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