Transcript of KSTP TV Channel 5 Eyewitness News Report by Randy Meier on 7-21-98

Genetically Engineered Agriculture in MN

Anchor, Kalley King: Farming has a rich history in Minnesota. The way the land is worked today may be different than the past. Farming remains the state’s biggest industry. But now, a decision to ban the crops we export, half a world away, could dramatically change the future for Minnesota’s farmers. Channel 5’s Randy Meier is live in a Saint Paul grocery store to explain.

Reporter Randy Meier: It may come as a surprise to you to learn that more than 30 percent of the corn grown in Minnesota is genetically altered – changed – to ward off bugs, resist pesticides, and even increase the oil and sugar content. Nearly 40-percent of soybeans are altered as well. But now, one of Minnesota’s most important markets says they don’t want any part of it.

Farmer Jim Wendland: "It goes down to along that road and straight east."

Randy: Jim Wendland’s farm covers rolling hills in Northfield. More than a thousand acres of soybeans and corn. You can’t tell by looking at it, but more than half of his crops are genetically engineered. That means farmers actually plant crops whose genetic blueprint is changed. But Europe wants nothing to do with Jim’s altered crop. This week the European Union banned the import of U.S. grown, genetically altered food.

Jim Wendland: "I think some people have the philosophy that we’re messing around with Mother Nature here, I know they do, and they don’t like that. But it seems to me that somehow man was given the tools to figure out how to do this, so…"

Randy: Agriculture nets $7 billion a year for Minnesota. About $3 billion of that is exported internationally, but whether its poor field conditions or insects, up to 40 percent of Minnesota’s crops are destroyed before they ever get out of the field. Farmers here say genetic engineering helps what survives, prosper. And it would be hard to make a living farming without it.

Jim Wendland: "It’s impossible. Because here on the farm we go into our system and we’d have to completely shut down, cleanup, separate – the logistics would be just tremendous."

Randy: Jim’s altered corn crop winds up as oil, some as ethanol and some feeds his pigs. He understands the desire for "natural" foods, but considers it unrealistic to try to feed the world that way.

Jim Wendland: "I think we need to use the science that’s available out there. I think we’ve got to be careful with that type of thing, but…. If we’re going to feed this world, organic is fine, but we so far haven’t been able to get the production bushels per acre to feed the world."

Randy: Genetically engineered agriculture is growing at a tremendous rate worldwide. Last year, More than 30 million acres of commercial farmland were planted with genetically altered seeds. That’s ten times more than just the year before.

Kalley: "Is there a way for us to tell whether food we buy at the grocery store came from genetically altered seeds?"

Randy: "Kalley, no, the government does not require the label to say the food came from altered seeds. However, it cannot be label as ‘organic.’

Kalley: "Thanks, Randy."