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July 14, 1999
BBC Internet (UK-Based)US Farmers Fear Crop Fallout
In the rural idyll of America's agricultural states farmers are getting to
know the genetically altered crops they have been told will help them make the most of
their land. Their fields are providing the evidence that will tell the world if the
ambitious claims for biotechnology in agriculture are coming true.
The whole point of these crops is that they are supposed to help farmers farm
more cheaply. Suddenly they are under the spotlight. Consumers outside the US have turned
against GM food. The export market is disappearing fast - US corn sales to Europe shrank
from 70 million bushels in 1997 to just 3 million last year.
Mood change in the Mid-West
Professor Bill Heffernan of the University of Missouri has spent 30
years tracking rural change across the states. He says people round here
fear GM crops could end up costing them more not less.
"Six months ago we thought that basically these products were going to
be accepted in the market - nobody thought otherwise and in fact it was
just assumed because nobody was challenging it.
"Now, especially because number one what's happening in Europe and
Japan and other major consumer Nations that may refuse these
products, that's really gotten the farmers attention.
"The farmers are really quite angry about it and they're quite confused about
it and many
farmers just wish the whole thing would go away, we'd go back the way it was a
year ago and forget about all these products."
'Taking a second look'
Doug Doughty is a GM seed dealer. His neighbour, Bill Christison is
president of the National Family Farm Coalition, a group that has taken a
stand against GM crops. Yet their apparently opposing views seem now
to be converging.
Mr Christison says: "I think in the past year especially that some farmers are
taking a second look at the increased production costs and the increased
yield that was promised them."
Mr Doughty says: " US farmers embrace technology very quickly ,we
want the newest thing on the market, the latest thing..i think we're just
finding out that maybe this technology wasn't researched as well as it could
have been.
"The Europeans were right to go slow on this. We were fed a lot of propoganda
that the Europeans were just being difficult, to be against what the US were doing - but I
think we're finding out that they're our customers and if they want something we should be
able to deliver that."
Farming revolution under scrutiny
One of the most common modified crops is soybeans that can tolerate
herbicide - about one third of the soya bean crop in the mid west is
genetically modified. The idea is that farmers need not till their land and
can
control weeds with fewer sprays. The other is pest resistant, or "Bt" corn,
with extra genes that produce a toxin to fend off pests.
The message from biotechnology developers has been consistently
positive. For the past few decades field tests have been conducted on
wide variety of products that may produce a better answer, may herald
the latest revolution in farming technology, products of agricultural
biotechnology.
Yet on one of the key claims for these crops - lower herbicide use - local
farmers experience doesn't quite match the developers expectations. For
example on Monsanto's Round Up-Ready soybeans, the aim was only to spray
once. But according to Prof Heffernan many farmers still spray their crops
twice.
"You just have too many late weeds coming on and so in that case you spray
just as much as you would with any of the other herbicides we've been using
in the last few years," he says.
GM yields figures 'confusing'
Last week, the US department of agriculture released the most
comprehensive analysis of data on GM crops in the US. As expected, these
show a dramatic uptake among farmers - a six-fold increase to 50
million acres in just two years.
Biotechnology companies sold their crops on the promise of fewer
chemical treatments and higher yields.
The official figures show that overall, the picture is confusing, with
regional
variations that are so large it is almost impossible to draw general
conclusions.
This puts big question marks over the message from biotech companies that
GM crops mean automatic advantages for farmers.
On chemical treatments, for 1997, pesticide treatment was about the same
for pest resistant and conventional corn. For herbicide-tolerant soybeans,
herbicide use went down in some states, but up in others. On yields pest
resistant corn showed big differences in yield advantage - five times
higher in the Prairie states than in the main crop-growing states. For
herbicide-tolerant soybeans, yields in the Prairie states were about 25%
higher, yet in the Eastern states they were down by about 8%.
Yield variations aside, there's no room for argument over the harsh
economic reality of selling GM crops into a reluctant market - and some GM
farmers are having second thoughts.
Prof Heffernan says: "All of a sudden we're finding some firms are now
saying they'll pay 15 to 16 cents a bushel more for Non GMOs."
The result has been that some farmers have tried to return their GM seed
for more traditional seed.
Farmers fear cross-contamination
Just as it becomes plain that GM developers were taken by surprise by
the strength of reaction against their crops in Europe - another problem is
emerging, closer to home, that they also failed to anticipate.
Bill Christison is a conventional farmer selling into a mainstream market, yet
he feels GM crops could now threaten his livelihood.
"I have a fear that even though I do not plant GMO crops my corn will be
contaminated and therefore not marketable around the world. I think
this is an issue that is facing a number if farmers in this country.
"I think that there is no doubt that there will be a rash of lawsuits - farmer
against farmer if you will - to determine how they can control this Bt hybrid
and keep it on their side of the fence," he says.
Organic farmers angered
Cross contamination is just one practical problem biotechnology companies
apparently didn't foresee once farmers started actually growing GM crops.
The issue is most acute for organic farmers.
There have already been cases of Europe rejecting American organic produce
because it was found to contain GM material although it was supposed to be
GM free.
Organic farmer Klaus Martens says: "I'm resentful. I don't know why when
someone else is contaminating my land, I should have to bear the financial
burden and make all the adjustments.
"I certainly hope that American farmers will wake up and reject these
products. It's definitely hurting American farmers. They cost us the
European market, they have trapped our domestic markets for our grains and
it's very obvious that they're not doing us any good."
GM crops have 'really backfired'
The evidence is mounting that conventional farmers are now are having doubts.
GM seed dealer Doughty says: "There is a lot of feeling that Monsanto and
some of the other companies really let us down in Europe, tried to stuff if
down Europeans throats, and say here it is, you will have to accept it,
without going to the countries, to their scientists and researchers and
proving it first that everything was OK and it's really backfired on them."
Mr Christenson says: " We are going to supply the land the machinery, the
labour, and we are going to get a pittance for our efforts because of GMO
seed and this does not set well with myself nor with a great number of
farmer."
Where farmers may once have seen Monsanto and others as pioneering
saviours, now, as they watch biotech seed prices creep slowly upwards,
their mood is changing from a warm welcome to simmering resentment. |