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An old joke among farmers says that North Carolina should drop its current
motto - "Esse Quam Videri" (to be rather than to seem) - and replace it with
something a bit more direct: "Tobacco is a vegetable." August 2005 by Ted
Sheely.

I have no idea how to say that in Latin, but I do know that the future of
agriculture in the Tarheel State may make many traditional farming practices
as obsolete as the dead language of the Romans.

That's happening around the world, as farmers adopt biotechnology because it
increases their yields and helps the environment. Although biotech crops
were introduced for commercial use just a decade ago, somewhere this spring
a farmer planted the world's one-billionth acre of genetically enhanced
crops. Biotechnology is rapidly becoming the 'new conventional'.

North Carolina is on the cutting edge of this transformation. Today, North
Carolina farmers routinely plant 3 million acres of biotech enhanced cotton,
corn and soybeans to fight crop loss from pests and weeds. Even further in
the vanguard are a test plot in Washington County and a legislative effort
in Raleigh to protect farmers from anti-biotech activism.

In June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture granted permits for the
biotechnology company Ventria to plant 75 acres of government-regulated
biotech rice in Washington County. The crop has been enhanced to include
special proteins that occur naturally in mother's milk and saliva. If
scientists and regulators like what they see, the rice eventually could find
multiple uses - including supplying the ingredients for the sports drinks
that basketball player's sip during Duke-N.C. games.

There are many other possible applications. The rice also could boost the
nutrition found in baby formula and help combat the deadly diarrhea wracking
infants in developing countries.

The bottom line is that this is an exciting new technology with both
commercial and humanitarian uses. We should all hope that those 75 acres in
Washington County meet or exceed expectations, both for the sake of North
Carolina farmers as well as the consumers around the world who will benefit
from what they might grow.

Unfortunately, biotechnology has its enemies and antagonists. Although
they've experienced some success in Europe (sparking a major trade dispute
between the EU and most of the rest of the world), they haven't achieved
much in the United States.

Their failures haven't come from a lack of effort, however--and they've
established a worrisome beachhead here in California, where several counties
and localities have banned biotech crops. The activists have lost more
battles than they've won, but they've also enjoyed enough success to remain
encouraged.

The bad news is they may begin to target new places, such as Washington
County. The good news is that North Carolina has been warned.

That's why the bill in Raleigh is so important. It will give the state board
of agriculture the sole authority to regulate and ban plants--meaning that
North Carolinians will still have the regulatory protections they want but
that localities won't become vulnerable to anti-biotech activism, as they
have in California.

This law is an important precaution--a step worth taking now. One
organization, the Action Group on Erosion, Technology, and Concentration,
has already voiced objections to the regulated test plot. The supporters of
biotechnology should answer their concerns, but also remain aware of the
fact that activists in California and elsewhere often ignore scientific
evidence that the broader public accepts.

North Carolina farmers themselves--even those who have no plans to grow
biotech crops--are proving to be quite sensible about Washington County's
rice. Organic growers sometimes worry that genetically enhanced pollen will
enter their fields, but the rice plot almost certainly won't have this
effect because the regulators and breeders watching over it have established
aggressive controls to contain pollen.

"It's a virtual impossibility," said Wade Hubers, on the possibility that
the biotech rice will find its way into his fields, in an interview with the
Winston-Salem Journal. Hubers is an organic farmer who plants corn and
soybeans 12 miles away from the biotech rice.

So maybe that old motto should stay the same: North Carolina really is
friendly to biotechnology, rather than just seeming so. This will be
especially true if Raleigh gives its farmers an additional safeguard against
those who want to halt innovation.

[www.agweb.com]

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