- (Cropchoice news) - The concerns are sprouting
before Monsanto even introduces its newest batch of biotech -- Roundup
Ready wheat. They range from outright rejection by foreign markets that
don't want it, to contamination of conventional varieties. The Montana
and North Dakota legislatures have responded with bills that would place
a moratorium on the sale and planting of genetically engineered
wheat.
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- "As time goes on we will not necessarily be able
to guarantee that conventional varieties can remain free of genetically
modified material," said Todd Leake, who grows wheat on 1,300 acres
in North Dakota. This could hurt farmers trying to grow conventional wheat
for overseas markets that demand a product free of genetic
modification.
-
- "A lot of farmers would like to use Roundup Ready
wheat because it would cut herbicide costs and be more convenient to spray
on our crops and clean up fields," Leake said. "But with the
increased technology fees for the seed, losing the right to propagate our
own seed and having to purchase every bushel we plant, and especially
losing
our export markets, the tradeoffs are not in the favor of Roundup Ready
wheat with a lot of growers."
-
- Indeed, export markets are already sending negative
signals
ahead of Monsanto's introduction of its new crop.
-
- Tsutomu Shigota, senior managing director of the Japan
Flour Millers Association, earlier this month told Dow Jones: "Under
the circumstances, I strongly doubt that any bakery and noodle products
made from genetically modified wheat or even conventional wheat that may
contain modified wheat will be accepted in the Japanese market. World wheat
supply has been abundant in recent years, and I don't see why we have to
deal with modified wheat...I believe the production of modified wheat at
this time will be a very risky challenge for U.S. producers."
-
- On Jan. 5, Algeria, which imports large amounts of durum
wheat from the United States, announced that it would not import any
genetically
modified commodities. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are taking a similar
tack.
-
- Italians don't want genetically modified wheat, either.
The website, www.infoexport.gc.ca, recently reported that "given the
situation in Italy, with (leading farmers' group) Confagricoltura promising
consumers to use only GM-free wheat, attention and effort should be
directed
to this subject."
-
- Contamination?
-
- Some farmers are concerned that genetically modified
wheat will too easily cross-pollinate with conventional varieties.
-
- "Once the seed stocks are grown out, this
accelerates
the process of GM crops ending up everywhere," said Leake, who also
works with the Farmers Union and the Dakota Resource Council on wheat
issues.
-
- However, setting a 4.5 to 5-foot buffer (typical for
wheat) between conventional and genetically altered varieties will greatly
reduce, but not eliminate, cross pollination, said Norman Ellstrand, a
professor of genetics at the University of California at Riverside. Purity,
he noted, in this case equals 1 percent contamination.
-
- Most contamination happens during seed processing,
planting,
harvesting and distribution of the crop, said Jane Rissler, a plant
pathologist
on staff at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C.
-
- At the seed processing facility, employees might
accidentally
mix genetically modified and conventional seeds, or incorrectly label
bags.
-
- All harvesting equipment, trucks, and silos must be kept
clean when trying to segregate genetically modified and conventional wheat.
This, of course, is labor and time intensive.
-
- "A farmer to the west of me didn't clean out his
planting drill between planting of Roundup Ready soybeans and conventional
soy," Leake said. "In the end, the entire crop was GM
(genetically
modified). This was enough to qualify him for a GM discount." In this
case, discount is not a plus. It means that the elevator paid the farmer
less for his soybeans because they were genetically engineered.
-
- Ground contamination also plays a role, he said. Farmers
who grow a genetically modified crop one season and a conventional variety
the next would have a tough time guaranteeing that no remnants of the
transgenic
crop remain.
-
- Canada's experience with canola further illustrates the
nightmare of biotech crop contamination. Farmers first planted Roundup
Ready canola in western Canada in 1995. Five years later, the entire
Canadian
canola crop was considered genetically modified, because of cross
pollination
and segregation problems, Leake said. Farmers lost money when they couldn't
export the crop to many parts of the world.
-
- To halt problems with genetically modified wheat before
they begin, legislation is pending in the Montana and North Dakota
legislatures.
-
- A bill in the Montana State House of Representatives
would place a moratorium on the production of genetically modified wheat.
HB 211 reads as follows:
-
- 1. Moratorium on production of genetically modified
wheat.
-
- (1) Genetically modified
organisms may pose risks of unknown dimensions to Montana's economy, native
environment, and agricultural industry. The planting of genetically
modified
crops over the past several years has outpaced our understanding of the
immediate and long-term economic and environmental effects of genetically
modified organisms. Because of these concerns, the legislature finds it
appropriate to impose a moratorium on the production of genetically
modified
wheat.
-
- (2) A person may not plant
genetically modified wheat in Montana.
-
- NEW SECTION. Section 2.
Termination.
[This act] terminates October 1, 2003."
-
- Meanwhile, in North Dakota, legislators are considering
a prohibition on the sale of genetically modified wheat seed until Aug.
1, 2003.
-
- Leake thinks these measures are the least that government
can do to help resolve the liability, segregation, technology agreement
and market acceptance issues that likely will happen with biotech wheat
just as they did with corn, soy and canola.
-
- "As far as the chances for passage," Leake
said, "we have a lot of support in North Dakota and Montana for this,
but moratoriums are notoriously difficult to get enacted, and legislators
are sometimes hesitant."
-
- Monsanto did not return calls for its take on the
story.
-
-
- _____
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