March 24, 2006

 

Investors pressing DuPont for more biotech crop info

 

 

The DuPont Co needs to provide more information to its shareholders about the potential risks posed by genetically modified organisms, a group of faith-based investors said Thursday (Mar 24).

 

Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) is seeking support for a shareholder resolution calling on DuPont to disclose the financial risks of manufacturing and distributing food-related genetically modified organisms, such as corn and other crop seeds.

 

CBIS, joined by the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), believes DuPont is obligated under the reporting requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate anti-fraud law to spell out the potential liabilities posed by GMOs, including contamination of traditional seed stocks and possible allergy-related and other health effects in humans.

 

Leslie Lowe, director of the ICCR's Environmental Justice and Global Water Supply and Food Working Groups, said insurers in some European countries have refused to insure genetically modified crops, and that the European Union has said planters of genetically altered crops may be held liable for contamination of neighbouring farms.

 

The resolution, which will be voted on at DuPont's annual meeting on Apr 26, calls on the board of directors to report by next year's annual meeting on the company's post-marketing monitoring of GMOs. The shareholders also want DuPont to hire an independent environmental expert to review the company's risk management processes.

 

"We don't need another Teflon-like hidden risk at DuPont," said John Wilson, director of socially responsible investing for CBIS, referring to concerns about the potential health and environmental effects of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, a processing aid in the manufacturing of fluoropolymers that are used in a variety of products, including Teflon-coated cookware.

 

DuPont paid US$10.25 million in fines in December and US$6.25 million to settle allegations by the Environmental Protection Agency that the company kept information about PFOA from government regulators. A scientific review panel advising the EPA has recommended that PFOA be labeled a likely carcinogen.

 

DuPont is opposed to the shareholder resolution, saying many of the safeguards sought by the investors are in place.

 

"In the area of genetically engineered food products, the pre-market testing is a robust, multiyear process," the company says in its proxy statement.

 

DuPont also notes that it established an independent biotechnology advisory council in 1999, and that data the company collects in any post-market monitoring is integrated into its stewardship process.