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By
Marc Kaufman
Agricultural scientists have developed
the first genetically engineered variety of wheat
designed for sale to farmers, stirring intense controversy
around the globe years before it is expected to come onto
the market.
The wheat, produced by the biotechnology
giant Monsanto, has been spliced with a gene that protects
it from Monsanto's powerful and popular herbicide Roundup,
allowing farmers to kill weeds efficiently without harming
their crop.
Monsanto says it will be ready for
farmers within two to four years,
and the company estimates it will increase crop yields by
$6 to $11 an acre.
The company hopes the wheat will also
lead to other engineered improvements to one of the world's
oldest and most important crops, but the international reaction
illustrates just how contentious and unpredictable genetically
engineered crops have become.
As news of Monsanto's wheat has spread,
buyers from Japan to Europe and Egypt have told U.S. exporters
that their consumers will not accept
genetically modified wheat because of general fears
about possible harm to the environment and human health from
engineered crops. Some have said that the wheat's very presence
on American farms could threaten future purchases of all US
wheat.
Half of all American
wheat is exported, accounting for $3.7 billion in sales and
almost 20 percent of all agricultural commodities shipped
abroad in 1999.
About 55 percent
of US soybeans and 25 percent
of corn harvested last year were genetically engineered.
Development of genetically modified wheat
has lagged behind other crops because it is a more complex
plant, made from the union of three wild grasses that have
been improved by farmers over the millennia. Rights to wheat
varieties are often publicly owned, which can make them less
desirable to profit-making companies.
Since last year's Starlink
corn debacle in which an engineered corn only approved
for animal consumption inadvertently made it into the human
food supply -- already negative attitudes in major foreign
markets about genetically modifed foods have intensified.
The result is that unlike the American
corn and soybean industries, which quickly embraced biotech
products in the mid-1990s, many in the wheat industry are
approaching biotechnology now more as a challenge to
surmount than an immediate opportunity to exploit. That wheat
has an unusual emotional resonance for many people stemming
from its use in bread, the ancient "staff of life,"
just adds to the challenge.
Critics of biotechnology call the worldwide
debate over genetically modified wheat a positive
development, and are pleased it is happening well
before the crop is actually introduced. While major US scientific
organizations have generally found that current genetically
engineered crops pose no danger to the environment or human
health, opponents argue that taking genes from one kind of
plant or animal and inserting it into another could have unforeseen
long-term consequences.
Washington
Post February 27, 2001; Page A01
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