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This is a transcript of AM broadcast at 0800 AEST on local radio.

Monsanto on trial in Alabama court
AM - Monday, January  7, 2002  8:19

LINDA MOTTRAM: The reputation of the multi-national chemical company,
Monsanto as a good corporation will be on trial in an Alabama court room
this week. 

More than 3,000 people are seeking damages accusing the company of caring
little and of knowingly polluting their environment. The court will also
hear of a company policy which demanded secrecy and destroyed all documents
detailing the potential consequences of pollutant bi-products.

From Washington, John Shovelan reports that Monsanto is a major company
developing genetically modified food technologies in Australia.

JOHN SHOVELAN: The case against Monsanto is built largely on their own
company documents. Many of the documents to be tendered to the court
displayed clear knowledge on the part of the company of the damage being
caused to the local community.

DONALD STEWART: At the top of those documents, they have "for your eyes
only, read and destroy".

JOHN SHOVELAN: Donald Stewart is the lead attorney for the 3,600 people
taking on the multinational chemical company.

DONALD STEWART: Monsanto is probably the worst corporate citizen I have ever
seen.

JOHN SHOVELAN: For decades, the people of Anniston, Alabama say Monsanto
dumped millions of kilograms of toxic PCBs into seeping, open pit landfalls.
Now their homes are worthless and 5 to 600 people are suffering the physical
side effects. 

The company has already paid out about $160 million and fenced off homes and
polluted land. They've even built a new church while the site of the
polluted old church lies behind barbed wire.

Donald Stewart says the company has been willing to pay small amounts of
compensation but still refuses to acknowledge its guilt.

DONALD STEWART: They had data that indicated that this product was a, the
PCBs I'm talking about, was a product that could harm people yet they
continued to sell it. The choice they made was profits over the health and
safety of people who might become exposed to this stuff and that's the same
thing with the genetically altered seed.

It's my understanding that some of those seeds that have been taken off the
market because of the lack of preparation or scientific study by Monsanto to
determine what exactly those things do to people if they eat it.

JOHN SHOVELAN: Robert Kaley, spokesman for Monsanto's subsidiary still
operating in Anniston says the company has learnt from its mistakes.

ROBERT KALEY: Monsanto was learning as they went along. They ceased
production of that material and early on they restricted sales to the
electrical industry.

JOHN SHOVELAN: But the locals claim Monsanto is so powerful, it can buy off
any critics.

LOCAL RESIDENT: If they've got a scientist who says that he would say that
genetically altered seed is bad, they'll buy him if they can. That's what
they do.

JOHN SHOVELAN: The case will be heard in the State Court of Etowah Alabama
tomorrow. John Shovelan, Washington.

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