As drought
hits corn, biotech firms see lush field in GMO crops
Monsanto has received regulatory approval for DroughtGard, a corn
variety that contains the first genetically modified trait for drought
resistance.
September 17, 2012, 5:00 a.m.
WOODLAND,
Calif. — The worst U.S. drought in half a century is withering the nation's
corn crop, but it's a fertile opportunity for makers of genetically modified
crops.
Agricultural
biotechnology companies have been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into
developing plants that can withstand the effects of a prolonged dry spell. Monsanto Co.,
based in St. Louis, has received regulatory approval for DroughtGard, a corn
variety that contains the first genetically modified trait for drought
resistance.
Seed
makers, such as Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. of Johnston, Iowa, and Swiss
company Syngenta, are
already selling drought-tolerant corn varieties, conceived through conventional
breeding.
At
stake: a $12-billion U.S. seed market, with corn comprising the bulk of sales.
The grain is used in such things as animal feed, ethanol and food. The push is
also on to develop soybean, cotton and wheat that can thrive in a world that's
getting hotter and drier.
"Drought
is definitely going to be one of the biggest challenges for our growers,"
said Jeff Schussler, senior research manager for Pioneer, the agribusiness arm
of DuPont. "We are trying to create products for farmers to be prepared
for that."
Their
efforts come amid concerns about genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, and
the unforeseen consequences of this genetic tinkering. Californians in November
will vote on Proposition 37, which would require foods to carry labels if they
were genetically modified. The majority of corn seed sold is modified to resist
pests and reap higher yields.
Opponents
say the label would unnecessarily dampen further development that is intended
to feed a growing global population dependent on the U.S., the largest exporter
of corn and soybean.
"Trying
to create drought-tolerant crops is not going to be easy to do," said Kent
Bradford, director of the Seed Biotechnology Center at UC Davis.
"We certainly need all the tools [available] to do that, and that includes
conventional breeding and adding transgenic traits. We don't need to stigmatize
these approaches."
To
that end, Monsanto and DuPont, among others, have donated millions of dollars
to the "No on 37" group, which has raised about $25 million to combat
the labeling effort. Those in support of labeling say the law is merely
intended to give consumers more information about the food they eat — and to
draw attention to GMO ingredients.
"I
find it really funny that [opponents] are so scared of labeling," said
Ignacio Chapela, a UC
Berkeley professor of microbial ecology. "I'm not saying that
every GMO is deadly, but I'm also recognizing that we shouldn't be so glib
about it and look the other way and hope for the best."
Despite
objections from anti-GMO activists, biotech companies are going full steam
ahead on developing and patenting drought-tolerant plants they can sell at a
premium. "We as a research group are focusing on this 100% of the
time," Pioneer's Schussler said. "A year like this, where you have
this really widespread drought over a large portion of the Midwest, is very
unusual."
Just
outside Sacramento, in the small city of Woodland, Pioneer operates a research
facility that helped develop its Optimum AquaMax line. The corn hybrids are
touted to improve yields as much as 7% compared with other seeds.
The
facility, which looks like a large corn farm, is dedicated largely to drought
research. Here, researchers evaluate hundreds of genes yearly, looking for ones
they hope can be used in future product lines. The roughly 300-acre center, set
amid flat farmland in the Sacramento Valley, is a hodgepodge of corn plots
undergoing stress treatments to see how well they fare under water-limited
conditions.
One
well-watered corn plot is a lush shade of green, its 12-foot-tall plants heavy
with thick corncobs. A couple of hundred yards away sits a plot denied water
during the flowering stage to see how drought might affect it. The result was
clear: stunted, yellow and withered plants with few kernels per cob. But for
all their efforts, researchers say even drought-hardy varieties are not
guaranteed to survive an extended drought.
"There's
only so much you can do," said Renee Lafitte, a research fellow at
Pioneer's Woodland research facility who has studied drought tolerance for
almost three decades. "This is not cactus."
"What
we're trying to provide is insurance against these types of weather
changes," Lafitte said.
Monsanto
is in the final stages of field tests of its DroughtGard hybrid. About 250 corn
growers in the western Plains planted about 10,000 acres of the seed this year
to test its effectiveness. The harvest is now underway.
Growers
have reported that the seed has performed relatively well compared with
competitors' hybrids, said Mark Edge, marketing lead for the product line. The
new lines of corn "don't have great yields, but they're going to have
yields," he said. "There is no silver bullet to these complex
issues."
DroughtGard,
which was specifically engineered for the arid climates of Kansas, Texas, South
Dakota and other states in the region, is expected to be commercially available
next year, Edge said. The new lines of drought-tolerant crops are only the
beginning. Scientists have no plans to let up on research to improve these
first-generation seeds and develop a corn plant to protect corn growers' bottom
lines.
U.S.
farmers took advantage of an early planting season because of favorable weather
conditions and planted 96.4 million acres of corn this spring, the most acreage
since 1937. That led to huge profit gains for corn-seed sellers: Monsanto saw
its second-quarter corn seed business grow to $2.82 billion, up almost 18% from
the year-earlier period. DuPont reported a 13% rise in second-quarter sales for
its agriculture division to $3.4 billion, led by its corn sales.
But
the intense heat of this summer's drought destroyed more than half the corn
crop. The last time the harvest was expected to be this bad was in 1995. Corn
prices have set records ahead of an expected shortage that will ripple down to
consumers, who will pay more for their food this fall and into next year. Improvements
are slow to come because there isn't a single gene to fight drought's effects,
said Mitch Tuinstra, an agronomy professor at Purdue University
in Indiana.
"Will
we ever get to the point that corn will thrive in a year like this? No.... But
I don't think there's false hopes that we're going to improve the productivity
of maize," Tuinstra said. Among improvements that can be made to a plant
are breeding corn stalks that grow longer, more efficient roots. Scientists are
also working to better synchronize plant pollination during flowering.
"Our
goal is, of course, to keep up with Mother Nature," Pioneer's Schussler
said. Skeptics of GMO crops say Monsanto and other firms may cause more harm
than good, particularly to the environment. Studies have shown
"super" weeds have begun choking millions of acres of farmland. These
weeds have developed resistance to certain herbicides — much like the
genetically manipulated corn and soybean varieties that dominate the seed
market.
Additionally,
companies should urge farmers to plant a wider variety of crops and work on
improving soil fertility, said Doug Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist for the
Union of Concerned Scientists' Food and Environment Program. But profit-driven
firms are focused on seed sales, Gurian-Sherman said — not necessarily
improving farming practices.
"This
can potentially make a big difference," he said. "But these kinds of
approaches are really not of great interest to companies. There are no products
involved."
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