Independent on Sunday

Monsanto breaks bread with GM protesters. Seeds of protest: despite its attacks on GM crop fields, Greenpeace is linking up with biotechnology companies to find a solution to world hunger.  Geoffrey Lean. November 10, 2002.

Monsanto and Syngenta, the biotechnology giants behind the drive to develop GM foods, last week sat down with their arch-enemies, Greenpeace and organic farmers, to try to clinch a common position on world hunger.

The unprecedented meeting, run by the World Bank in Dublin, could launch the most wide-ranging assessment on tackling starvation. Senior managers from Bayer CropScience and CropLife International attended the meeting, together with ministers and officials from 19 governments, representatives of eight UN agencies, scientists, environmentalists and development groups such as Oxfam.

They will try to agree an eight-month "consultative process" examining the "risks and opportunities" of GM crops, organic agriculture, traditional plant-breeding techniques and biotechnology. If it succeeds, they will launch a full assessment with recommendations for world governments.

The potentially explosive mix has been put together by a British-born scientist, Dr Robert Watson. Earlier this year he was voted out as chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at the prompting of the US administration after it had been lobbied by Exxon.