- DURBIN, North Dakota (Reuters)
-- From the dusty country road, the secluded wheat field in this rural
hamlet appears to be like any other, with slender stalks and ripening heads
rustling in the breeze.
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- But the grain growing here belongs to Monsanto Co. and
is key to the company's plan to bring the world its first genetically modified
wheat.
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- It is also highly controversial. Monsanto's work in this
field in southeast North Dakota, and in dozens of other fields around the
United States, comes at a time of global turmoil over whether genetically
modified crops should be grown and consumed.
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- While soybeans and a few other crops have been genetically
modified for years, wheat would be the first true food grain to go from
test tube to harvest.
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- And as Monsanto pushes the debate to a new level of urgency
by perfecting the biotech wheat, it keeps the precise locations of its
wheat fields a closely guarded secret. The company last week began allowing
limited visitors to the fields, but still fears a backlash from biotech
opponents.
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- "If that information gets into the wrong hands,
it isn't positive," said Monsanto wheat industry affairs leader Michael
Doane.
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- The company's work is in the final stages now. It has
already mastered the transfer of DNA from a laboratory-grown bacterium
into wheat DNA, so farmers can spray weed killer across entire fields without
harming their crop.
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- Monsanto's current focus is on convincing regulators
that biotech wheat is safe to grow and eat, while persuading farmers to
plant it, and food companies to use it in the bread, cereals, crackers
and other products.
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- Monsanto executives see a future filled with genetic
modifications to crops. Scientists have it in their power to alter such
things as protein levels, starch levels and carbohydrate counts. And crops
that are more tolerant of drought and disease are also being designed.
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- "All of those things could be within our reach in
the next decade or so," said Doane. "We now stand at a very interesting
threshold. The potential is just enormous."
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- But while Monsanto champions biotech crops, many farmers
worry that foreign countries will shun the U.S. wheat supply if some of
it is scientifically altered. Experts say the loss in export business could
be staggering.
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- Also, critics say biotech foods could hold unknown dangers
for people and the environment, and they worry that turning crops into
patented technologies could translate to eventual corporate control of
the world's food supply.
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- The Bush administration's current effort to sway the
European Union to accept biotech foods has thrust the issue onto the world
trade front, and angered biotech opponents.
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- "I think biotechnology represents the worst aspects
of science, not the best," said Friends of the Earth spokesman Larry
Bohlen. "It is a science driven by profit rather than ethical concerns.
The companies are promoting their own interests, not those of the hungry."
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- Protests have been mounted in North America as well as
in Europe. Critics hope the uproar will derail Monsanto regulatory applications
in the United States and Canada. Indeed, earlier this month, Monsanto hit
a snag when the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it wanted more data
to consider.
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- Undeterred, Monsanto executives plan meetings with farmers
and U.S. millers and bakers as well as consumer marketers such as McDonald's
Corp. to win them over to the new wheattry, had wide buffers around it
to avoid any mixing with neighboring crops as Monsanto conducts various
studies.
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- The exact locations remain undisclosed because of fears
that activists might cause problems. Last month in Canada, activists stormed
a wheat test site in Manitoba, and some biotech fields have been destroyed
by opposition groups.
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