional."

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MONSANTO'S CONSUMER FOCUS

Product: Vistive low-linolenic soybeans

Benefit: Allows food processors to avoid adding trans fat to products

Timing: Shipped to processors this fall; will be in consumer goods early next year

Product: High beta-conglycinin soybeans, being marketed by Solae Co.

Benefit: Improved flavor and texture for foods like soy milk, meat alternatives and energy bars

Timing: Will ship to farmers in spring 2007

Product: Hybrid corn, melons, peppers, tomatoes and other produce

Benefit: Improved taste, shelf life, growing and processing characteristics

Timing: Three to seven years away from market

Product: Omega-3 enriched soybeans

Benefit: Shown to improve heart health and may help with arthritis and other conditions

Timing: Seven years away from market

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(c) 2005, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.