Chicago Tribune
By George Gunset, Tribune Staff Writer. Tribune wires contributed to this
report.
The fear of genetically modified foods is 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.
"A lot of biotech corn is being stacked up in the warehouses," said
Darrel Good, grain marketing specialist at the University of Illinois.
"The seed companies won't be growing as much this summer."
Fear about the safety of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, has
resulted in restrictions on imports by European countries and an
outcry in the United States. In the latest sign of the trend,
anti-gene engineering groups asked the U.S. Agriculture Department on
Wednesday to improve testing procedures for genetically altered foods,
contending that the products' properties could be transferred to other
plants.
The Japanese government, meanwhile, this week accepted a proposal to
screen foods that contain genetically modified ingredients before
putting them on the market. Last year, Japan bought 76 percent of its
soybeans from the United States and 96 percent of its corn.
Closer to home, a USDA survey of farmers' planting intentions found
that growers would plant only 19 percent of corn acreage with Bt corn,
down from 25 percent last year, in the major producing states of
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
Bt corn contains a gene from Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil bacterium.
The gene helps the corn plant to produce its own insecticide to fight
a major pest, the European corn borer, eliminating the need to spray
the crop with chemicals.
"The biotech concerns are a factor in cutting back on insect-resistant
usage," said Stewart Reeve, a spokesman for the National Corn Growers
Association in St. Louis. "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., said corn sales were running
flat to down, while soybean sales were flat to up.
The most important biotech soybean is herbicide-tolerant, specifically
able to withstand Roundup, Monsanto Co.'s major all-purpose weed
killer.
According to the USDA, farmers in the top eight soybean growing
states--Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska and Ohio--plan to reduce planting of the herbicide-tolerant
soybeans to 52 percent of planted acreage from 57 percent in 1999.
"It is clear that there has been no penalties in price for growers who
sell modified crops," said Good. "But there has been some premium
prices paid for conventional grain--stuff grown on contract for
particular customers."
"This season will be an important test of farmer reaction to the
biotech issues in Europe," said Mark Wiltamuth, an analyst with Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter. "They are looking at grain market behavior and
cost savings benefits."
Good said that farmers would grow the crops that would give them the
best economic advantage.
(posted without permission)
