Author: Scott Learn
Publication: The Oregonian
Date: Monday, November 03, 2008
Via: AgBios
Critics of genetically modified crops have warned about
"frankenfood" and "superweeds"
for years. But today, more than four-fifths of the nation's corn, cotton and
soybean crops are altered to resist pesticides and insects.
Now Frank Morton, a 53-year-old organic seed farmer in
Philomath, and other activists are plowing new legal ground in the battle,
charging that genetically modified crops will spread and contaminate organic
crops.
Morton's beef is with sugar beet seeds that scientists with
agricultural giant Monsanto have tweaked to resist Roundup, the company's most
popular weed killer.
In the past two years, the humble commodity crop has quietly
become the valley's first to incorporate genetic engineering wholesale.
Morton worries that sugar beet pollen can cross-fertilize
table beet and Swiss chard plants, both of which he grows for seed. Each sugar
beet flower contains thousands of pollen granules, and researchers have found
the windblown pollen miles in the air and miles away from its home field.
"Who's responsible if it isn't on a leash?" says
Morton, sunburned, earnest and blunt. "I'm a certified organic seed
grower, and if (his crops) were to get contaminated with any detectable amount
of transgenic sugar beet pollen, my product becomes worthless."
Earlier this year, activists including Morton filed suit
against the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop Roundup Ready sugar beets. A
similar suit that included an eastern
Morton began organic farming in the Willamette Valley 20 years
ago, growing lettuce varieties for restaurants. He considers it a moral
obligation to keep his seeds free of contamination from transgenic crops.
That's why he was stunned to learn in December 2006 that
sugar beet seeds with a protein inserted to resist Roundup were coming to the
The Department of Agriculture restricts the spread of
genetically modified crops when they're being tested.
Limited tracking
But once the service declares a transgenic crop safe,
granting it "unregulated status," it treats the crop as identical to
any other plant. No one tracks whether it's spreading into conventional or
organic crops, said John Cordts, a biotechnologist
with the inspection service who wrote the environmental assessment for
deregulating Roundup Ready sugar beets in 2005.
Cordts noted that
The valley has long used "isolation distances"
between crops to prevent cross-pollination, and Morton says testing indicates
that his crops haven't been contaminated yet.
But the contamination of organics and other nongenetically modified crops is a tough issue, Cordts said -- one the service isn't set up to address.
"Our regulatory authority focuses on plant pest risk or
the potential for environmental damage," he said. "We understand the
issues associated with organic protection, but with our regulatory authority
there's not a whole lot we can do."
Alfalfa case
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer
was sympathetic to organic and conventional farmers' arguments in the alfalfa
case, whose plaintiffs included Geertson Seed Farms
of Adrian. Last year, Breyer ordered the USDA to
upgrade its environmental analysis.
Eliminating the ability to grow nontransgenic
crops -- or to eat them -- is an "undesirable consequence," Breyer wrote.
The USDA needs to analyze "whether there is some risk
to engineering all of
Monsanto and sugar beet farmers say the concerns are
overwrought. The company tried a decade ago to market a Roundup Ready variety,
but Hershey's and other big customers balked, fearing a consumer backlash.
This time
A change of heart
In part, the change of heart is because the sugar crystal
itself contains no remnants of the genetically modified protein or DNA and
poses no dietary risk, Schwartz said.
In part it's because most
"Many of our customers' products contain corn, soy or
cotton oil," Schwartz said. "They've already got a transgenic product
in them."
Roundup use soars on Roundup Ready crops, growers concede.
But use of more environmentally damaging herbicides
drops. And frequent crop rotation, including rotation to non-Roundup Ready
crops, can help prevent weeds from developing resistance to Roundup.
Growers raised small amounts of Roundup Ready sugar beets in
2006 and 2007. But the big switchover came this year, when about 60 percent of
sugar beet growers chose transgenic seed, said Luther Markwart,
vice president of the American Sugarbeet Growers
Association.
No organic sugar beets are grown in the United States, and
the two-year cycle of the plant, with the sugar beet root harvested before the
plant flowers, makes contamination unlikely, supporters of GM crops say.
But preventing contamination is tougher when growing seeds.
Some advocates say small amounts of contamination -- less than 1 percent -- are
likely and organic standards should allow for that.
Schwartz said his group is "totally confident that GM
and non-GM varieties can coexist in the
Opponents acknowledge short-term advantages of the modified
crop. But they say experience with corn crops indicates that weeds will become
more resistant as farmers rely more on Roundup, requiring heavier doses of
herbicides to control the "superweeds."
Roundup less harmful
In its application to deregulate Roundup Ready sugar beets,
Monsanto said four glyphosate-resistant weeds had
been identified. The company said it worked with local scientists to control
them.
Roundup is less harmful to wildlife and fish than many other
herbicides. But critics say farmers are using far more herbicides than in the
past, and the long-term effects are unclear.
In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted
Monsanto's request to increase allowable glyphosate
residues 50-fold on sugar beet roots, to 10 parts per million. The agency said
that was still well below unsafe levels.
SOURCE: THE OREGONIAN
agbios.com