1.Monsanto: MRTPC orders another probe
2.Business: Beginning of the end for rbST
EXTRACTS: Already facing the charge of selling Bt cotton seeds at exorbitant prices, US biotech major Mansanto now appears to be heading toward more trouble with MRTPC [India's Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission] ordering a fresh probe into the accounts of its wholly owned Indian arm -- Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech Ltd. (item 1)
The spike in demand for rbST-free milk has been dramatic... Before this summer, demand for rbST-free milk amounted to about 15 percent of the total volume of DMS milk... By next summer, Wickham anticipates demand could jump to "the higher side of 50 percent." (item 2)
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1.Monsanto: MRTPC orders another probe
The Times of India, 8 October 2006
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2117473.cms
NEW DELHI: Already facing the charge of selling Bt cotton seeds at exorbitant prices, US biotech major Mansanto now appears to be heading toward more trouble with MRTPC ordering a fresh probe into the accounts of its wholly owned Indian arm -- Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech Ltd.
Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission has asked its investigative arm Director General of Investigation and Registration to look into MMBL's cost and audit report last fiscal.
The Commission has told DGIR to complete its inquiry and submit preliminary investigation report (PIR) within four weeks, sources said.
MRTPC's latest probe order came as a follow-up action of the Ministry of Company Affairs approaching the Commission on manipulation of the financial accounts in MMBL.
Sources at the Ministry of Company Affairs confirmed that they have been receiving complaints related to MMBL accounts, which alleged that the US based parent company was receiving more funds than its entitlements.
When contacted MMBL spokesperson said they are going through the MRTPC order and would explain their stand at an appropriate time and forum.
It was alleged that MMBL was hiding the actual amount, which it is giving to its parent company as technology fee and other charges, sources said.
Interestingly, the fresh probe relating to accounting comes at a time when the Commission has started hearing on a petition filed by the US based company seeking deletion of its name from the case related to over pricing of Bt cotton seeds.
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2.Business: Beginning of the end for rbST
By Leslie Wright Free Press Staff Writer Burlington Free Press, October 8 2006 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061008/BUSINESS/610080304/1003&theme=
For her family, Judi Schwartz buys milk that does not contain artificial growth hormone, or [Monsanto's genetcially engineered] rbST. The Burlington mother of two prefers to buy organic. When she can't, she seeks hormone-free brands.
She's heard about potential negative effects of rbST. While she hasn't seen scientific evidence to prove it, she figures, why take the risk.
"I can't imagine how it would help my girls' bodies," Schwartz said.
Shoppers like Schwartz are driving major change in the milk industry. Dairy processors throughout the Northeast are converting their plants to accept only rbST-free milk to meet demand. As a result, Vermont's dairy farmers are feeling pressure to stop using rbST, a valuable tool they say makes dairy farms more profitable at a time when they are struggling.
"You've got to remember these are the lowest prices in 25 years and you are going to tell them you are going to take away something that will decrease production and increase costs?" said Doug DiMento, spokesman for Agri-Mark, a Massachusetts dairy cooperative with 350 members in Vermont.
Demand spikes
Major milk processors have been gearing up for a big increase in rbST-free milk production. Last week H.P. Hood, a leader in the New England market, converted a plant in Massachusetts to rbST-free. Now all four of Hood's New England plants are rbST-free.
That includes Booth Brothers in Barre, which has been rbST-free since 1997 when Hood bought the plant, said Lynne Bohan, Hood spokeswoman.
"We are doing this because we know there is an increased demand for this. Our consumers are requesting that we process and sell milk from farmers who pledge not to use artificial growth hormones," Bohan said.
National giant Dean Foods, owner of the Garelick Farms brand, among others, converted a New Jersey plant in June and is implementing rbST-free milk processing at a plant in Franklin, Mass. A Dean plant in Maine has been rbST-free for several years, said Marguerite Copel, spokeswoman for the company.
The spike in demand for rbST-free milk has been dramatic, said Greg Wickham, general manager with Dairy Marketing Services, which transports and markets milk for 8,000 dairy farms in the Northeast. This includes Dairylea and Dairy Farmers of America cooperatives. St. Albans Cooperative Creamery Inc. is also a partner. DMS represents about 740 dairy farms in the state.
Wickham estimated that in the Northeast about 60 percent of the milk that DMS markets was produced with rbST, mostly from larger operations.
Before this summer, demand for rbST-free milk amounted to about 15 percent of the total volume of DMS milk sold to fluid processors for drinking milk, Wickham said. By next summer, Wickham anticipates demand could jump to "the higher side of 50 percent."
Monsanto, the company that sells rbST under the brand name Posilac, views the push to process more rbST-free milk as a regional marketing strategy.
"This is an effort to differentiate their products in the dairy case and potentially charge more for them," said Andrew Burchett, a Monsanto spokesman.
Dean Foods, like Hood, argued that the company is simply meeting a need in the marketplace.
"Even though Posilac is completely safe and FDA has deemed it so, there are still some (people) uncomfortable with artificial growth hormone and that's why we're providing the choice," Copel said.
Weighing change
Among dairy farmers using Posilac, dropping the synthetic growth hormone is not a decision made lightly. Posilac has been on the market for 12 years now, and many farmers have made it a regular part of their dairy operations.
The bottom line is that rbST makes farmers money, and many think they should be compensated for not using it.
"We are going to give up a tool that has no deleterious effect but decreases cost of production," said Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Steve Kerr. "Whatever you think about rbST, it does lower production costs."
Dean Foods does not currently pay extra for rbST-free milk in the Northeast, Copel said. Hood does at its Booth Brothers plant in Barre, but Hood spokeswoman Bohan declined to say how much.
Hood is waiting to hear from dairy cooperatives about a premium for rbST-free milk at its other plants, Bohan said.
How much farmers would lose by dropping rbST is open to debate. Monsanto calculates the loss at 76 cents per hundredweight -- 100 pounds or 11.6 gallons of milk .
Dairy Marketing Services and Agri-Mark are trying to find workable numbers.
"It would certainly take a number that will be significantly higher than 30 or 40 cents per hundredweight to create the size pool of milk we would need," Wickham said, referring to a premium.
Murray Thompson, a dairy farmer with 70 heads of Holstein and Guernsey cows in Colchester, uses Posilac selectively on some cows. For the economics of Posilac to work, milk prices have to be high enough to justify making more milk, he said. Thompson would drop rbST, but he wants to be compensated for doing so.
"I don't have a problem with bST per se. I think it's a fine product, but you do have to watch the market. If people don't want bST we have to listen to the consumer. Co-ops need to sell milk," Thompson said, referring to the artificial growth hormone.
Transportation is another big factor that has to be taken into account, said DiMento, Agri-Mark's spokesman. Adding another product would create a need for a second transportation system and farmers bear the cost of hauling.
"We want a premium because our farmers already have the highest production costs in the country," DiMento said. "We don't want to put our farmers in a position that they are non-competitive."
Eventually, farmers may not have a choice, Kerr said. Farmers, he said, may be seeing "the early stages of what may be the end of rbST, at least in the Northeast, because if it starts to ripple, it will ripple."
Contact Leslie Wright at 802-660-1841 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
What is rbST?
Artificial growth hormone, approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration in 1993, has been available to dairy farmers since 1994 when Monsanto introduced Posilac. Monsanto is the only maker of the patented synthetic hormone. About one-third of the 9 million cows in herds today are treated with Posilac, according to Monsanto.
The hormone simulates a naturally-occurring hormone -- bovine somatotropin -- in cows and works by gearing the animal metabolically to make more milk, said Julie Smith, Extension dairy specialist at the University of Vermont.
Posilac is injected in cows every two weeks. Not all cows in a herd would get the injections at once because of normal lactation cycles, Smith said. The treatment typically yields 8 to 10 pounds of milk in a cow, or about one gallon per cow per day, Smith said.
There is no simple way to test for rbST in milk, Smith said.
The state requires farmers to sign an affidavit swearing they are not using rbST and must notify milk handlers 90 days before they stop using rbST and must give 90 days' notice before they start up again, said Steve Kerr, secretary of the Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets. -- Leslie Wright