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Corn, rewired

Bolstered by U.S. support, genetically engineered crops are beginning to sprout around the EU

By Michael Heitmann
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
September 19th, 2007 issue

When harvest comes later this month, Fred Yoder and Vítězslav Navrátil expect to be pleased with the quality of their genetically engineered ears of corn.
For Yoder, an American who owns a small family farm in the U.S. Midwest town of Plain City, Ohio, there is no question of whether the broader public will accept his corn.
“It’s just not a concern for the U.S. consumer. He feels it’s good [to eat],” said Yoder, who attended a biotech conference in Prague Sept. 12, serving in his role as head of the U.S. National Corn Growers Association.
For European farmers like Navrátil, chairman of the Rostěnice farming company in south Moravia, the prospects for their genetically engineered (GE) crops are not nearly as sunny as those of their U.S. counterparts.
Over the past decade, the United States has made a large push to introduce GE crops worldwide, an approach that has contrasted sharply with the European Union’s cautionary stance. Spurred by questions of food safety and potential environmental damage, European farmers have faced major challenges and strict regulation in growing modified crops — none more significant than the skeptical European consumer.
Despite the reluctance of its neighbors, no EU country is more open to encouraging the development of GE crops than the Czech Republic. According to EU surveys, 46 percent of the population has tossed in their support, far higher than the EU average of 27 percent.
Since 2005, the use of bioengineered corn has increased 17 times, from 270 hectares (667 acres) to 5,000 hectares. (The country’s farmers handle a total of 500,000 hectares.) The Czech Republic is one of only six EU countries where GE corn is grown, along with Spain, France, Portugal, Germany and Romania.
Undue delays
GE corn currently grows on 300 of the Rostěnice farm’s 8,000 hectares, up 200 hectares from last year. Most of the grain stays within the business, used to feed pigs and poultry, with the remainder sold to feed compounds, Navrátil said.
Navrátil would like to increase his production of genetically modified corn but still faces the challenge of public acceptance. In Europe, most GE corn planted ends up as cattle feed or is used for biofuel production. Regulations require manufacturers to label foods meant for human consumption with explicit labeling, and food producers are wary of being singled out for this dubious honor.
“Once we have overcome this barrier of public acceptance, it is our aim to plant GE corn on our complete acreage — minus the safety barrier,” Navrátil said.
The barrier is a 70-meter (230-foot) buffer zone that farmers must establish around any GE crops, to protect neighboring farmland from crosspollination — and contamination. In the United States, no such buffer is required.
Still, Navrátil is glad that he at least has permission to plant Bt-corn, as the variant is called. The EU has been slow to approve new GE strains, and, from 1998 to 2004, it placed a de-facto moratorium on approving any new genetically modified products. The United States and Canada complained about this moratorium to the World Trade Organization, which ruled last year that the EU had broken international trade rules for its “undue delay” in approving GE products.
Since 2004, the EU has approved more than 30 modified crops, officials say.
Bt-corn was developed in the 1990s, when scientists added a gene of naturally occurring Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria to corn. The resulting Bt-corn produces a protein that kills insect larvae. Its primary target is the European corn borer, whose caterpillars chew tunnels through ears and stalks, serving as entryways for all sorts of fungi.
Navrátil has reported 10 percent higher revenues, mainly due to the better quality of his crops since he adopted Bt-corn. Using the corn also helps eliminate pest-control costs, said Yoder, the U.S. farmer.
“I no longer spray my corn for insects,” he said. “I want corn that has protection in itself.”
Critics say the corn also affects beneficial insects. But Yoder says he has seen more biodiversity since he started using Bt-corn and stopped tilling his fields.
“We leave the residue on top,” he said. “I’ve had wildlife come back that I’ve never seen before.”
The EU’s concerns are well-founded, said Greenpeace campaigner Magdalena Klimavičová. “Genetically modified organisms have brought no economic opportunities and carry unacceptable risks to the environment and human health,” she said.
The choices of European citizens need to be respected, she added.
“European consumers want healthy food, and organic agriculture is booming,” she said. “The time has come for politicians to respect the will of the people who elected them and to ban the import and cultivation of genetically modified organisms throughout Europe.”
In the end, the acceptance of GE crops will come down to money, said Richard H. Phipps, a professor at the University of Reading in England who studies GE crops.
 “If you are not competitive on a global level, you are out, down and done, too,” he said. “Biotechnology is not a silver bullet, but it can help in a number of areas.”

Michael Heitmann can be reached at mheitmann@praguepost.com


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