Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 3 • Number 5 • 21st March 2003
US Farmers Fear Export Losses from Biotech Wheat
A recent study — conducted by Iowa State University professor Robert Wisner — that states that the introduction of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready wheat might lead to a 30 to 50 percent drop in wheat exports from the US, has led farmers’ organisations and land conservation groups to ask the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to place a moratorium on the biotech wheat. Meanwhile, Swiss-based agribusiness group Syngenta has applied to start a trial of genetically modified (GM) wheat in Germany.
Farmers’ groups file petition against biotech wheat
On behalf of several farmers’ and land conversation groups as well as state officials from Montana and North Dakota, the Center for Food Safety filed a petition to the USDA asking it to withhold the approval of Monsanto’s biotech wheat, genetically modified to tolerate the herbicide Roundup, until a better understanding of possible environmental and economic risks has been gained. The groups’ demand is based on a report by Robert Wisner, who found that prices of hard spring wheat could drop by 33 to 52 percent if Monsanto’s herbicide resistant GM variety of spring wheat was introduced. “I’m as interested in technological innovation as any farmer, but I also need to protect the value of my crop,” said Tom Wiley, a North Dakota wheat farmer. “We need an economic impact statement so that we can make sure we’re not stepping over dollars to get dimes. Simplified weed control isn’t worth losing our valuable export markets,” he added.
Farmers are concerned that some countries would not allow importation of the GM wheat and that consumers would not buy GM wheat products. Biotech wheat is different from biotech corn or soybeans in the sense that it is primarily used for human food, whereas corn and soy are used for animal feed and additives. Products such as bread, cereals and pasta produced with GM wheat would be labelled as containing GM ingredients because the protein cannot be processed out. Furthermore, wheat farmers are more dependent on exports than corn or soy farmers are, as nearly half of the production goes to Europe and Japan where the stringency of biotech regulations and consumer concerns have been growing over the last years.
The GM wheat is currently under review by US and Canada and could be approved for commercialisation within two years. Monsanto, however, has pledged that even if the wheat were approved, it would not sell it unless at least the EU and Japan had accepted it. The USDA noted last week that it might impose strict requirements on Monsanto to ensure that it was abiding by its promise. These could include requirements for Monsanto to submit to independent audits “from the top all the way down” to ensure no biotech wheat was being sold, according to David Shipman, deputy administrator for the USDA’s Federal Grain Inspection Service. In addition, Monsanto might be asked to sign a statement before every marketing year, committing to not commercialise GM wheat, and the company would need to provide the information necessary for USDA to conduct DNA testing. USDA thereby wants to ensure that the USDA-approved statement saying no biotech wheat is commercialised in the US, which currently accompanies wheat exports, remains correct and credible.
Meanwhile in Europe…
The Swiss agribusiness group Syngenta has requested permission to start trials and plant a test area of 400 square meters in Germany with GM wheat resistant to the fungus fusarium (scab). Tests have already been carried out in Australia, the US and Canada and Syngenta is now seeking to test whether the GM crop can also adapt to farming conditions in Germany. The request for a trial area was sent to the Robert Koch scientific institute and it might take a few weeks before a decision will be made. According to press sources, the release of the GM crop has been preliminary set for 2007. The president of the North Dakota Grain Growers, Bruce Freitag, stated that there was more interest in a wheat that is resistant to the scab fungus than in a GM wheat resistant to herbicides, such as the variety developed by Monsanto, as producers have great difficulties in controlling the fungus and experience great economic losses.
Additional Resources
“GMO Spring Wheat: Its potential short-term impacts on U.S. wheat export markets and prices“, Robert Wisner.
“Against the Grain: The Threat of Genetically Engineered Wheat“, Greenpeace, November 2002.
“Farmers, Land Groups Seek Moratorium on Biotech Wheat” ENS, 12 March, 2003; “Biotech wheat may cut US exports in half-study” REUTERS, 13 March, 2003; “Syngenta applies for GM wheat trials in Germany” REUTERS; 14 March, 2003; “USDA mulls strict rules for Monsanto biotech wheat,” REUTERS, 18 March 2003.