By Abdallah el-Kurebe with Agency reports
Monsanto, one of the world’s leading seed companies has debunked a claim by Testbiotech, a social-media outfit run by a former member of the Greenpeace, which alleges that Monsanto has warned on negative effects of growing its soybean variety, INTACTA.
In a press release, Testbiotech claims that Monsanto, in collaboration with Brazilian scientists had discovered that certain pests would “develop faster and live longer” if their larvae snacked on the new INTACTA soybeans, which are specifically developed to resist said pests.
In the release, Testbiotech had boldly written: “MONSANTO WARNING ON NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF GROWING ITS GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SOYBEAN INTACTA,” in order to give greater scare effect, resulting in some websites lifting and publishing same without confirmation.
Describing the websites as “activists lie hype sites,” Monsanto debunked the allegations as farce and misleading.
“The problem with this release, as with so much of what Testbiotech spouts out, is that it isn’t true. There is no evidence that certain pests develop faster or live longer if they feed off INTACTA soybean plants,” Monsanto affirmed.
The seed giant further stressed that the results noted by the authors of the release were likely caused by differences in the background genetics of the conventional and INTACTA varieties of soybean they used for their study.
“In fact, all available evidence suggests just the opposite. The results noted by the authors are most likely caused by differences in the background genetics of the conventional and INTACTA varieties of soybean they used for their study,” Monsanto explained.
The company however said that its scientists had reviewed a previous version of the paper that Testbiotech cited but quickly added, “that paper did not contain the statement about INTACTA, which they claim Monsanto employees co-authored.”
