Posted on 20-7-2002
Learning
From US Agri Experience
by Robert Schubert, CropChoice editor (USA)
(July 17, 2002 -- CropChoice commentary) -- Half a million bucks
sounds
like a lot of money, but just how far would it go in dealing
with a load of
genetically contaminated wheat? Grain traders I've talked with
are fairly
certain that Monsanto's lawyers know the answer better than
those
representing Spring Wheat Bakers.
A couple of weeks ago, this cooperative of nearly 3,000 wheat
growers in
Montana, the Dakotas, and Minnesota announced a pact with Monsanto.
The
plan is for the cooperative to use that $500,000 to develop
a closed system
of growing, harvesting and processing Roundup Ready wheat, genetically
engineered to resist the Roundup herbicide. Monsanto wants to
commercialize it in the next couple of years. Spring Wheat Bakers
had an
identity preservation system, designed to ship various specialty
spring
wheat varieties to Europe. It flopped. The cooperative canned
the
initiative almost two years ago because the Europeans were unwilling
to pay
the associated premiums. Todd Leake, a co-op member, says that
when he
pressed Gary Lee about the issue at a meeting in the spring
of 2001, the
former chief executive of the cooperative told him that the
"looming
introduction" of genetically modified wheat was a factor in
the Europeans'
decision.
Now the idea is to resurrect this segregation system, not to
ensure the
integrity of high value spring wheat, but to contain Roundup
Ready wheat. A
few considerations are in order.
One, the Europeans, Japan, South Korea and other major customers
for U.S.
wheat don't want genetically modified varieties.
Number two, containing this or any other transgenic wheat would
be nearly
impossible. Speaking at last week's meeting of the North Dakota
Interim
Agriculture Committee, University of Manitoba geneticist and
wheat breeder
Anita Brule-Babel told the assembled state legislators that
if Roundup
Ready wheat were planted widely, it could very well spread beyond
control
within 5 years. She has first hand experience with Roundup-resistant
canola in Canada, where growers of conventional and organic
canola have had
to give up on the crop because of genetic contamination.
Number three, Monsanto assumes none of the liability, as a quick
reading of
a grower agreement will show, says Sarah Vogel, a Bismarck lawyer
and
former state commissioner of agriculture. "Any farmer that grows
Roundup
Ready wheat has signed a deal with Monsanto," Vogel says. "In
its
contracts, Monsanto disclaims every oral representation that
it makes about
these products, including their merchantability."
Despite the potential market disaster this wheat could wreak,
legislators
appear unwilling to place a moratorium on it. That suits Monsanto
just
fine. The biotech behemoth needs a new product and quick. Its
stock is in
the tank. Plus, Pfizer wants to buy its parent company, Pharmacia.
Consequently, the pressure undoubtedly is on for Monsanto to
spin off more
quickly than it had planned. With all that in mind, one might
wonder
whether Monsanto is trying to shift some future liability to
Spring Wheat
Bakers, whose essence is those 3,000 farmers. Let's say samples
of a
30,000-ton shipment of conventional wheat, worth about $4 million,
going to
Europe test positive for the Roundup Ready genes. Would that
mean that
Spring Wheat Bakers accepted $500, 000 to take on a $4 million
liability?
Someone would lose money. The grain trade certainly wouldn't
take the hit.
The industry has been down this road before with biotech soybeans
and, of
course, StarLink corn. No, it'd simply reject the wheat. That
would leave
all the farmers who lost the value of their crop to go banging
on
Monsanto's door. Its lawyers' answer: "Hey, the agreement was
with Spring
Wheat Bakers."
Where to next? The insurance companies would have high-tailed
it long
before. Would the management of the cooperative take out a $3.5
million
loan to cover the costs? Bankruptcy? A taxpayer bailout courtesy
of the
government? Probably none of the above. More than likely, the
farmers
would be left holding the bag. "I don't understand why people
in
government, state or federal, would even entertain the concept
of GMO,"
Vogel says. "It is so bad for everybody but Monsanto."
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