November 26, 2001 -- Federal courts dealt Monsanto two legal setbacks this month, one a defeat in the struggle for intellectual property rights to genetically modified seed. The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals
November 26, 2001, unanimously upheld a jury's verdict of $65 million to Aventis CropScience and an injunction against DeKalb (a division of Monsanto) from selling GA21 Roundup Ready corn
without license from Aventis CropScience. Earlier this month, the Federal Circuit Court of Bolivar County, MS, issued four opinions favorable to Delta and Pine Land Company (D&PL) in its
lawsuit against Monsanto Company and Pharmacia Corporation.

Aventis had sued DeKalb for fraudulently inducing Aventis CropScience
to license its glyphosate tolerance technology, which DeKalb then introduced
with Monsanto as Roundup Ready corn. In 1999, a jury in Greensboro, NC, ruled that DeKalb had defrauded Aventis CropScience, and awarded
them $15 million for unjust enrichment and $50 million in punitive damages. A
second jury also found that DeKalb had infringed Aventis CropScience's patent
on a genetic construct in the Roundup Ready corn and misappropriated
Aventis CropScience's trade secrets.

Chief Judge Tilley of the North Carolina
Federal District Court confirmed the verdicts in February 2000 and issued an
injunction against DeKalb from selling Roundup Ready Corn. These decisions
were confirmed by the Federal Circuit Court.

"We are extremely gratified with the Court's decision," said Philippe
Dumont, head of agronomic traits of Aventis BioScience. "The decision marks the only time an
agricultural biotechnology patent has been sustained by an appellate court."

Last month, an arbitration panel also ruled in Aventis CropScience's favor
and against Monsanto Company's subsidiary Calgene LLC, which claimed rights to
the same glyphosate tolerance technology.

"The binding arbitration and the Federal Circuit decisions have together
settled Aventis CropScience's ownership of this very valuable Roundup Ready
corn technology," said Dumont. "We look forward, together with our partners,
to providing this very beneficial GA21 glyphosate tolerance technology to
farmers."

Monsanto, through its DeKalb and Holdens divisions, is continuing to sell
Roundup Ready corn pursuant to a temporary agreement with Aventis
CropScience.

D&PL's suit against Monsanto, which arises out of the companies' failed
merger, charges that Monsanto breached its contractual
obligations in the companies' merger agreement to use best efforts and
commercially reasonable efforts to complete the merger. The suit alleges that
Monsanto could have and should have resolved objections to the transaction
from the Justice Department's Antitrust Division and obtained clearance from
the Justice Department to complete the merger. The suit also alleges that
Monsanto's conduct of willfully keeping D&PL tied up for 18 months so that it
would be unable to enter into transactions with other companies constituted
tortious interference with prospective business relations.

Monsanto had sought to dismiss D&PL's claims, arguing that there were no
disputed issues of fact and that D&PL could not prove damages. The court denied Monsanto's motions to dismiss and for summary judgment.