Illinois farmers face tough--and possibly costly--decisions as Europe debates segregating genetically modified crops.
Next spring, they'll be wondering: Which types of corn and soybeans do I plant, and will I be able to sell them at harvest time?
At issue are genetically modified seeds that have been altered to be impervious to herbicides and in some cases insects, such as the corn borer.
Consumer groups in Europe and the United States have attacked these grains and the food processed from them--called "Frankenfoods"--as being dangerous to the health of people and wildlife. Some in the 15-member European Union want the grains banned--or the food products labeled as genetically altered, at least.
That brings the problem home to Illinois farmers and food processors, who don't separate or segregate their crops based on genetically altered seeds.
"There's a lot of anxiety, confusion and consternation out there," said Dennis Vercler, communications director of the Illinois Farm Bureau. "A lot of farmers are hedging their bets and double-booking seed orders. The proof will be in the fall of 2000, when crops go to market."
Adds Darl Baumgardner, a corn and soybean grower near Downstate Normal: "Planting [genetically altered] seed is a win/win situation for the farmer and the environment, but I have to take a second look. I don't know yet what to plant. It depends on what happens in the next 60 to 90 days."
Farmers and processors argue that segregation requires extensive testing and equipment, plus extra time to clean out wagons, storage bins and trucks after each delivery.
No one has accurately determined the cost of separating crops, but one retailer in Britain is charging 20 percent more for beef it says is fed only non-altered feed.
Another issue affecting the separation of the two types of seeds is that scientists have not yet determined what distance pollen from altered-seed cornstalks can travel. For example, if an Illinois farmer is raising non-altered corn and a neighboring farmer is raising corn using a seed altered to make it resistant to insects, it is virtually impossible for the first farmer to guarantee his corn is non-altered, because pollen may have floated into his field.
Farmers are sometimes being asked to sign forms stating their corn or beans are not genetically modified when they sell the grain to elevators.
Neil Harl, a professor in agriculture and economics at Iowa State University, advises farmers to "be very careful about what they sign or even what oral comments are made" concerning the crops.
Harl has worked with the office of the Iowa attorney general and Iowa State University to develop a "proposed uniform certification" for farmers.
It states that the farmer used "ordinary care to clean his harvesting equipment, on-farm storage facilities and the transportation delivery vehicles," but it doesn't claim that the entire delivery is free of altered seed.
Herbicide-resistant soybeans (known commonly as Roundup Ready beans because they are resistant to Roundup, the No. 1 weed killer) now make up more than 50 percent of the soybean acres grown in the United States, according to Monsanto.
Use of this soybean allows the farmer to use Roundup herbicide on the fields to kill weeds without harming the soybean plants.
The technique produces greater yields and is environmentally friendly because it allows the farmer to use a lesser amount of herbicides and the herbicide has a shorter life span. It also reduces erosion, water runoff and overall consumption of diesel fuel per acre, according to Monsanto studies.
"Soybeans are not grown in Europe on any significant scale, and so consumers are unfamiliar with the crop, and were even more unaware that biotechnology soybeans were on the way to their supermarket shelves," said David Green, president of Greenhouse Communications. He has studied genetic-modification regulations in Europe and is a consultant to the American Soybean Association.
Green said the use or nonuse of genetically altered crops has become a political issue in Britain, with Prime Minister Tony Blair "putting his personal authority behind the safety and benefits" of genetically altered seed.
But, he added, "the Conservative Party, the pro-farming party . . . [that] had happily approved the [altered] soybeans in the early 1990s, now saw a wonderful political opportunity to attack. And attack they did."
Although Roundup Ready soybeans were approved for import into Europe in 1996, some consumer groups urged the EU to consider labeling altered foods under the EU's Novel Foods Act. That act sets no minimum level of altered-seed content. So if the food contains any trace of it, the food must be labeled as genetically modified.
Because some in the industry see this as either unattainable or costly, a 1 percent threshold is under consideration. A decision is expected by April 2000--after Midwest farmers have made their seed commitments for 2000.
Gretchen Randall is a Chicago-based business writer.
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