Dear friends and colleagues

The African Centre for Biosafety offers this briefing paper to you, titled "Monsanto's Seed of Hope Campaign in South Africa".

In the briefing, we offer information about Monsanto's Seed of Hope Campaign in the Eastern Cape-the poorest of South Africa's nine provinces, where Monsanto's project was subsidised with huge chunks of public funds, which enabled it to penetrate extremely impoverished communities - first by introducing a Green Revolution type package as an important precursor to the introduction of its GM maize seeds, ably assisted by Bayer Cropscience, amongst other players.

During September 2006, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation announced a donation of $150 million to contribute to a "Second Green Revolution" in Africa to alleviate poverty and hunger. The money will be used, amongst other things, to promote technology packages for small-scale farmers containing fertilizer and new seeds. The aims of this new Green Revolution for Africa is very similar to Monsanto’s Seeds of hope campaign and is likely to benefit the seed and fertilizer industries, while having negligible impacts on total food production and further marginalizing African rural areas.

The South African government has a close and intimiate relationship with Monsanto and other mulitnational corporations. However, we continue to struggle against injustice in South Africa. In April, South African NGO, Biowatch SA's appeal against Monsanto will be heard when Biowatch will try to overturn a court ruling that it must pay Monsanto's legal costs - "punishment because it won a legal case forcing the South African government to grant them access to information about GMO decision making in SA. We urge you to support our work in SA- to stop the onslaught of GMOs, the march of the Green Revolution in Africa, and the Biowatch court case.

Regards
Mariam Mayet
African Centre for Biosafety
www.biosafetyafrica.net

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MONSANTO'S "SEED OF HOPE CAMPAIGN" IN SOUTH AFRICA
A BRIEFING DOCUMENT
BY AFRICAN CENTRE FOR BIOSAFETY JANUARY 2007 www.biosafetyafrica.net

INTRODUCTION

Monsanto has conceived of an ingenious smallholders' programme known as the 'Seeds of Hope Campaign', which targets the 'bottom of the pyramid'-very low-income consumers who have substantial purchasing power as a group.1 Closed markets in Europe, world wide consumer rejection, heated international debates about the risks of GMOs, and the intransigence of Africa, sans, South Africa, to commercially accept GMOs, hugely threatened Monsanto's market share in the agricultural biotechnology industry. Thus, during the 1990s, Monsanto introduced 'Combi-Packs'- boxes of materials designed specifically for smallholder farmers, having access to anything from 1/4-5 hectares of land. The boxes contain a package of hybrid maize seed, some fertilizer, some herbicide, and pictogram instructions for illiterate users.2

The 'Seeds of Hope' campaign in South Africa was linked to a wider initiative implemented by Monsanto in 13 different countries, which targeted poor smallholder farmers. This programme not only secured a new market, but also portrayed Monsanto as being committed to sustainable agriculture and food security by providing 'resource poor', 'smallholder' farmers with training, technical assistance and advice on conservation tillage practices and other agricultural methods. To give an idea of the scale of the programme, by the end of 2001, Monsanto was reported to be reaching 320,000 smallholder farmers worldwide.3

In this briefing, we offer information about Monsanto's Seed of Hope Campaign in the Eastern Cape-the poorest of South Africa's nine provinces, where Monsanto's project was subsidised with huge chunks of public funds, which enabled it to penetrate extremely impoverished communities- first by introducing a Green Revolution type package as an important precursor to the introduction of its GM maize seeds, ably assisted by Bayer Cropscience, amongst other players.

During September 2006, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation announced a donation of $150 million to contribute to a "Second Green Revolution" in Africa to alleviate poverty and hunger. 4 The money will be used, amongst other things, to promote technology packages for small-scale farmers containing fertilizer and new seeds.5 These new initiatives have solid links with Monsanto, as Monsanto's former vice-president for international partnerships, Rob Horsch, has been appointed as Senior Program Officer of the Gates Foundation. Horsch is well known for his close association, with the notorious Kenya GM sweet potato project led by Monsanto and Florence Wambugu, which dismally failed to deliver, but most certainly helped by opening African doors to GM.6 The aims of this new Green Revolution for Africa is very similar to Monsanto's Seeds of hope campaign and is likely to benefit the seed and fertilizer industries, while having negligible impacts on total food production and further marginalizing African rural areas.7

SEEDS OF HOPE CAMPAIGN

Monsanto's Combi Pack claims to increase the yield of maize crops and to be less labour intensive then conventional farming. These 'productivity gains' are said to give farmers extra time and, in some cases, extra income for other entrepreneurial activities.8

Another important component of the Seed of Hope Campaign is the promotion of 'no or low till farming.' This is a minimally invasive conservation farming technique, in that farmers do not plow or till the land. Instead, they cut a small furrow for the seeds.9 This farming practice encompasses minimal soil disturbance, maintenance of a permanent vegetative soil cover, direct sowing, and sound crop rotation.10 It is particularly beneficial for smallholder farmers, because there is no need to use a tractor, a major cost saving.11 However, using this technique promotes the use of herbicides, since weeds are not removed by tilling the land, and therefore, Monsanto is a fervent supporter of this technique. However, several studies have indicated that Monsanto's Roundup herbicide is a threat to human health; it is not only a hormone-disruptor, but is also associated with birth defects in humans.12

To date, Monsanto has been directly involved in smallholder projects in varies