www.czu.cz ; www.usab-tm.ro ; www.raupp.info

Representatives from the World Food Prize Foundation, the American Soybean
Association (ASA), and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) spoke
June 14 during the second panel of a hearing at the U.S. Senate Committee on
Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, june 2005.

All three panelists discussed using agricultural biotechnology to help
meet the world's growing food needs. Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, president of
the World Food Prize Foundation, said the world will have to nearly double
food production by 2025 to meet demand.

Quinn said there are two options for doing this: increase yields through the
use of new technologies or expand agriculture into new areas, with all the
environmental consequences that would entail.

The World Food Prize Foundation supports solutions such as: conservation
tillage, "Golden Rice," and crops with resistance to abiotic stresses. The
group also wants to promote the primacy of science, support funding for
agricultural research, and visas for foreign scientists to work in the U.S.

To further progress in agriculture, Quinn said the World Food Prize
Foundation awards the equivalent of a Nobel Prize each year to an
agricultural scientist or scientists who have made a significant
contribution to world agriculture.

The Foundation also holds an annual conference that gathers prominent
agricultural scientists from around the world.

Ron Heck, chairman of the ASA, pointed out in his remarks that 2005 marks
the tenth anniversary of the first commercial cultivation of GM crops.

Heck, who was speaking on behalf of several industry organizations besides
his own, including the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), emphasized
the need for open markets around the world.

He said countries should take a science-based approach to regulating GM
crops, and should not require labeling or traceability.

Heck said that unfortunately some countries have instituted such
requirements domestically and are now "pushing" for them to become a global
standard at Codex. Heck expressed support for the U.S. case against the EU's
de facto moratorium at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

He also requested the initiation of an additional WTO challenge against
other EU trade barriers related to GM crops.

Jim Greenwood, chief executive officer at BIO, which represents over a
thousand biotechnology companies worldwide, said, "We recognize that strong
regulatory systems [for GM crops] are vital to consumer confidence."

Greenwood said GM crops are the most rapidly adopted technology in the
history of agriculture, and they represent a shift from chemically-based
agriculture to biologically-based agriculture.

In response to a question, he said the biggest challenge to acceptance of GM
crops is "mythology and misunderstanding." He commented that "multiple
agendas" are at work in Europe.

In part, Greenwood said "European resistance" can be attributed to a recent
history of food scares, such as with mad cow disease, but is also due to
"green politics," protectionism, anti-U.S. sentiment, and anti-capitalist
sentiment.

All three panelists discussed the future possibilities for "second
generation" GM crops. Senator Richard Luger and another senator at the
hearing emphasized the need to develop a soybean variety with resistance to
soy rust, a fungal disease that is spreading in the U.S.

The opening remarks of all the panelists at the hearing are now available
online at the link below.

[agriculture.senate.gov]

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