Just a post to pass on an article that was in the St. Paul Minnesota paper
this morning.

Modified seeds firmly rooted

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LEE EGERSTROM STAFF WRITER
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The controversy over genetically modified seeds appears to have had little
impact on farm planting decisions this year as the spring planting season
draws to a close in the Upper Midwest.
Interviews with farmers and seed sellers suggest that Minnesota and
Wisconsin farmers are planting about the same percentage of modified seeds
as they did in 1999. That means more than 50 percent of the soybeans and
more than one-third of the corn will be grown from seeds that were modified
to help the farmers cope with insects or weeds.

Concerns over genetically modified organisms have centered on issues of
trade, big business and science. But for Duane Adams of rural Hutchinson,
the decision to plant GMO seeds didn't take much head-scratching. Most of
the corn in his area between Hutchinson and Cosmos in central Minnesota is
used as cattle feed by local farmers, he said, or is used to process ethanol
fuels.

``There's a lot of emotionalism over new science, but I haven't heard anyone
say they won't drive around with GMO corn in their gas tank,'' he said.

Late last year, a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of early planting
intentions suggested that American corn farmers would slightly reduce GMO
planting for corn, soybeans and cotton. The modest retreat from GMO planting
likely changed as farmers lined up their last seed purchases, said Joe
Schieber, a farmer and Pioneer Hi-Bred seed dealer in Caledonia in
southeastern Minnesota.

Some of the early planned cutbacks came from farmers opting for lower-cost,
nonmodified seed, he said. But as the winter progressed, weather concerns
around the world strengthened corn and soybean prices in futures contracts
traded at commodity exchanges.

With prospects improved for making money on corn and soybeans, ``farmers
started going for the yields,'' Schieber said. They began ordering more seed
varieties that were insect resistant or compatible with efficient weed
killing chemicals.

In Golden Valley, preliminary marketing results show that 65 percent of the
corn seed bought from Novartis Seeds this year contained the Bt gene to help
farmers fight corn borer infestations. That's down 2 percentage points from
last year's 67 percent Bt market share at Novartis, the company said.

Des Moines-based Pioneer, the largest seed company and now a unit of the
DuPont chemical and life sciences firm, hasn't assembled sales data for this
year yet, company spokesman Doyle Karr said. But preliminary queries of the
sales department show only a slight decline from last year's GMO use, he
added.

Farmers began planting GMO crops in 1996. GMO varieties of corn, soybeans
and the smaller oilseed crop of canola were a significant portion of the
crops planted in 1998. That year also saw multinational chemical and
pharmaceutical companies consolidate most of the major North American seed
companies into life science companies to combine seed genetics with related
biology and chemistry fields.

Perhaps more than the introduction of new science itself, the global mergers
and acquisitions attracted public attention, and people began wondering what
biotechnology was all about, said Doug Magnus, a soybean farmer from
Slayton, Minn.

Consumer, environmental and other groups began pressuring the European Union
to block imports of agricultural commodities produced from genetically
modified seeds. EU regulators have given approval for importation of about
half the GMO-produced crops grown in North America, South America and parts
of Europe itself.

Members of the Union of Concerned Scientists have raised questions about
proper government regulation and the release of GMOs into commercial use.
Chief among concerns are proper testing to see if modified foods create
allergen problems or if modified plants might cause mutations in other plant
life surrounding the crops.

Magnus, vice chairman of the United Soybean Board national trade
association, said farmers indicated they were concerned last fall that they
might lose markets if they grew GMO crops.

That concern largely ended, however, when Cargill Inc. issued a statement
last December saying its policies hadn't changed; it would buy corn and
soybeans at its country grain elevators and mills regardless of the seeds
the farmers used. ``That pretty much ended the debate for farmers, for at
least another year,'' Magnus said.

Linda Thrane, spokeswoman for Minnetonka-based Cargill, said the December
announcement was issued because the company was growing weary answering
media questions about its GMO policy. Many of the inquiries were coming from
media that doesn't usually cover the company and didn't know Cargill's
previous positions, she said.

Looking back, the company's statement did give farmers confidence about
markets when they sat down during the winter months to make seed purchasing
decisions, she said.

Farmers are restricted in how they use the seeds so they will never have 100
percent use of the GMOs. For instance, the Bt corn must have a 20 percent
``refuge'' around the fields to protect other insects and help prevent
insects from mutating into Bt resistance.

Seed salesman and farmer Schieber said farmers are not likely to pay the
higher cost for enhanced seeds if they haven't had historic problems with
corn borers or problems managing their weeds.



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