FEATURE - Biotech crops make inroads as consumers watch
Date: 30-Apr-02
Country: USA
Author: K.T. Arasu
But he said he has gone from zero to 100 percent in about six years in the planting of crops genetically altered to kill insect pests or withstand potent weed killers.
This spring, he will plant 450 acres with a so-called "transgenic" type of soybean he says saves him money through lower herbicide and energy use.
Planting biotech crops is "becoming more widely accepted," Boisen said.
"In 1995-96, I didn't plant any. Now all my soybeans are Roundup Ready," he said, referring to the variety patented by life sciences giant Monsanto Co. to be resistant to its popular Roundup herbicide.
The conversion of U.S. farmers like Boisen to genetically modified crops has been steady for the last five years. Many of them have embraced the technology even though there is little evidence that consumers - especially those in Europe and Asia who are vocal in opposing it - have become any less put off by food made with genetically modified ingredients.
Consumer groups have raised questions about the long-term, unintended health and environmental impact of growing crops from seeds with re-engineered genes.
While the grounds of such concerns are largely theoretical, the benefits for farmers are tangible. The use of biotech crops help them cut herbicide costs and reduce crop loss caused by pests.
For the developing world, particularly Africa, the arguments in favor of planting genetically modified crops appear to be winning converts. The ability of GMO technology to develop drought-resistant plants, food crops for high-salt soils, or crops with missing nutrients - like vitamin A for rice - has offered a beacon of hope for world regions, where hunger is prevalent.
INDIA, BRAZIL - EUROPE NEXT?
In the United States, 74 percent of the nearly 73 million acres to be planted with soybeans this year will be transgenic, up 6 percent from last year. Gene-altered corn will be sowed on 32 percent of the 79 million corn acres, a 6-percent rise. GMO cotton will account for 71 percent of the 14.5 million acres planted, up 2 percent.
But like the Nebraska farmer who took his first tentative steps into agricultural biotechnology in the mid-1990s, those who till the land for a living in places such as India and Philippines may soon be following in his footsteps.
Indian authorities in March approved the first commercial production of three genetically modified cotton hybrids after more than five years of field trials. India is the world's top cotton producer and has the most acres planted with the crop, totaling some nine million hectares (3.6 million acres).
Last month, the Philippines approved the field testing of crops with genetically modified organisms.
A report issued in January by researchers at the University of California-Davis said China is developing the largest capacity outside the United States to use biotechnology to genetically modify crops, and that it was targeting crops including cotton, rice, wheat, potatoes and peanuts.
The report said global sales of genetically modified foods grew from an estimated $75 million in 1995, when the crops were first commercially planted, to some $2.3 billion in 1999.
The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, a not-for-profit international group said in January that worldwide plantings of transgenic crops were about 50 million acres (123.6 million hectares) last year, a 30-fold increase from 1996.
Brazil, the world's second-largest producer of soybeans after the United States, has also taken a long-awaited first step in approving use of transgenic crops after years of making it illegal for farmers to produce and sell such crops. That did not stop widespread smuggling of GMO soybean seed into Brazil from neighboring Argentina - where GMO soybeans are popular.
Even the European Union - which froze new licenses and field tests of GMO crops three years ago amid a wave of food scares from mad cow disease to dioxin in animal feeds - has said
