SPECIAL REPORT-Food: Is Monsanto the answer or the problem?

* Company wants to lead a second "Green Revolution"

* Will poor farmers get hooked on its pricey technology?

* History of controversy complicates humanitarian efforts

By Carey Gillam

ST. LOUIS, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, had only months to live when he received a visit from an old friend, Rob Fraley, chief of technology for Monsanto Co.

Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work increasing food production in starving areas of the globe, welcomed Fraley to his Dallas home, where the two men sipped coffee and tea and discussed a subject dear to their hearts: the future of agriculture and the latest challenges of feeding the human race.

Fraley, who first met Borlaug 20 years earlier, when they served as founding board members for an agricultural group that works with developing nations, said he showed his friend photos of new types of corn that Monsanto (MON.N) was developing. Using biotechnology and genetic transfers, Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, hoped to create a corn variety that could grow well in dry conditions, even in drought-prone Africa, helping to alleviate hunger and poverty -- and fatten its bottom line.

"We were showing him some of the pictures of the drought-tolerant corn," Fraley recalled. "You could see his eyes were starting to well up, and I said, 'Norm, what's wrong?' He said, 'Rob, I've made it all the way through the Green Revolution. I don't think I'm going to make it through the gene revolution.'"

The topic of Fraley's final conversation with his friend that day underscored the unfolding of a modern era of global agriculture. In this new paradigm, traditional plant breeding is giving way to the high-tech tools of rich corporations like Monsanto, which are playing an increasingly powerful role in determining how and what the world eats. It is also generating controversy, as critics continue to question the safety of biotech crops, and fear increasing control of the global food supply by giant corporations.