AXcess News: Enviro-Ag Battle Heats Up Over Regulatory Hurdles.

HOUSTON -- Whether large or small, agricultural companies face similar hurdles when it comes to regulatory approvals for their products. Just ask Monsanto (NYSE:MON) or Itronics (OTCBB:ITRO), who are both wading through environmental issues in bringing new products to market.

Monsanto Corp. has been facing regulatory hurdles of its genetically modified crops (GMO) as it wades through consumer worries over how safe they may be, while Itronics faces a myriad of EPA registration requirements for its new biopesticide. A David and Goliath story if there ever was one, only in this case, the battle is with regulators and the companies are on opposite spectrums of the Enviro-Ag industry - genetically altered crops and environmentally friendly pesticides.

Monsanto just lost one round of its battle in Europe after Hungary said it was set to impose strict rules on genetically modified crops that would mostly block their cultivation even if the EU overturns the country's GMO ban.

The law, supported by the opposition as well as government parties, was proposed in case the European Union forces Hungary to abandon its complete ban.

The recent announcement that US authorities had traced amounts of unapproved genetically modified food in samples of rice prompted the EU to clamp down on all imports from the US.

Speaking at an investor meeting in London last week, Monsanto chairman Hugh Grant said the company would win over regulators and consumers "farm-by-farm and field-by-field."

Last week Itronics announced that it had overcome a number of technological challenges in the formulation of a biopesticide that when applied to plants both repel the deer while fertilizing the plants. While a deer repellent doesn't sound like much, Reno-based Itronics will be filling orders in about a year in a $50 million market where competition is almost non-existent.

The enviro-ag company hopes to sell its GOLD'n GRO Guardian deer repellent in the Northest in the first quarter of 2008 where damage from deer is most prevalent, Itronics said.

According to a report by Cornell Cooperative Extension, Ithaca, N.Y., the deer population has grown from 500,000 nationwide in the early 1900's to more than 15 million today and the damage to crops and ornamental plants is estimated to exceed $2 billion annually.

Itronics President, Dr. John Whitney says, "Field trials have shown the product to be effective as both a fertilizer and a repellent, lasting up to three months after being applied."

Whitney's company already manufactures an environmentally friendly liquid fertilizer manufactured from waste photochemicals which it sells mostly in bulk form to farmers on the West coast after years of EPA registrations on a state-by-state basis.

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