St. Louis, Missouri
February 22, 2002

Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) announced today that Sharon R. Long, Ph.D., 50, of Palo Alto, California, and Philip Needleman, Ph.D., 63, of St. Louis, were elected to the Monsanto Company board of directors. Dr. Long is a professor of biological sciences and the dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. Dr. Needleman is senior executive vice president, chief scientific officer and chairman of research and development at Pharmacia Corporation.

Dr. Long has conducted extensive research in the area of symbiosis and nitrogen fixation. This has led  to a greater understanding of crop rotation in agriculture, a traditional alternative to fertilizer. In recognition of her research, Dr. Long has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Association. She received a MacArthur prize fellowship in 1992, and in 1998 was awarded the George Morel prize by INRA, the French government agency concerned with plant biology and agriculture.

Dr. Long also was an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for seven years. She joined the Stanford faculty in 1982 as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 1987, to professor in 1992, and to her current position as dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences in September 2001.

Dr. Needleman has made a number of important contributions in the field of pharmacology, including the discovery of the inflammatory cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). This discovery was critical to the development of a new class of arthritis medicines designed to treat the pain and inflammation of osteoarthritis and adult rheumatoid arthritis. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and is a recipient of the Research Achievement Award of the American Heart Association for distinguished scientific achievement in the field of cardiovascular research. His other honors include the Wellcome Creasy Award in Clinical Pharmacology and the John Jacob Abel Award of the American Pharmacology Society.

Dr. Needleman served as chief scientist at the former Monsanto Company (prior to its merger with Pharmacia & Upjohn in 2000). Prior to joining the former Monsanto Company in 1989, he was a professor and department head of pharmacology at the Washington University School of Medicine.

The company also announced that Hakan Astrom, 54, of Chatham, New Jersey, has stepped down from the Monsanto board. Mr. Astrom is senior vice president, strategy and corporate affairs, of Pharmacia Corporation.

These changes to the Monsanto board bring the number of directors to 10.

Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality.