Most of Minnesota's wheat farmers are disappointed that Monsanto is
shelving plans for genetically modified wheat that would have been grown
mostly in this region, Dave Torgerson, president of the Minnesota
Association of Wheat Growers, said Tuesday.
"Within Minnesota, our growers understand and believe that biotechnology is
important for our future," said Torgerson, citing earlier surveys of his
900-member farmer association.
Anti-biotech groups such as Greenpeace claimed victory with St. Louis-based
Monsanto's announcement Monday that it was stopping efforts to
commercialize the first genetically modified wheat in the world, which
would be resistant to the company's own herbicide, Roundup.
Monsanto said it is realigning its research and development investments to
corn, cotton, and oilseeds. The company said it is deferring all further
efforts to introduce Roundup Ready wheat until other wheat biotechnology
traits are introduced.
Millers and food producers, however, welcomed the news. General Mills,
based in Golden Valley, said the herbicide-resistant wheat would offer
little benefit to consumers.
"We don't think it makes sense to extend the use of agricultural biotech to
America's largest and most pervasive crop until consumers fully accept its
use," spokeswoman Marybeth Thorsgaard said. "That acceptance will be more
evident when the technology delivers consumer benefits, not just benefits
to farmers."
General Mills manufactures and markets bakery products around the world.
Opposition to genetically modified foods has been more widespread in Japan
and Europe than in the United States.
Torgerson of the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers said other traits
such as disease resistance, drought tolerance or even human health
benefits, including varieties that could be eaten by people who are gluten
intolerant, might more easily gain public acceptance.
If a new disease-resistant wheat under development now by Syngenta Crop
Protection can be introduced, few Midwest farmers would dispute its value,
he said. That could then pave the way for acceptance of Monsanto's
herbicide-resistant wheat technology, he said.
Midwest farmers are hoping that Syngenta's developing technology, if
approved, would halt a fungal disease called wheat scab, or fusarium head
blight, which has cost Minnesota farmers an estimated $1 billion in losses
in the past decade.
Wheat scab overwinters on dead plant matter and is nurtured by moist, warm
conditions in the spring. It first ravaged Minnesota wheat fields in 1993,
a year of heavy rain. Torgerson and other farmers remember driving through
the flat expanses of the Red River Valley, where from miles away they could
see billowing black smoke as farmers burned their fields, trying to stop
the fungus.
"Every wheat grower that farmed over the last 10 years won't forget it
because a lot of their neighbors went out of business because of it,"
Torgerson said. "If there is a disease-resistant wheat that's available
through biotechnology, it would have a huge economic impact on our state."
In Minnesota, the wheat industry generates about $750 million a year in
economic activity, though that's down from $1.3 billion 10 years ago. Many
farmers have switched from wheat, finding it more profitable to grow corn
and soybeans.
The Roundup Ready wheat was targeted for Minnesota, North Dakota, South
Dakota and Montana, where 90 percent of the nation's hard red spring wheat
is grown. That's the variety that Monsanto had planned to use to launch its
transgenic wheat.
Plant biotechnology, which involves transferring and transforming genetic
material, has provoked opposition from some consumers. Nonetheless, a
rapidly increasing number of farmers have been won over by the managerial
and cost benefits of biotech crops, statistics show.
Three-quarters of U.S. soybeans and 30 percent of its corn is grown from
genetically modified seeds, and the numbers are even higher in Minnesota.
In Minneapolis, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy was
optimistic about Monsanto's scrapping of genetically engineered wheat. The
institute opposes such technology.
Dennis Olson, director of the Institute's Trade and Agriculture Project,
spoke of those farmers who raised serious agronomic concerns such as the
danger of creating "super weeds" that would develop immunity to the
herbicide glyphosate.
In addition, he said, some worry that the introduction of this new form of
biotech wheat would further tighten Monsanto's monopoly control of seeds
worldwide.
Joy Powell is at jpowell@startribune.com.Star Tribune:
