-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- Seeds offered growers a miracle, but may be just another liability GM food: special report Julian Borger Thursday February 17, 2000 The Guardian When the time came to buy this year's seeds, Wade Louthan had to choose between conventional and GM crops. It was not an easy decision, but he knew whichever he picked, the result would be depressingly predictable - he would not make any money. As the ranks of ecologists and GM industry lobbyists prepare to do battle once more this year, the US farmer is again caught in between, and finding it increasingly hard to survive. He or she must either buy ordinary seed and pay the added costs of herbicide and insecticide; or go the GM route, and face the possibility that - come harvest time - no one will want to buy the crop. Mr Louthan decided that when the snow melts he will plant 330 acres of corn and 220 acres of soybeans, entirely with conventional seeds. And the signs are that many US farmers, especially corn-growers, have made the same decision. But the dilemma facing American farmers is a painful one, without easy answers. With crop prices at an all-time low, the choice is usually between two routes to penury. "What is better? GM, or all the chemicals I have to spray on my land with conventional crops?" Mr Louthan asked. It was not a rhetorical question. He really did not know the answer. He stood in his yard, wiping engine oil from his gloves, and weighed up the pros and cons. Monsanto's Roundup Ready soybeans and corn do not require repeated spraying of herbicides to control weeds. They can be sprayed just once when the crop is above knee-high. Similarly the company's BT corn is genetically engineered to secrete its own insecticide to kill off the corn bore parasite endemic in the region. The new seeds cost a few dollars more a bushel, but represent a huge saving in chemicals and labour. Mr Louthan's choice was in part, he said, an ecological decision. "You've not just got to worry about what the corn will do to you. You've got to worry about what it will do to everything else, when it crosses with this and crosses with that." But ultimately, Mr Louthan's choice came down to this: would he be able to sell his crop? Even if he did, grain prices are at a record low, given the current North American glut in production, exacerbated by increased yields from GM crops. Mr Louthan's dilemma is repeated around the country. In South Dakota, Dennis Mitchell said that when spring came, he would sow half his fields with BT corn, down from 85% last year. "About half of my corn goes to feed [livestock] and if I have to sell the rest for human consumption, then I thought ... if I'm not sure of what the consumer wants, I better be on the safe side," Mr Mitchell said. Meanwhile, in Nebraska, Gale Lush is growing far more BT corn than he initially wanted to because he was unable to find any good conventional alternatives on the local seed market, which is dominated by an oligopoly of big agri-industrial companies. The big distributors running the vast grain silos say they will buy his modified corn after harvest, but Mr Lush is nervous. He is go ing to watch farm prices very carefully. "If the news keeps getting worse, I'll have to use some substandard [conventional] hybrid at the last minute," he said. This apparent trend away from GM corn is not necessarily mirrored in soybean production, nor is it evenly distributed around the country. Among the arable farmers spread out on the hills between Virginia and West Virginia, Mr Louthan is in something of a minority. His neighbour, Richard Burns, is planting GM soybeans. He recognises that conventional beans might eventually fetch a premium of up to 30 cents, but he has a different take on "the bottom line". He said: "Last year, the GMO (GM organism) beans we raised were the best beans we ever raised. They were the cleanest beans - with no weeds. With non-GMOs you have to spray the ground before you plant and, with most farmers, the less chemicals they use, the better they feel about it." Mr Burns and Mr Louthan are pursuing different strategies, but both agree neither will emerge a winner, given the low crop prices. For many farmers, the GM revolution appeared to offer salvation when it first dawned. Now it offers, at best, a chance of survival. At worst, it is just another liability. � Copyright Guardian Media Group plc. 2000 <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soap-boxing! 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