World Grain - October 2014 - 64

FEATURE: GMO DEBATE GROWS AS CROP AREA RISES

presence policy that would allow a shipment containing a small amount of an
exporting country's approved trait not
resulting in rejection by an importer
who has not approved the trait.
Wilkins suggested to the Senate committee the E.U.'s labeling policy for
foods containing bioengineered ingredients may be in violation of World Trade
Organization (WTO) commitments.
"The E.U. could have provided information to consumers without distorting
trade by establishing voluntary labeling standards for non-biotech foods,"
Wilkins said. "As a WTO member, the
E.U. is obliged to choose a less restrictive measure if one that accomplishes its
objective is available."
Perhaps the most recent example of
using GMO's as a trade tool involves
China, which has rejected some cargoes
of U.S. corn and distillers dried grains in
recent months because traces of a nonapproved bioengineered corn variety
were found in the shipments. It generally was believed in the trade that China
rejected the shipments because its own
grain stocks were sufficient or heavy
at the time. The actions pressured U.S.
corn and feed ingredient prices.
U.S., GLOBAL GMO
ACREAGE INCREASING
Many key commodity crops, including corn, soybeans, cotton, canola, sugar beets and alfalfa have been widely
adopted by farmers globally over the
past 18 years. Those six, plus a handful of specialty crops, are grown in the
United States.
In its June 30 Acreage report, the
USDA included results from a national survey of selected farmers asked if
they planted bioengineered corn, soybean or upland cotton seed that was
resistant to herbicides, insects or both
(stacked). The survey showed that
93% of the corn planted in 2014 was
of bioengineered varieties, up from
90% last year, 94% of all soybean
seed planted was of bioengineered varieties, up slightly from 93%, and 96%
of cotton plantings were of bioengi64

neered seed, up from 90%.
While not included in the June survey, the trade estimates about 95% of
U.S. sugar beets are of bioengineered
varieties, all glyphosate resistant
(Roundup Ready).
But bioengineered traits other than
insect and herbicide resistance also are
gaining acceptance.
"Given the importance of drought on
crop productivity, exacerbated by climate change, drought tolerance is judged
to be an important development," the
International Service for the Acquisition
of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA)
said in the executive summary of its annual brief on global bioengineered crops
released earlier this year. "In the United
States, approximately 2,000 farmers
planted about 50,000 hectares of the
first biotech drought-tolerant maize,"
the ISAAA said. Drought-tolerant corn
technology has been donated to Africa
and planting of such varieties is expected in 2017, the ISAAA said.
Indonesia has developed and approved planting of a drought-tolerant
sugar cane variety and plans to commercialize it for planting in 2014, the
ISAAA said. It would be the first approval of a bioengineered sugar cane
variety in the world.
On a global basis, there were about 18
million farmers in 27 countries growing
bioengineered crops on over 175.2 million hectares in 2013, the ISAAA said in
its annual brief. Total biotech crop area
increased 5 million hectares, or 3%,
from 2012.
The organization noted that 19 of the
27 countries growing bioengineered
crops were developing countries and
eight were industrialized countries, with
90% of the farmers planting biotech
crops considered small and resource
poor. Soybeans are the most widespread
planted biotech crop with 84.5 million
hectares in 2013, equal to 79% of global plantings. There were 57.4 million
hectares of biotech corn planted, equal
to 32% of global plantings, 23.9 million hectares of cotton, equal to 70% of
plantings, and 8.2 million acres of cano-

la, equal to 24% of global plantings, the
ISAAA said.
According to the ISAAA, the United
States leads the world with 70.1 million
hectares of bioengineered crops and
90% adoption across all crops. Brazil is
second with 40.3 hectares of soybeans,
corn and cotton, Argentina third with
the same three crops, India fourth with
cotton, and Canada fifth with canola,
corn, soybeans and sugar beets. Biotech
area in Canada declined from 11.6 million hectares to 10.8 million hectares in
2013 as farmers decreased biotech canola area in favor of wheat. Canada's 2013
wheat crop was record large.
The ISAAA suggested China, with
only 4.2 million hectares of bioengineered crops, stood to benefit greatly
from increased adoption, especially of
bioengineered corn and soybeans.
"The lack of appropriate, sciencebased and cost/time-effective systems
continues to be the major constraint to
(biotech) adoption," the ISAAA said.
"Responsible, rigorous but not onerous, regulation is needed, particularly
for small and poor developing countries
who are 'locked out' completely because of the high cost of developing and
gaining approval of a biotech crop."
WHEAT, RICE KEY
EXCEPTIONS TO GMO
The exceptions to GMO crop use in
the United States and globally are wheat
and rice, the world's two primary food
grains. Bioengineered "golden rice,"
which addresses vitamin A deficiency, may be ready for commercialization in some Asian countries by 2016.
Bioengineered wheat is a bit further off.
Wheat finds itself in a difficult situation. U.S. planted wheat area at an estimated 56.5 million acres this year has
declined 31.8 million acres, or 36%,
since peaking at 88.3 million acres in
1981. Much of that decline has been
attributed to farmers choosing to plant
more profitable crops, including corn
and soybeans, which have benefited
from higher yields and lower production
costs because of widespread adoption
October 2014 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - October 2014

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