Luke Pachymuthu
The push to promote genetically modified (GM) wheat to combat global food
shortages could slow as global commodity prices ease, a top industry
executive said on Sunday.

"Now that prices have fallen off their peak, I don't think it will be a
priority," said Vijay Iyengar, managing director of the Singapore-based
grains trader Agrocorp International Pte Ltd.

"Because of the record high prices we saw the push for increasing supplies,
and so the call for genetically modified grain seeds received a lot of
attention."

Resistance from the public and consumer groups in rich countries to
genetically modified wheat has forced major producing countries like
Australia, the United States and Canada to steer away from growing GM crops.

No commercial transgenic wheat currently exists in world markets due to
strong opposition by consumer and environmental groups in many countries.

The European Union has not approved any genetically modified crops for a
decade and the 27 member countries often clash on the issue.

Japan supports genetic research, but the public is strongly opposed to
genetically modified wheat and rice.

But the future push for GM seeds does have some potential with the success
of India's cotton production, Iyengar said.

India surpassed the U.S. to become the second-biggest producer of cotton in
2006-2007 after adopting GM crops.

India's GM cotton area is estimated at 6.33 million hectares or 66 percent
of the total cotton area in 2007-2008, up from 3.69 million hectares in
2006-2007, data from the Cotton Advisory Board showed.

"The success of GM cotton in India is encouraging with the production of a
hardy crop, where crop levels have improved," Iyengar said.

"The issues surrounding using GM seeds will be overlooked if you can
replicate similar yield levels for grains."
www.checkbiotech.org