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Article: ASIA.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Earth Island Journal
- Article date:
- March 22, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Earth Island Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Merger in the First Degree
MALAYSIA -- The merger of multinational food giants Novartis and AstraZeneca has prompted cries of alarm from the Pesticide Action Network of Asia and the Pacific, a coalition of more than 150 groups in 18 countries. PAN-AP notes that the new company, Syngenta, will control "more than 40 percent of the world's patents on genetic engineering technologies that can restrict plant reproduction, growth and development." Syngenta will become the world's third-largest seed supplier. PAN-AP charges that Syngenta plans to promote seeds that have been genetically engineered to be "dependent on chemical inducers to switch on and off plant ...