24 March 27, 2014 2014 LOGAN COUNTY FARM OUTLOOK MAGAZINE LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com
opportunities light-years forward. Select desired traits
could be identified and inserted directly into the seed
genome.
The first genetically engineered seed to enter
commercial production was a corn that was resistant
to glyphosate herbicides. Roundup Ready corn was
put out by Monsanto in 1996.
Since that time, corn — or maize, as it was known
to indigenous Americans — has had a trait added
that causes leaves to grow at a more upright angle,
catching more of the sun. The result: greater food
production within the plant, thereby a healthier plant,
more weather-tolerant and resistant to disease and
insects. In another added trait, the single ear forms at
combine-blade height.
Yet, another trait changes the maturity time, and a
shorter time in the field reduces risks of crop failure
by decreasing potential exposure to extreme weather
conditions — temperatures, wind and moisture.
Planting longer and shorter maturities allows
staggered harvest times — great for spreading out
labor, thereby again, potentially reducing mature
product time in the field subjected to potentially
damaging weather.
Soybeans, too, offer single and stacked traits for
disease and pest resistance, variable maturity rates,
and greater weather tolerance, with herbicide-
tolerant traits still being one of the more favored
characteristics selected for today’s fields.
Biotechnology seed varieties offer single or stacked
traits requiring less chemical use, less cultivation,
lower costs in labor and fuel, thereby providing
greater land stewardship for overall positive
environmental impacts with consistently higher yields.
For commercial crops today, the farmer can pick
and choose seed in conjunction with environmental
conditions and chosen methods of farming. Many
great non-GM seeds still populate the market and
are now being looked at as potentially beneficial
in rotational use to prevent adaptation of pests and
diseases — another means to mess with the pesky
little buggers.
While technology is now providing more solutions
with precision seed traits, it has by no means been
accomplished overnight or cheaply. In the U.S., a new
biotech product undergoes rigorous and time-intensive
processes that can take 13 years and average $136
million. Before the product enters the commercial
market, the Food and Drug Administration, the
Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture must all grant approval.
Looking at crop production today that the world relies
on for commercial food, fiber and fuel production, it
is difficult to comprehend that it all began with wild
plants. It has been a long process but one that is no
longer a haphazard accident.
“The responsible genetic modification of plants is
neither new nor dangerous. The addition of new or
different genes into an organism by recombinant DNA
techniques does not inherently pose new or heightened
risks relative to the modification of organisms by
more traditional methods, and the relative safety
of marketed products is further ensured by current
regulations intended to safeguard the food supply.”
— Statement in 2003 by 20 Nobel Prize winners and
3,200 international scientists.
By Jan Youngquist
[Bibliography can be found on page 44]
