Global Investment Watch

Syngenta AG is a large global agribusiness, which markets seeds and crop protection products (pesticides). Syngenta is involved in biotechnology and genomic research. The company is a leader in crop protection, and ranks third in total sales in the commercial agricultural seeds market. Sales in 2007 were approximately US$ 9.2 billion. Syngenta employs over 21,000 people in over 90 countries. Syngenta is listed on the Swiss stock exchange (SWX: SYNN) and in New York NYSE: SYT.

The company competes with Bayer CropScience and Monsanto and is recognized as the world’s largest agrochemical company. The company produces crop protection products (insecticides, herbicides, fungicides), field crop seeds (soybeans), vegetable seeds (corn, beans, tomatoes), and flowers.

Geographic Risk Sown Widely

Syngenta operates in a very high number of countries with sub-standard labor and human rights practices. It has not signed on to the UN Global Compact and the company is harshly criticized by the Swiss NGO Berne Declaration for its superficial CSR reporting. Furthermore, the company is the target of an international campaign conducted by non-governmental organizations, trade unions, and scientists because it is the world’s foremost producer of the highly toxic and harmful herbicide, Paraquat. The company does not appear to address this issue in any of its PR materials, which leads us to believe that the company is focused on profit over people and planet.

The company operates in China, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Guatemala, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Montenegro, Serbia, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe, which are on the AFL-CIO Country Watch List. Countries on this list are either lacking labor legislation that recognizes fundamental worker rights or they have labor legislation, but it is not enforced.

Legal Issues Sprout Globally

Syngenta and its predecessor companies have been involved in numerous legal actions over the years.

Following a series of fatalities due to accidental consumption in the 1960s, the company’s herbicide, Gramoxone (Paraquat), gained notoriety in the 1970s and 80s due to a rash of suicides using the product, similar to the use of Monsantos herbicide Roundup/glyphosate for suicidal purposes. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies it as only moderately hazardous, in the United States it is labeled a restricted use pesticide and it is banned in several countries. The U.S. Center for Disease Control describes the herbicide as “dangerously poisionous” to humans if ingested, inhaled, or absorbed into the body. Syngenta has added a blue dye, a foul odor, and a powerful vomit-inducer to Gramoxone to help prevent mistakes and misuse.

Atrazine has been banned in several Wisconsin counties in the United States and in the European Union. Syngenta has been linked to attempts to block the publications of UC Berkeley Professor Tyrone Hayes – Syngenta has denied those claims. Tyrone Hayes researches the herbicide Atrazine, which he has found to cause hermaphroditism in frogs.[11] However, EPA and its independent Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) examined all available studies on this topic – including Hayes’ work – and concluded there is “currently insufficient data” to determine if atrazine may affect amphibian development. Hayes, formerly part of the panel, resigned in 2000 to continue studies independently.

The company has also faced questions on its Galecron insecticide’s possible relationship to bladder cancer and other illnesses. Production of Galecron stopped between 1976 and 1978 for new safety assessments, and then halted permanently in 1988 after more research showed potential risk. In a 1995 class action in the US, Ciba-Geigy agreed to cover costs for employee health monitoring and treatment.

Paraquat Kills More than Weeds

Syngenta is the world’s foremost producer of the herbicide paraquat (sold under the trade name Gramoxone) and the company sells hundreds of millions of US Dollars worth of paraquat every year.

According to the Swiss NGO Berne Declaration (BD), Paraquat is easily the most controversial herbicide in the world. Paraquat is not approved for use in Switzerland. But in a number of developing countries plantation workers and small farmers regularly spray paraquat to kill weeds. As a result, tens of thousands of people are poisoned every year and become ill. Thousands die painful accidental deaths or commit suicide. There is no antidote to paraquat poisoning. BD has concluded that by knowingly marketing their herbicide in countries where experts agree it cannot be safely used, the company is responsible for countless cases of serious or deadly poisoning caused by paraquat.

The campaign “Stop Paraquat”, targeted mainly at Syngenta and conducted by non-governmental organizations, trade unions, and scientists around the world, calls to end the production and ban the use of the highly toxic and harmful herbicide.

A Wilted Code of Conduct

In its CSR report Syngenta never addresses the inherent risks of its products and makes no effort to show whether they have grown or declined over the years.

In a February 2008 article in Forbes magazine, it is reported that the government of India estimates that 12.6 million children under the age of 14 are at work in India. Monsanto, Syngenta and Bayer, all working under the glare of labor monitors like India-based Glocal, have grappled with ways to prevent the abuse of children. Syngenta’s website states:

Child labor on seed farms – particularly cottonseed – in India was highlighted by NGOs in 2003. We have been working with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) since 2004 to address this issue. Syngenta no longer produces cottonseed in India. We continue to support the Child Labor Eradication Group – an industry task force formed by India’s Association of Seed Industry and the non-governmental organization MV Foundation of Andhra Pradesh – that works to eradicate child labor in cottonseed production.

According to a December 2007 AP report, activists stormed a Syngenta farm in northeastern Brazil to protest biotech crops and the killing of an activist during the following protest: In October 2007 members of the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) and Via Campesina occupied a Syngenta research station in Brazil. They had illegally occupied the site previously between March 2006 and November 2006 and between November 2006 and July 2007. A violent confrontation took place involving MST members and employees of the security firm, which led to one security guard and one member of the MST being killed and 3 security guards and 4 MST members being injured.