<p> Monsanto, the world’s largest creator of genetically altered crops, may be facing new challengers in Europe due to the increasing demand for mutant seeds. Leading chemical companies including BASF and DuPont are turning to a process known as mutagenesis, a technique that mimics the sun’s irradiation of plants, to create herbicide-resistant crops. However, how will this shift to mutant crops affect Monsanto’s sales in the global seed market?<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Monsanto had $14.9 billion in sales in fiscal 2013; $10.3 billion of that was from the sale of seeds and genetic licenses. While earnings have grown at a rate of more than 20% the previous three years, Monsanto faces increased regulation and bans of its GMOs in some countries, as well as political hurdles that can delay product launches for years, or indefinitely.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Meanwhile, earnings at BASF’s agriculture unit rose 27% in 2012 from the previous year partly because of higher demand for mutant seeds in Eastern Europe, according to the company’s latest annual report. Nevertheless, mutagenesis is a process that has been used for decades to produce thousands of varieties of lettuce, oats, rice, and other crops. “The flexibility is there to use this technology quite broadly,” says Jonathan Bryant, vice president of the global strategic marketing group for herbicides at BASF. “Because it’s a conventional breeding technique…it’s very amenable for a wide range of seed companies.”<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> There are still risks associated with mutagenesis, however. Reports from the National Academy of Sciences say the risk of creating unintended health effects is greater from mutagenesis than any other technique, including genetic modification, because it deletes and rearranges hundreds or thousands of genes randomly, spawning mutations that are less precise than GMOs. Despite these risks, mutant crops are still gaining popularity because they’re cheaper to produce. For example, Japan has invested $69 million from 1959 to 2001 on mutant breeds that yielded $62 billion worth of products over that period, compared to the $150 to $200 million investment Monsanto used to launch a single genetically engineered product.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> How will breeding and biotechnology continue to affect the global seed market?<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for more comments and opinions.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-21/monsanto-vs-dot-mutant-crop-developers-in-global-seed-market" target="_new"> Monsanto and Mutant Crop Developers </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
