By Tony Davis | Arizona Daily Star
Global biotech giant Monsanto Co. has been taking a verbal pounding in public meetings on its plan to grow corn in an Avra Valley greenhouse on 7 acres.
More than 100 people packed a session Wednesday night on Tucson’s west side aimed at providing information and taking public comment on the plan. Also discussed was the company’s request for inclusion in a federal Foreign Trade Zone that would offer significant property tax breaks. The Pima County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote Feb. 21 on whether to support the trade zone designation for the Monsanto property.
Skeptical members of what at times was a standing-room-only audience grilled a Monsanto official and a Pima County official on many issues. They included the possible use of herbicides at the greenhouse — which the Monsanto official said would be “little or none” — and the amount of tax breaks the company would receive.
