Two months from harvest, BNSF is apparently standing by its April decision not to haul any Agrisure in its grain cars.
ART HOVEY / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 7:00 pm
The leadership at Syngenta Seeds portrays its new genetically enhanced version of root-worm resistant corn as an important addition to farmers’ insect-fighting arsenal.
A spokesman for the Nebraska Grain and Feed Association in Lincoln calls it “a StarLink waiting to happen.”
The latter characterization, offered by grain-handling executive Pat Ptacek, is likely to attract plenty of attention from those who farmed through a seed-industry debacle that began in the 1990s and eventually resulted in corn producers collecting more than $100 million in damages.
The cash settlement compensated producers after traces of StarLink corn not federally approved for human consumption got beyond an Aventis CropScience system meant to route all the grain toward livestock customers.
Some of the corn grown with that genetically modified product turned up in taco shells, corn chips and other common grocery store purchases, raising fears about allergies and other potential health impacts.
Managers at Nebraska grain elevators, as they look ahead to the 2007 harvest, also are remembering the StarLink contamination in their bins and the tests they had to pay for to verify that the rest of their corn supply was StarLink free.
Syngenta’s Tom Gahm, speaking for the Swiss company with a major presence in seed sales in the United States, said there are plenty of positive distinctions to make between its marketing of Syngenta Agrisure RW and what happened with StarLink.
“I’ve heard comparisons,” Gahm said from the company’s seed headquarters in Golden Valley, Minn., “but it’s really not an accurate comparison.”
For starters, Syngenta had full federal approval before the 2007 crop was planted to sell its seed to produce corn for both food and feed use.
Gahm also cites an upgraded quality-control system that is supposed to keep all of the Agrisure RW (as in rootworm) output from reaching international customers that have yet to issue similar approvals.
The background for the new seed-corn controversy includes hefty research investments and intense competition among seed companies in marketing the latest biotechnology breakthroughs. It also includes fears about a 2007 seed shortage and references to a boom in production of grain-based ethanol.
“Given the large demand for corn, primarily driven by ethanol,” said Gahm, “here’s a new technology that’s approved for use in the United States.”
But assurances from Syngenta about adequate controls on sales distribution of corn grown with Agrisure RW seed aren’t good enough for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, a major carrier of corn from Nebraska and other Midwestern states to West Coast ports.
Two months from harvest, the BNSF is apparently standing by its April decision not to haul any Agrisure in its grain cars.
The railroad also warned in April that it would hold somebody accountable for any financial damages that might result from Agrisure RW being loaded onto its grain trains.
BNSF spokeswoman Suann Lundsberg would not answer any questions about the railroad’s position Tuesday. “We’re just letting the National Grain and Feed Association handle all the calls,” Lundsberg said.
Randy Gordon, the grain association’s vice president for communications and government relations in Washington, D.C., was happy to oblige.
“This situation basically emerged when Syngenta made what we think was a rather precipitous and unwise business decision to go ahead and commercialize Agrisure RW before obtaining any foreign, international market approvals,” Gordon said.
According to Gordon, this is the first time a company has acted without getting the green light from at least one country from the ranks of major international grain destinations.
Expanding on an article that appeared in a recent Nebraska Grain and Feed newsletter, Ptacek said plenty of objections were raised before Syngenta decided to go ahead with 2007 sales. “They did it anyway,” he said.
Gordon said he is less than completely comforted by the knowledge that farmers signed agreements with Syngenta stipulating they would sell corn from their Agrisure RW fields for purposes other than export.
“Accidents happen,” he said, and “we didn’t want to see export markets put at risk.”
Ptacek agreed. “A farmer is not going to be quite as concerned about cross contamination in the heat of harvest. And, of course, that’s what happened” with StarLink.
Gahm disputed Gordon’s claim about an unprecedented decision. “This is not the first trait that has been marketed without export approvals,” he said. “It’s happened before.”
No matter what railroad executives or grain elevator managers think, “we’re committed to having exporter approvals prior to harvest,” Gahm said.
Two key markets, Japan and Mexico, the latter a common destination for dried distillers grain left over from ethanol production, are “moving rapidly toward approval,” Gahm said.
Gordon said there could be as many as 500,000 acres of Agrisure RW fields growing toward maturity.
Gahm wasn’t willing to specify where those acres are. “It’s grown across the corn belt,” he said, “especially where there are problems with corn root worm.”
Would the root worm target zone include Nebraska?“
“It sure would,” Gahm said.
Reach Art Hovey at 523-4949 or at ahovey@alltel.net.