www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

Two groups issued contrasting reports on Thursday on the state of biotech
crops, with one touting acreage growth while the other cited continued
resistance by governments and consumers, January 2007 by Carey Gillam.

The biotech industry-supported Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications
(ISAAA) said that with U.S. farmers leading the way, the global area planted
with genetically modified crops grew 13 percent to 252 million acres in
2006.

The number of farmers planting biotech crops grew 2 percent to 10.3 million,
because of substantial economic, social, environmental, and agronomic
benefits, ISAAA said.

"This high rate of adoption is a vote of confidence of millions of small and
large farmers in 22 industrial and developing countries," ISAAA founder
Clive James told reporters on a conference call.

Consumer and environmental group Greenpeace International, however, said
that global concerns continue to limit the acceptance of genetically
engineered crops.

"There is irrefutable evidence that governments, farmers and consumers
throughout the world recognize that genetic engineering is unreliable,
unviable or downright dangerous," said Greenpeace campaign spokesman Jeremy
Tager in a statement.

A separate report issued earlier this month by Friends of the Earth
International and the U.S.-based Center for Food Safety said that more than
70 percent of biotech crop acreage was still limited to United States and
Argentina and that biotech crops had failed to address key challenges facing
farmers in most countries of the world.

Indeed, more than half of the world's biotech farmland is in the United
States, and 38 percent of the remainder is in Argentina, according to ISAAA.

The biotech critics, who believe the crops can harm human health and the
environment, said that last year's contamination of conventional rice
supplies with an unapproved biotech variety developed by Bayer CropScience,
a division of Bayer AG, furthered concerns worldwide about a lack of proper
regulatory oversight.

But ISAAA's James said that biotech rice is expected to be a key driver of
adoption of biotech crops by more than 20 million farmers and possibly as
much as 80 million farmers. The next decade should see significant growth of
biotech crops in Asia and the developing countries of India, China and the
Philippines, as well as Pakistan and Vietnam, he said.

[today.reuters.com]