July 15, 2010 - There has been much controversy surrounding the growth and use of genetically modified crops, better known as GMOs. Never the less, since their introduction to the mainstream market in 1996, they have boomed in popularity with producers.
According to a 2009 report from the International Association of Administrative Professionals, 85 percent of the maize crops in the United States were biotech (GMO), along with 75 percent of the cotton grown in the country.
"They (GMOs) are plants that have been genetically engineered, typically to bring in a gene or genes from a different species into a target crop," explained Steve Rhines, vice president and general counsel of the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. "In the U.S., there are (genetically modified) soybeans, corn, cotton, canola, squash, papaya and sugar beat, oddly enough."
Those in favor of GMO crops have argued that they are good for the environment because of what they can prevent.
"The argument that the industry would put is that you can reduce the amount of pesticides, reduce the amount of applied herbicides," Rhines explained. "It allows you to practice no-till farming. Their position is one of more environmental -- it reduces the amount of applied inputs. Their position is also that it is better for the environment and then you are able to reduce erosion by no-till farming, as well as prevent carbon dioxide release from plowing fields."
In 2009, there were 25 countries planting approximately 331 million acres of GMO crops. The GMO crops have become increasingly popular in the U.S. making it harder for organic producers to find things, like soybeans, for feed supplements in cattle or poultry.
"Soybeans grown globally, there was roughly 222 million acres grown and more than 77 percent of those are GMO soybeans," Rhines explained. "So, it is difficult now to find non-GMO soybeans because it dominates domestically the market, and what you are starting to see it is that it dominates the world market now.
"A number of countries, including Japan and Europe as a continent, are adverse to GMOs. There is only a fraction of U.S.-grown soybeans that are non-GMO, and they are really for exports into those markets," Rhines continued. "Those markets have been particularly closed to the idea of bringing in genetically modified crops, so there is an effort to make sure that those are not mixed -- because the last thing that you want is to shut down a whole market in Europe or so. I believe they are becoming a little more tolerant of GMO corn, but in large part they are really into the substantial raising of it in Europe, as a whole."
The popularity of GMO crops may stir the most controversy with organic growers, according to Rhines.
"Part of the backlash might be from groups that grow organic," Rhines explained. "You have to go to a standard that says 'I've only applied these brands of chemicals' and things like that, and they usually don't like any chemicals most of the time, and they don't contain any GMOs. For organic fruits, vegetables (and) beef, for example, they are able to charge a premium as you have seen in the produce store. So, as a consequence they don't want any GMO influence in those products, so they get a little upset at times over the idea that GMOs can kind of drift into the pollen flow and they create inadvertently a non-organic product.
"GMOs have been around since 1996, and there has been no conclusive data shown that they are not safe," he continued. "There is no conclusive date that there are any harmful, adverse effects to humans, to animals. I think were we are going with the USDA, our regulatory scene, it's very, very important to know that these are highly regulated.
"We often hear a lot of times it cost $500 million to take a drug from discovery all the way through the marketplace, that is a number that is thrown out by the mass media a lot, but it would show that it takes almost $80 million to do that with a GMO crop and most of that is tied up in regulatory, making sure that it has been evaluated for safety and it has been tested and it is safe to introduce. There is a lot of that $80 million goes into 13 years of study were you may reveal that it is simply not safe. That is why also that you see that there are really only two traits when this has been on the market since 1996."
GMO crops have been developed to have two traits, including resistance to pests or BT, and resistance to herbicides, such as Round Up.
"What you are able to do is go out there and spray it like you would grass in your yard with Roundup and kill (the weeds) -- it has got a gene in it that basically prevents it from dying from Roundup," Rhines said. "So when I go out in a Roundup Ready soybean field, I can go and spray the crop, and the only thing that is going to live through that is the soybean plant itself -- the weeds are going to be killed. So, as a consequence, you are able to get more per acre with a crop like that because it is not being choked out by weeds."
While there are only two current traits in GMO crops, there are people working to develop new traits for the crops.
"Only this year they are trying to introduce a drought-tolerant corn, which would open up the geography in which corn could be grown," Rhines said. "Bu,t you don't see a lot of different traits. They are really limited in the scale at this point. But, there is in the development pipeline where they would like to increase production yields. There are ideas of introducing Omega 3 fatty acids into soybeans, the same as what you would get in fish, so to make the soybeans healthier."
As the popularity and complexity of GMO crops increases, there may still be a few production sectors that remain hesitant. However, for American growers, most are happy to accept the innovation.
