When shareholders at Monsanto Co.'s annual meeting earlier this month requested evidence that the company’s growing stable of genetically modified crops is safe, Chairman Hugh Grant was quick to reject their plea. “We believe all of our products ... can be safely used,” Grant told the shareholders gathered at the company’s headquarters in St. Louis. He said there was no need to fear the company’s gene-modified corn, soybean, canola and other seeds because they were “well tested and well regulated.” Officials at Monsanto, the world’s leading producer of genetic modifications in corn and soybean seeds, say the technology can safely fight world hunger, make farmers wealthier and reduce the damage agriculture does to the environment.
