From Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News

Volume 31, Number 21
March 17, 2003

Farmers want GE wheat barred from U.S. fields

by Lucy Ament

U.S. farmers last week implored USDA to protect the economy of Northern
Plains states by postponing its commercial approval of genetically
modified wheat.

In a legal petition filed March 11, farmers and non-profit organizations
representing them asked the department to deny Monsanto Corp.'s request
for the deregulation of its herbicide-resistant wheat.  Deregulated
status would allow the wheat, which bears the company's famous trad name
Roundup Ready, to be transported across state lines without a permit.

Roundup Ready wheat has been engineered to resist the amino
acid-inhibiting herbicide glyphosate.  The petitioners argue that USDA
cannot legally deregulate the crop without first preparing an
environmental impact statement assessing the crops' potential impacts.
These include the increased use of glyphosate following adoption, the
development of herbicide-resistant weeds, adverse impacts on social
ecology, adverse impacts on migratory birds using wheat fields for
shelter and food, and most importantly, the possible contamination of
conventional wheat.

The rejection of U.S.-grown GE wheat by biotech-wary consumers in Europe
and Asia could devastate the economy of norther states, say farmers.
According to the petition, researchers at Iowa State University estimate
that commercialization of genetically engineered hard red spring wheat
could result in a loss of 33-52% of the current U.S. export market.

Even more crippling would be export losses from the accidental
contamination of organic wheat by biotech varieties, which would
increase foreign distrust in the U.S. regulatory system.  Statistics
suggest that Montana and North Dakota, which respectively produced
32,000 and 24,000 acres of certified organic wheat in 1997, would be
hardest hit.

Moreover, growers want USDA to examine the effects of increased seed
prices on wheat farmers forced to pay royalties fees in order to obtain
the technology.

Finally, the petitioners want the USDA to list genetically engineered
wheat varieties on the  federal noxious weed list because of their
potential to create hybridized, herbicide-resistant wheat weeds such as
jointed goat grass.  They say such a listing would bar
herbicide-resistant wheat from other future approval or use.

Individual farmers were joined in signing the petition by the Dakota
Resource Council, North Dakota State Sen. April Fairfield (D-District
29), National Family Farm Coalition, the Northern Plains Resource
Council, Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society, Montana State
Sen. John Tester (D-District 45) and the Western Organization of
Resource Councils.

Joe Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety, submitted
the petition on behalf of the signatories.  While CFS is not a
petitioner, Mendelson said CFS will "certainly" file litigation to stop
the commercialization of Roundup Ready if USDA fails to comply with the
terms of the petition.


Farmers speak out

Monsanto requested commercialization of its GE wheat in December of
2002.  While USDA review of a new plant product generally takes a year
or more, Mendelson said he fears the company will pressure USDA to
approve the grain in time for the 2004 planting season, and that corners
will be cut as a result.

The petition invokes a number of federal statutes, including the
National Environmental Policy Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the
Plant Protection Act, which require the federal government to consider
the environmental effects of significant regulatory decisions.  But some
farmers say their experiences speak louder than statistical views.

Tom Wiley, a North Dakota farmer who signed last week's petition, lost a
$10,000 contract to sell soybeans to Japan in 1999, when his crop tested
positive for GE contamination.  At the time, Wiley's farm was bordered
by 11 others; he believes GE pollen reached his crops by wind or
honeybees.  "It's an economic train wreck coming down the track, and we
need help," he said.  "If we lose these markets and I'm no longer
profitable, I'm history."

Experiences like Wiley's have left farmers feeling helpless to control
the purity of their crops and desperately vulnerable to economic ruin.
Helen Waller, a Montana wheat farmer, said accidental contamination is
more frightening than Mother Nature.

"We've had droughts, hail, and floods, but no natural disaster can
compare with the potentially devastating effects of introducing
genetically engineered wheat," she said.

Waller said 60% of Montana's wheat is exported to Asia.  She fears the
state will lose those markets if Roundup Ready wheat is approved.

Neither Wiley nor Waller believes the danger will disappear if the U.S.
files and wins a complaint against the European Union's biotech
moratorium with the World Trade Organization.

"I still would not feel comfortable about it, because even if the
governments say that it's all right, if the consumers have not accepted
it and the millers don't say it's OK, it's not going to create for us a
stable market, " said Waller.

Wiley said a U.S. victory in a WTO complaint over exports of hormone-fed
beef did not result in greater sales.

"The EU said "We'll take the fine because we won't take the beef.'" he
said.  "The consumer is always right."

"We need to consider what happened when the federal government was given
responsibility over GE soybeans and corn, " she said.  "They dropped the
ball and I am not at all comfortable with delegating this responsibility
to the federal government until our concerns are heard."

- - Luch Ament