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No biotech wheat
Dear Editor,
Americans across this great nation have denounced government interference in their lives. Fear of our own government abounds today. It is evident in the health care debate where Americans don't want the government telling them where to get health insurance, what treatments they can have, which doctor they need to see or when it is time for them to give up and die. It is evident on both sides of climate control legislation. One side is afraid of the Environmental Protection Agency and the other side is afraid of government requirement on emissions in all aspects of our life -- including agriculture.
It was evident last week as Nebraska WIFE held its annual conference in Hastings. WIFE members expressed grave concern with increasing government interference in our lives. Areas of concern included gun control, the horse slaughter ban which has caused more than 100,000 neglected or abandoned horses in the U.S., lack of enforcement of the Packer Stockyard Act with government condoning the ever-increasing power of large agribusinesses, health care reform adversely affecting social security and Medicare, increased expenses for agriculture with a wide-sweeping energy bill, and the lack of true free trade.
Because the use of biotechnology in corn and soybean crops has led to farmer enslavement to large biotech companies own grown seed, Nebraska WIFE voted to oppose the use of biotechnology in wheat and other cereal grains.
The current oversupply of wheat in the world was also a consideration in the decision. Fully aware of widespread hunger in the world, WIFE members noted that hunger is not caused by a lack of available supply but by our inability to get the food to those who need it, either because of cost or transportation problems.
Farmgate prices for wheat, an important crop in Nebraska, have plummeted on the Kansas City Board of Trade at the same time millers are heavily discounting low protein wheat. At our local co-op today, the basis for Kansas City wheat was $1.15, leaving the local price around $3.50 or roughly one-third of the high for the last marketing year. This year's harvest certainly demonstrated what wheat farmers can produce. There simply is not enough demand to use that much wheat. If the use of biotech successfully increases wheat production by 20 percent, would we face another 20 percent reduction in farmgate prices?
The profit picture in wheat is extremely tight now and the safety net has not been triggered. Could farmers afford to raise wheat for a 20 percent reduction in price? WIFE members did not think so and voted to oppose the use of biotech in wheat.
Biotech wheat would increase the cost of producing wheat because farmers would no longer be able to grow and retain their own seed. Just like in soybeans and corn, tech agreements would be signed to eliminate the replanting of biotech seed with penalties for doing so.
Another consideration was the opposition of many of our trading partners to the use of biotech in a food crop like wheat. Europe and Japan are just two major examples. What happens when we start losing export markets? And can we keep the biotech wheat separated from the non-biotech wheat? On this one the battle cry needs to be "Remember Star Link."
The world population is predicted to increase rapidly. Maybe in the future we will need to use biotechnology to produce enough to feed the world. Right now that simply isn't the case.
Pamela Potthoff,
President
Nebraska Women Involved in Farm Economics
Trenton