EXHIBIT 99.1
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INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT

To the Shareowners of Monsanto Company:

We have audited the accompanying statement of consolidated financial position of
Monsanto Company and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2001 and 2000, and the
related statements of consolidated income, cash flows, shareowners' equity and
comprehensive income (loss) for each of the two years in the period ended
December 31, 2001 (not presented separately herein). These financial statements
are the responsibility of the company's management. Our responsibility is to
express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits.

We conducted our audits in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted
in the United States of America. Those standards require that we plan and
perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial
statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a
test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial
statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and
significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall
financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a
reasonable basis for our opinion.

In our opinion, such consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all
material respects, the financial position of Monsanto Company and subsidiaries
as of December 31, 2001 and 2000, and the results of their operations and their
cash flows for each of the two years in the period ended December 31, 2001, in
conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of
America.

As discussed in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, in 2000
Monsanto Company changed its method of recognizing revenue to conform to the
Securities and Exchange Commission's Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 101, Revenue
Recognition in Financial Statements.


/s/ Deloitte & Touche  LLP

 St. Louis, Missouri
 February 5, 2002