Bio-tech forum

reveals ag future

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

GILFILLAN -- Coming to a grocery shelf near you--yogurt that will reduce your appetite, oats that will lower your cholesterol, bananas that will vaccinate you against Hepatitus B, milk that prevents colon cancer and Alzheimer's Disease, and potatoes that will prevent cholera and adult onset diabetes.

This isn't the end of the good news.

The University of Minnesota is studying broccoli that will prevent cancer, soybeans that will prevent prostate cancer in men and improve heart blood vessel disease in women.

Alfalfa is being developed in Argentina that will immunize livestock.

Speaking in the Farmfest Forum Tent Wednesday, Dr. Charles Muscoplat, Vice President of the University of Minnesota College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences said the science of genomics will have a "monster" effect on agriculture and help Minnesota producers capture value.

At the same time, no technology is risk-free.

Benefits are weighed against negative impacts.

The population of the world will increase by one third, from six billion to nine billion by 2050.

That increase will require more farm land ­ equal to the land mass of the entire United States. Throw in global warming and rainfall changes for good measure.

Biotechnology in agriculture will have a bigger impact than the steel plow, rural electrification and hybrid seed corn put together, according to American Soybean Association Board Chairman Mike Yost.

"Whether you like it or not, it's here to stay," said Yost. "It is driven by consumer demand for a healthier and more abundant diet and society's need for renewable resources."

This year, 40 million acres of Roundup-Ready soybeans will be planted.

Why?

They are cost effective, convenient, geared for no-till farming, safe for the consumer and the environment, have been approved by federal agencies with over 1,800 tests, and are all legal anywhere else in the world.

Yost said opposition to bio-tech agriculture in Europe, the Far East and South Pacific is due to anti-American sentiment and fear of the unknown.

"Green Peace has used this issue to rejuvenate themselves by raising a lot of money to create an enormous political effect in Europe," said Yost.

The European Union is also using the issue as an artificial trade barrier, he said.

"Their agriculture is not nearly as efficient as ours is," said Yost. "They are always looking for something to hide behind. Science is not in their back seat. It's in the trunk. Politics is driving much of the issue there."

Yost said tech fees are another problem. They do not charge them for Roundup-Ready soybeans in Argentina, so they cost $9 a bag there, and $20 here.

He said Argentina has a bio-tech soybean being held on the shelf until laws are strengthened so they can charge the same price for products all over the world.

Yost said the biggest threat to bio-tech agriculture worldwide is patent rights and intellectual property rights.

It is important that bio-tech companies are not allowed to patent or protect every new bio-tech property or hybrid.

"These new products must be kept in the public domain, or their production could be held up or even lost," said Yost.

He said there is no need to panic about biotechnology but it should be a concern.

The bio-tech debate is about fear, not facts; hypothetical risk, not safety; politically correct rather than environmentally friendly pesticides; and feeding social and political agendas instead of feeding people, according to Yost.

Thursday's Forum Tent menu includes "Commodity Marketing, an Analysts' View" at 9:30 a.m., "The Internet ... Changing Trends in Ag Retailing and Marketing" at 11 a.m., the noon hour Ag Jamboree, a perennial flower tour at 1:30 p.m. in the Extension Tent and the Antique Farm Road Show at 2:30 p.m.