Des Moines Register
03/05/06
Brasher: Weed-resistant alfalfa provides fodder to activists
Even hay is going biotech.
Monsanto Co.'s latest genetically engineered crop is alfalfa that is resistant to
glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller.
Farmers planted the first 50,000 acres of the biotech alfalfa last fall, and there will
be enough seed this spring for an additional 90,000 acres, the company says.
Farmers harvest about 22 million acres of alfalfa annually, 1.3 million acres of
which is in Iowa.
A small amount may be growing in Iowa. Fewer than 10 farmers bought seed last
fall, according to Monsanto. How much of the seed was planted is unknown.
Monsanto's alfalfa is the first bioengineered perennial crop, other than papaya,
that's been approved by the government for commercial-scale production.
This crop almost certainly won't approach the popularity of glyphosate-resistant
soybeans, which accounted for nearly 90 percent of the nation's entire soybean
acreage last year. Weeds are nowhere near the problem in growing alfalfa as
they are for soybeans.
But a group of environmentalists, farmers and anti-biotech activists say the crop
never should have been approved by the government and have sued to get the
seeds removed from the market.
Their lawsuit, filed in San Francisco, is seeking to force the Agriculture
Department to do an environmental impact study of the gene-altered alfalfa.
Pat Trask, an outspoken South Dakota rancher who got himself thrown out of the
local Farm Bureau leadership for criticizing a policy stand, claims that the biotech
alfalfa could contaminate his crops of conventional alfalfa seed.
Alfalfa is easily cross-pollinated by bees or the wind. The pollen can travel up to
two miles from its source.
"The way this spreads so far and wide, it will eliminate the conventional alfalfa
industry," says Trask.
His operation, Trask Family Seeds, farms about 15,000 acres of its own property
and custom-harvests alfalfa seed from other ranches in the Black Hills area.
Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the Sierra Club and the Washington- based
Center for Food Safety, an anti-biotech advocacy group, and the National Family
Farm Coalition.
The complaints laid out in the lawsuit aren't new to USDA.
The department considered the concerns raised by the lawsuit, including the
cross-pollination issue, before it approved the crop without doing a full
environmental study.
USDA officials noted that other biotech crops, including corn, don't have to be
isolated to prevent cross-pollinating other crops. Organic corn growers know that
all too well. And, USDA says, it's up to organic farmers to avoid cross-pollination,
not the other way around.
And USDA officials say there's unlikely to be significant pollination problems with
alfalfa anyway, for this rather obvious reason: Unlike corn, alfalfa is typically
harvested before it goes to flower, not after.
Unless, of course, you're growing the alfalfa for seed. Then, like Trask, you could
have a problem if your customers are expecting pure conventional or organic
seed.
Whether farmers actually buy the new Monsanto seed will depend on how much
of a weed problem they have and whether they're selling the hay to customers
who want it free of weed seed, says Charles Brummer, a forage specialist at
Iowa State University.
The biotech seeds carry a technology fee of $125 to $150 per 50-pound bag,
which could push the total price to about $400.
Monsanto claims the seed will pay for itself in getting the crop established the
first year. Farmers often plant cover crops such as oats with new alfalfa plantings
to prevent weeds from taking hold in the field.
"It's like any other technology. For some farmers it's going to be great. For other
farmers, it just isn't going to fit into their operation," he says.
The problem for producers like Trask: They don't want it in their operations, and
they don't want it in their neighbor's, either.