Posted on 5-9-2002

GMOs 'Grain Market Outcasts'
>From cropchoice.com

(Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2002-- CropChoice news) -- " U.S. 'Outstanding Sales'
of corn were nearly 40 million bushels (nearly one million metric tons) and
24 percent below last marketing year at the same time," according to Dan
McGuire, Director Farmer Choice - Customer First program of the American
Corn Growers
Association (ACGA). "What's more, 'Accumulated Exports' of corn had not
gained back the 40 million bushels lost last year, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Weekly Export Sales report as of the week
ending August 22, 2002."

Larry Mitchell, CEO of the ACGA, called for a new investigation of the
situation by the General Accounting Office (GAO). GAO released a report in
June of 2001, Concerns Over Biotechnology Challenge U.S. agricultural
Exports, which stated that 'U.S. corn and soybean exports are most
threatened by new foreign regulatory measures because of their biotech
content.' "We now have a fairly good handle on our loss of corn exports
due, in large part, to the loss of international confidence in our corn
supplies from our questionable experiment with Genetically Modified (GMO)
corn. What we do not know is how much this experiment has cost the grain
marketing sector and the U.S. taxpayer. We must know these costs before we
can make any sort of intelligent decision as to whether to continue on our
present course, or wait until the science and public acceptance of GMO's
have been properly established."

Mitchell explained that with lower exports, U.S. farm families have
experienced lower prices for their harvests. He also pointed out that the
U.S. taxpaying public offset some of this loss of income through the USDA
Marketing Assistance Loan Program. Under the program, farmers are
partially protected from lower prices through Loan Deficiency Payments
(LDP) and Marketing Loss Gains (MLG). "Over $5.4 billion was spent on LDPs
and MLGs for last year's crops so far, with over $1 billion spent on corn.
We need to know what
portion of that expense was caused by our loss of export markets due to
GMOs and what lower corn prices and higher seed costs meant to farm
families' bottom economic line. "U.S. corn gluten feed and meal exports are
also down significantly over the last few years, added McGuire. "The
current corn-marketing year (MY 2001/02) export data is confirming that
there is a year-over-year cumulative GMO-driven export loss continuing for
both corn and corn gluten.

Foreign importers and consumers continue to have health questions along
with environmental, corporate seed and patent control issues and market
concentration concerns regarding GMOs. They're choosing alternatives. 'GMO'
now seems to stand for 'grain market outcasts.'