April 27, 2000 / Knigh toRidder Tribune / George Gunset, Chicago Tribune
The fear of genetically modified foods is, according to this story, reverberating through the Midwest.
On the front line of the attack on genetically altered crops is an insect-resistant corn called Bt, which until recently had been a favorite of Midwestern farmers.
But Bt is falling out of favor among many farmers, both because of the genetic furor and because farmers believe a decrease in infestation by a major crop pest makes its expensive, anti-insect properties less necessary.
Darrel Good, grain marketing specialist at the University of Illinois, was quoted as saying, "A lot of biotech corn is being stacked up in the warehouses. The seed companies won't be growing as much this summer."
Stewart Reeve, a spokesman for the National Corn Growers Association in St. Louis, was quoted as saying, "Certainly the biotech concerns are a factor in cutting back on insect resistant usage. Farmers in the eastern Corn Belt also were deciding whether it was worth spending $8 more an acre for the seed when the corn borer hadn't been much of a problem in the last two or three years."
Spokesmen for the two largest seed producers, Pioneer HiBred International, now a subsidiary of DuPont Co., and Monsanto Co., recently acquired by Pharmacia Corp., were cited as saying corn sales were running flat to down, while soybean sales were flat to up.
Good was further quoted as saying, "It is clear that there has been no penalties in price for growers sell modified crops. But there has been some premium prices paid for conventional grain -- stuff grown on contract for particular customers." Most elevators will buy any corn or beans, he said: "Don't ask, don't tell."
Mark Wiltamuth, an agribusiness analyst with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, was quoted as saying, "This season will be an important test of farmer reaction to the biotech issues in Europe. They are looking at grain market behavior and cost savings benefits."
(posted without permission)
