Food/Beverage

Advanta

Last edited by on June 17, 2009 - 11:07pm
Company Snapshot: 

Advanta Seeds is a joint venture of chemical/pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and seed company VanderHave. In the UK and EU, it has been involved in field trials for a range of GM crops, and faced scandal when its conventional seed stock was found to have substantial levels of GM contamination.

Advanta’s statement: Worldwide breeding, production, processing, conditioning, sales and distribution of seeds for major agricultural field-crops and amenity grasses. Areas of expertise include plant breeding, research and development, tissue culture, DNA finger printing -- molecular markers, genetic modification, seed technology/processing, seed production, and marketing and sales.

Chief executive officer: 
Ad Huige
Website: 
Advanta
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Corporate accountability
Accountability overview: 

Advanta shrouded in secrecy
It is hard to assess the full nature and extent of corporate influence and control in agriculture because of the rapid changes taking place. The names and ownership of corporations change frequently owing to a unprecedented level of (de)mergers and acquisitions. Since the 1970s there has been an intense monopolization of the seed industry worldwide, with big corporations (e.g., pharmaceutical, chemical, and agribusiness companies) taking over small and medium sized seed companies. Cross-linkages between companies further complicate the picture. Biotech and seed companies make cross-licensing agreements to be able to supply clients with a full-technology "package." Even at the basic level of sales, it is difficult to get a clear picture and Advanta'a practices add to the confusion. Rather than producing an annual report, it releases only a few sheets with figures that do not include specific data on seed sales.

Environment and product safety: 

GM contamination of UK and European landscape
IF GM crops are commercialized in Europe, Advanta Seeds would likely be one of the companies at the forefront of marketing GM to farmers. Advanta Seeds is currently heavily involved in the UK's GM crop regulatory process, and is pushing the EU to relax its position on levels of GM contamination in conventional crops.

In 2000, Advanta made headlines in Europe when oilseed rape seeds it had sold were found to contain small amounts of genetically modified (GM) material not approved in the EU. On April 17 Advanta Seeds UK told the UK government that GM-contaminated oilseed rape seed had been sold to farmers across the country. It claimed that the contamination happened in Canada, when pollen from a GM "Roundup" resistant crop blew onto conventional oilseed rape being grown for seed.

The seed was also used in Sweden, France, and Germany. Dominique Voynet, France's environment minister, immediately called for the destruction of the crop. Sweden's government also considered this path. But British Agriculture Secretary Nick Brown -- in the face of similar demands from environmental groups -- said the government had no plans to destroy the contaminated crops.

After the food scandal emerged, Conservative MPs claimed that the government had covered up the planting of GM seeds in the UK. When Advanta went to the government to admit its blunder --one month before the information was eventually made public-- London remained silent. Conservative agriculture spokesman Tim Yeo said Advanta had told him that it would have liked to warn their customers about the contaminated oilseed rape. "The only reason they did not do so is that they were asked by Ministry of Agriculture officials to keep the whole matter secret," Yeo said.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown denied the allegations, "Advanta had no advice from government not to tell their customers what had happened," he said. Brown then sought to reassure the public over the crops, some of which were planted in both 2000 and 1999. "There is no risk to public health in this accident," he said. "There is no risk to the environment in this accident." He did not produce evidence to support his statement, and opponents say that the GM seeds were released over thousands of acres of the UK countryside, and it is impossible to guarantee that there are no risks involved.

It remains unclear whether the UK government tried to cover up the release. It is clear, though, that it took London a long time to use the information Advanta had provided to inform farmers and the public. The gap was long enough to allow seeds to planted which might otherwise had been destroyed prior to planting.

The newly established Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued a press release stating that there was no risk to public health. No consultation with consumer or producer groups preceded the statement and, in violation of its pledge, the agency did not make its detailed advice to ministers publicly available. The release also made no reference to consumer choice.

"None of the statutory consultation agencies knew anything about this until the story broke on Radio 4," said Bryan Johnson, English Nature's top GM expert. "We were not asked for our advice in advance of the decision being made and were not consulted at all."

The scandal created bad publicity for London and was a blow to the its ambitious biotechnology project. Initially both Advanta Seeds and the government said they were not willing to help or compensate the affected farmers.

But before the farmers could undertake legal action -- the only option open to them -- Advanta acted to prevent more bad publicity.

Lack of guidance
Advanta Seeds UK did not admit liability, instead citing external factors, such as the media and the wind. It also criticized British and European authorities for failing to set legal guidelines for seed purity:

"Early political action to create a comprehensive regulatory framework would have at best prevented this incident from occurring or at worst managed public expectations about seed purity and averted further media hysteria." [Reuters 2000]

Advanta urged the government to "create a regulatory framework with no further delay.... At a minimum, thresholds for accidental GM impurity need to be set, standard testing methods need to be stipulated and results should be analysed by an approved and consistent statistical method."

"If standards are reasonable, we can work on it, and at least we know what we're up against," says Klaas van der Woude, senior sugarbeet breeder at Advanta. "But we cannot guarantee zero risk. Seed companies cannot guarantee GMO pollen is not flying around in the air."

A technical and profit-driven approach to nature
Advanta describes seeds as "technology carriers." Its credo, "accept no limits," refers to the elimination of limits on technological interventions in the genetic make-up of nature. Advanta aims to produce seeds which lead to "stable and increasingly uniform" yields.

Advanta is eager to use biotechnology in order to create "seed that sells. ...[and the seed that excels is seed that sells" says the company.

Anti-competitive and consumer protection: 

Control of the Seed Market
Advanta, currently the world's fifth biggest seed company, is a major player in the game of dividing the world seed market among big multinational corporations. Since the 1970s there has been intense monopolization and consolidation of the seed industry worldwide. Huge pharmaceutical, chemical and agribusiness companies have acquired small and medium sized seed companies, regionally or locally based, in various countries. Critics charge that consolidation of the seed market (and consequently the strengthening of corporate control of the entire food chain) has many harmful consequences.

Political influence (national and international): 

Government (US)
The USDA, FDA, EPA and a few other federal agencies share responsibility for agricultural biotechnology and food safety.

Marc Lefebvre, biotechnology research manager for Advanta, talking about a project aimed at improving sugar beet output traits said: "There are relatively few researchers in the world working on transgenic beets. That’s why it is important to collaborate with others. We have a nice relationship with USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) and others from a technical perspective."

Social responsibility: 

GMOs of vital importance to secure global food safety
Advanta heavily promotes biotechnology in agriculture, and expects to benefit enormously. Ad Huige, president of Advanta, asserts that, "GMOs will help food production capabilities in a world with limits of land and water resources and an ever-increasing population." The assertion is promulgated by the biotech stakeholders and reaches the public through multi-billion dollar PR machines and the media. Comprehensive critiques can be found on the internet and elsewhere.

Vanderhave Seed Facts, for example, counters that "The unfortunate and ironic point about biotech is that it results in less inputs and chemicals, making it environmental friendly. It's a real pity that the argument against biotechnology is based on emotional fear and not scientific facts."

History

Imperial Chemicals Industry (ICI) was established in 1926 by amalgamating Britain's four largest chemical companies: Nobel Industries; the British Dyestuffs Company; the United Alkali Company; and Brunner, Mond Limited. By the early 1990s ICI was selling 15,000 products in 150 countries. ICI was:

--the 3rd largest chemical group in the world --the 2nd largest agrochemical producer, and --the 5th largest seed producer

After an unsuccessful hostile take-over bid in 1991 ICI reduced its vulnerability to such events by splitting the company in 1993 into a chemicals company and a bioscience group, Zeneca. On June 1, 1993, Zeneca became a separate company from ICI. The concept of life science has always been an important part of the Zeneca's thinking and rationale.

Zeneca/ICI acquired a number of seed companies in the 1980s, and in 1996 these were combined into a 50:50 joint venture with VanderHave B.V. (part of the Dutch Co-operative Cosun) to form a new company called Advanta. Advanta has a role in the development of the new seed varieties with Zeneca.

In 1998, Zeneca announced a merger with Swedish pharmaceutical corporation Astra. The merger was completed in 1999, and created AstraZeneca -- with $10bn/yr sales. At the time, it ranked second in European and in UK sales and third among world drug companies, after Merck and Glaxo Wellcome. The merger was driven by a desire to reduce costs (by $1.1bn annually, or 6,000 jobs) and to obtain better access to the US drug market.

In December 1999 AstraZeneca and Novartis of Switzerland announced that they were merging their agrochemical operations, and Novartis's seed business, to form Syngenta of Switzerland. Advanta was not part of the deal. Novartis received 61% of the new company and AstraZeneca got 39%. Syngenta is the world's third biggest producer of seeds, after DuPont (Pioneer) and Pharmacia (Monsanto).

In 1999, Advanta was in the red. The controversy surrounding the use of genetically modified seeds caused the company considerable inconvenience: It lost 30% of its US sales. In spite of this setback, Cosun CEO Menkhorst foresees a bright future for GM seeds. "With the global population growing at high speed, there is a need for more food. In addition, if genetic engineering can create products with improved traits, the use of GM seeds will boom."

On January 1, 2000, one corporate company was established in the United States for all of the Advanta Companies, Advanta USA, Inc., which owns Interstate Seeds, AgriPro Wheat, AgriPro Seeds and Garst Seed Co.

The same year, Advanta made headlines in Europe when oilseed rape seeds it had sold were found to contain small amounts of genetically modified material forbidden by the EU. The seeds, grown in Canada, were contaminated by windblown pollen from other GM oilseed rape nearby.

Other Information: 

Much of the material on Advanta is adapted from http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/