St. Louis, Missouri
November 27,  2001

On the one-year anniversary of his announcement of the Monsanto Pledge, Monsanto Company President and Chief Executive Officer Hendrik A. Verfaillie today announced a new Pledge commitment focused on bioenergy.

Monsanto (NYSE: MON) today placed the first U.S. corporate order to General Motors for pick-up trucks that use ethanol-based E85 fuel. This is part of a larger initiative Verfaillie announced focusing new research to enhance the use of bioenergy. Bioenergy is power or fuel that is derived from organic matter.

Returning to the Farm Journal Forum in Washington, D.C., Verfaillie reiterated the commitments made through the Monsanto Pledge announced at the forum in November of 2000. Verfaillie reported significant progress toward the goals of the Pledge and announced the new Pledge-inspired bioenergy initiative.

"One thing we committed to in our Pledge was to listen more," Verfaillie said. "We formed an advisory council of growers - our customers - who told us that we needed to find ways to expand the markets of our customers, specifically identifying the area of bioenergy as a priority."

Central to the newly announced commitment to bioenergy is the formation of a dedicated team within Monsanto that will research ways to use biotechnology and advanced breeding techniques to improve the quantity and quality of bioenergy, including finding ways to improve the economic and environmental benefits of biofuels. The first initiative of this new team is the first-ever order of new General Motors pick-up trucks that run on E85, a renewable fuel made from starch crops such as corn.

Monsanto will initially purchase 50 of General Motors new E85 Chevrolet Silverado pick-ups, available in 2002. The vehicles will eventually account for the majority of Monsanto's fleet.

"Growers are our reason for doing business," said Ross Bushnell, Monsanto's director of U.S. marketing who led Monsanto's E85 fleet initiative.

"It is important for us to help build new markets for American producers by investing in renewable energy and, at the same time, reducing our dependence on foreign oil sources," Bushnell said.

"This program embodies what we hoped the Pledge would inspire at Monsanto -- an approach to running our business that is based on broad input, careful consideration and beneficial outcomes," said Verfaillie.

For more information on Monsanto's bioenergy initiative and additional details on Monsanto's E85 fleet announcement, see the backgrounder: "Monsanto's Commitment to Bioenergy."

Progress in Fulfilling the Pledge

In addition to the new commitments undertaken through the bioenergy program, Verfaillie updated the forum on other progress made toward fulfillment of the Monsanto Pledge. The Pledge is Monsanto's conduct for doing business, including five areas of commitment -- dialogue, transparency, respect, sharing and delivering benefits.

When Verfaillie announced the Pledge at last year's Farm Journal Forum, he said:

"We recognize that we have to do more than talk about these commitments. We have to do them. This is something that we will report on so that we are held accountable for our commitment and progress."

In his speech today, Verfaillie reported on Monsanto's progress fulfilling the Pledge. Highlights include:

• Creating a new network of outside experts who advise Monsanto on its business, bringing 25 experts from dozens of organizations representing growers, and other policy, business and opinion leaders to Monsanto's boardroom table. Monsanto formed two advisory councils
• a Grower Advisory Council and a Biotechnology Advisory Council.
• Making regulatory safety summaries for Monsanto's biotechnology products widely available for the first time ever on the Internet. The safety data now available on Monsanto's web site including 300 pages of data spanning 20 years of research and testing.
• Continuing Monsanto's commitment to sharing technology in ways that are benefiting farmers in the United States and throughout the world. Monsanto sequenced the rice genome and made it available to the worldwide scientific community, provided technology to aid development of "Golden Rice" and "Golden Mustard," and shared genetic information
  with U.S. developers of healthier soybean varieties.
• Continuing the development of products that contribute to a healthier environment by reducing the amount of synthetic chemical pesticides required in agriculture. For example, Monsanto is developing a corn hybrid through biotechnology that kills the corn rootworm.

"Fighting corn rootworm is the single biggest use of pesticides in the biggest crop in America," said Verfaillie.

"A product like our corn rootworm protected hybrids could potentially replace much of the more than 80 million pounds of insecticide used by farmers to fight this devastating pest."

Verfaillie reiterated Monsanto's commitment to the five tenets of the Pledge and emphasized that the Pledge would be a foundation for how Monsanto will do business in the future.

"I have seen the effect making such genuine commitments can have," said Verfaillie.

"I have seen Monsanto employees wrestle with some of the more challenging commitments, I've seen this Pledge inspire and energize our people, and I've seen it cause us to make decisions differently," he said.

"Most importantly, I have seen the Pledge make a positive difference in the way people perceive Monsanto and biotechnology."

For a full-text version of the Monsanto Pledge and for additional information about the commitments made through the Pledge and progress against those commitments, please visit: http://www.monsanto.com  .

Monsanto Company, a subsidiary of Pharmacia Corporation (NYSE: PHA), is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality.

BACKGROUNDER

MONSANTO'S COMMITMENT TO BIOENERGY

Development of Bioenergy Team

• Monsanto has formed a dedicated team to research ways to use biotechnology and conventional breeding techniques to improve the quantity and quality of bioenergy. The team will focus on finding ways to enhance the economic and environmental benefits of biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel.
• The bioenergy team was developed as part of an initiative to enhance the New Monsanto Pledge, a series of commitments that help shape the company's policies for products developed through biotechnology. This initiative provides a new way for the company to provide benefits for its customers by strengthening new markets for their products.
• Biotechnology is already an important tool for improving yields corn and soybean, the primary feedstocks used for ethanol and biodiesel. In addition, biotechnology has been instrumental in the improvement of enzymes and fermentative microorganisms employed in the fermentation process of grain-to-ethanol.
• In the future, biotechnology could help produce corn and soybean crops that enable more cost-effective conversions to biofuels, and greater output of ethanol per bushel of corn. In addition, biotechnology can custom-tailor plants for improved functional properties for biofuels such as biodiesel.

E85 Announcement

• Monsanto has placed the first-ever U.S. corporate order for pick-up trucks that use E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Monsanto will purchase the first 50 General Motors Chevrolet Silverado pick-ups, which should be available in 2002. The vehicles will eventually account for the majority of Monsanto's fleet.
• Monsanto encourages its sales operations to fuel with biofuels whenever possible. The company hosts an internal website that makes available the location of every public E85 pump in the United States.
• Each fill-up with E85 fuel will utilize approximately 10 bushels of American-grown corn.
• E85, a renewable fuel made primarily from corn, improves air quality by reducing carbon monoxide, particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen. E85 also reduces greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, the main contributor to global warming, as much as 39 to 46 percent compared to gasoline.
• Ethanol is the third largest market for U.S. corn, using more than 600 million bushels and boosting farm income as much as $3 billion in 2000, or 30 to 35 cents per bushel. According to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, ethanol production is estimated to increase net farm income more than $4.5 billion, it boosts employment by 200,000 jobs,
  and it improves the balance of trade by over $2 billion.
• Ethanol provides energy security. The United States currently imports almost 60 percent of its petroleum consumption, according to the National Corn Growers Association.

Company news release
N3987