Big increases seen in '03 US bio-corn, soy crops

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http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2003/01/22/eline/links/20030122elin036.html

 

Big increases seen in '03 US bio-corn, soy crops

 

Last Updated: 2003-01-22 16:40:42 -0400 (Reuters Health)

 

By Christopher Doering

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American farmers are poised to boost plantings of biotech

corn by nearly 10% this year amid growing US pressure on the European Union to

lift a ban on imports of genetically modified crops, according to a Reuters

survey released on Wednesday.

 

The straw poll of 340 growers, conducted at the American Farm Bureau

Federation's annual meeting, found US farmers want to plant more gene-spliced

corn despite opposition from large customers such as the EU and Japan. Consumers

in those countries have expressed concerns about long-term health and

environmental impacts.

 

US 2003 plantings for Roundup Ready corn will jump by 9.9% and Roundup Ready

soybeans by 8.4%, according to growers surveyed at the meeting of the nation's

largest farm group. Roundup Ready crops are engineered so growers can use a

single herbicide to kill weeds.

 

However, Bt corn plantings posted the only decline among the five major biotech

crops included on the survey, falling 3.8%. Bt crops contain a gene that repels

a destructive pest while the young plant is growing. Bt corn acreage fluctuates

with European corn borer infestations.

 

Gene-altered cotton plantings will also rise in 2003, according to the survey.

 

Roundup Ready cotton plantings will be up 4%, while Bt cotton will rise by 5.2%,

according to farmers polled at the meeting.

 

The Reuters survey was based on random, personal interviews at the meeting, and

does not weight responses by state, size or other criteria. The results provide

an early indication of whether farmers will plant more or less genetically

modified crops than the previous year.

 

TOTAL BIOTECH PLANTINGS RISE

 

In recent years, growth in some biotech plantings have begun to slow as many US

farmers have already adopted the new technology.

 

Overall, biotech plantings across all US crops will rise by 2.3%, according to

farmers surveyed in the Reuters poll. That marks a slowdown from the rapid

increases logged in the first years after the new crops were introduced to US

farmers in 1996.

 

According to US Agriculture Department data, 34% of corn in 2002 was grown with

biotech seeds, up from 26% a year earlier. Biotech soybeans rose to 75% of the

total US soybean crop in 2002, up from 68% in the previous year.

 

Biotech cotton accounted for 71% of the crop in 2002, up 2% from 2001, according

to the USDA.

 

The US government has repeatedly endorsed the safety of biotech crops now on the

market. But despite American farmers' embrace of gene-spliced crops, questions

remain whether the world will be eager to buy them.

 

The discovery that 1,200 tons of US corn shipped to Japan last month may have

been contaminated with StarLink has rekindled Asian concern. In 2000, taco

shells and other corn-based foods were recalled after StarLink, a biotech corn

variety approved only for animal feed, was discovered in the US food supply.

 

EU ON THE HOT SEAT

 

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said this month Washington was prepared

to ask the World Trade Organization to pressure the EU to lift its moratorium

blocking imports of biotech foods.

 

" Our patience has worn thin, " echoed Bob Stallman, president of the Farm Bureau.

" Until you take a case to the WTO, there isn't any other way to solve this

issue. "

 

US farmers surveyed said the EU moratorium has cost them hundreds of millions of

dollars in sales.

 

" When it affects prices it affects your bottom line, " said Kendell Culp, an

Indiana corn and soybean farmer. The EU needs to " get a better policy " that is

not dependent on consumers' unfounded worries, he added.

 

The European Union has banned the approval of gene-spliced crops since 1998,

when France and other members demanded that there first be tougher rules in

place for testing and tracking biotech products.

 

Some US farmers contend such rules would be costly and unnecessary. The Reuters

poll found that 43% of farmers said they could not comply with new rules

requiring more record-keeping. However, some growers surveyed said that kind of

paperwork would add a few cents a bushel to their production costs.

 

" It would be cost prohibitive, and there is no incentive (for farmers) to do

that, " said Delmer Keiser, a Kansas corn, soybean and wheat farmer.

 

The survey also showed that 58% of farmers interviewed would plant biotech wheat

crops when they becomes available. More than half of those who do not plan to

grow biotech wheat said it is because they do not reside in a wheat-growing part

of the country.

 

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