Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) announced today that at its fourth annual meeting, shareowners elected three members of its board of directors to new terms.

Frank V. AtLee, Gwendolyn S. King and Sharon R. Long, Ph.D., were elected to serve until the company's 2007 meeting.

Shareowners also ratified the Board's Audit and Finance Committee's appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's principal independent auditor, and approved amendments to the Monsanto Long-Term Incentive Plan.

Shareowners voted down two shareowner proposals - one requested a report on genetically engineered seed be compiled and communicated to shareowners, and the second requested a report regarding pesticides be provided to shareowners.

Shareowners approved an additional shareowner proposal requesting that any adoption, maintenance or extension of a poison pill for the company be submitted for a shareowner vote. Monsanto does not have a poison pill program and no intention to adopt such a plan at this point, so the approved proposal has no immediate effect of the company's policies. However, Hugh Grant, Monsanto's chairman, president and chief executive officer, committed to sharing the results of the vote with the full Board of Directors in the event the Board considered any future shareowner rights plans.

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

Monsanto defends biotech wheat plans, eyes growth

By Carey Gillam
Reuters via Yahoo! News

Monsanto Co. Chairman Hugh Grant on Thursday defended his company's plans to roll out the world's first genetically modified wheat from critics who said they fear it could endanger global food and environmental safety.

Grant, who was peppered with questions about the company's biotech crops during Monsanto's annual meeting at its headquarters, also offered an optimistic outlook for the company's future success in marketing biotech corn, soybeans, wheat and other crops.

The company's seeds businesses will deliver "remarkable opportunities to farmers around the world," Grant told shareholders.

He reiterated the company's expectations for revenue gains of about 15 percent from its biotech crops businesses, offsetting a similar decline in its herbicide revenues, which are under intense competitive pressure.

Many questions raised at Thursday's meeting surrounded the company's efforts to launch its "Roundup Ready" wheat, which has been genetically altered to resist Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, helping farmers kill weeds easier.

A number of foreign wheat buyers have said they won't buy U.S. wheat if Roundup Ready wheat is planted in this country, and Monsanto has pledged not to commercialize in the United States until Canada and Japan also approve the crop.

Many wheat industry players also want Monsanto to wait until the European Union offers its approval. But Grant said Thursday that was not something Monsanto was prepared to do.

"That's like getting on a highway that hasn't moved in five years," he said, citing the EU's ban on approvals for biotech products that has been in place since 1998.

Grant acknowledged industry concerns but said Monsanto was not likely to back away from its biotech wheat.

"The Roundup Ready wheat piece is provoking a healthy debate," Grant said. "But... these things take time. It's foolish to think otherwise."

At the meeting, Susan Jordan, coordinator of the Midwest Coalition for Responsible Investment, presented a proposal asking Monsanto to detail the health risks and environmental impacts of biotech seeds, particularly biotech wheat.

She said research supporting biotech seeds has not been independent but has been largely funded by biotech companies, and she said there was evidence of regulatory "gaps" that precluded adequate government evaluation of biotech crops.

"Food is not merely another market commodity. It is essential to life," Jordan said. "Companies using this technology, including Monsanto, need to be responsible, accountable and socially just.

Monsanto opposed the proposal to provide such a report and shareholders' voted against it.

Shareholders also defeated a proposal seeking a report on Monsanto's international sales of pesticides that are banned in the United States.

A third shareholders' proposal was successfully passed, requiring that the board seek shareholder approval before implementing any plan that could prevent a takeover, commonly referred to as a "poison pill" provision.