February 16, 2005

 

US legislatures discuss biotech wheat

 

Months after a company uprooted and destroyed a variety of wheat strengthened by genetics, some farm-country legislatures are debating the conditions under which engineered wheat can be used.

The North Dakota Senate on Monday night voted against proposed legislations that would have put responsibility on developers of engineered wheat for damage claims of organic farmers and other producers. A similar bill is being debated in Montana, and comparable bills applying to all biotechnology crops have been introduced in Hawaii and Vermont.

 

Proponents praise such legislation as a way to protect family farms from unwanted strains of biotech wheat that could find their way into their crops. Critics have denounced it as an attempt to block revolutionary technology aimed at developing remedies for common wheat diseases or developing varieties that thrive in harsh climates.

 

Biotechnology is used to manipulate corn, soybeans, canola and cotton. Biotech wheat, however, has not been commercialized because wheat is used to make human food.

 

Montana state Sen. Jon Tester says farmers must be able to seek damages from biotechnology companies if their crops are contaminated by the companies' altered wheat.

 

"I think that if this stuff is well-thought out and well-researched, then step up to the plate and stand behind it," said Tester.

 

Wheat is big business in the Midwest, and North Dakota is among the nation's leading producers. Last year, the state supplied 46 percent of the nation's supply of hard red spring wheat, which is milled to produce bakery flour.

 

Opponents of biotech wheat in North Dakota fear its introduction could ruin the state's overseas export markets in Japan and Europe, where many consumers are skeptical about the benefits of genetic modification of food.

 

But industry supporters say farmers already have effective ways of segregating different crops and have learned to live alongside biotech versions of a half-dozen other products.

 

"The world changes all the time," said Republican North Dakota Rep. Mike Brandenburg. "It's the same thing with farming. We can't go back."

 

St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. last year, citing resistance to the idea of engineered wheat, shelved a type of wheat that was altered to resist one of the company's herbicides. By resisting the herbicide, the wheat could grow while the herbicide does its job of killing weeds.

 

Lisa Dry, spokeswoman for the Washington-based Biotechnology Industry Organization, said she was surprised such legislation was being debated in North Dakota given the fact that Monsanto had not brought its product to market.