Within a month of the Monsanto-Grameen announcement, however, the Bangladeshi institution cancelled the deal bowing to intense public pressure within South Asia and around the world. Last year, more than 27.8 million hectares of farmland around the world was sown to genetically modified crops. Seventy seven percent of this land was sown to transgenic seeds designed to tolerate herbicide spraying. While the biggest market for biotech seed is in the USA and Canada, South countries such as Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, and China have also adopted the controversial seeds. Trials of Monsanto's transgenic seeds in India have led to mass demonstrations and intense debate in the media and in government.
Similar debates are underway in Brazil.
In Europe, environmentalists, farmers, and consumers have joined together to oppose the use of transgenic seeds. The company may not be acting cynically. CARE will be lambasted for jeopardizing the food security of farmers and Monsanto will be accused of using CARE as 'cheap labor' for its commercial goals. Whatever their intent, this indeed will be the result. Monsanto is transforming itself from being a traditional chemical company into a dominant player in the Life Industry.