ENGINEERED CROPS FACE BARREN SEASON FARMERS FEAR CONTROVERSY OVER GENETICALLY ALTERED SEED MAY MAKE HARVEST UNMARKETABLE. By Peter Kendall Tribune Environment Writer January 24, 2000 Last spring, half the soybeans Terry Wolf planted on his farm in central Illinois were genetically engineered, technologically wondrous crops that gave him an edge in the never-ending battle with cocklebur, water hemp and other pernicious weeds. This year, though, he'll plant none of the high-tech beans. As Wolf and other farmers across the state buy bags of seed and ready their tractors for spring planting, many are turning away from genetically engineered plants for the first time since the crops stormed the market in 1995. They fear that the crops they sow might be hard to sell if controversy over genetically modified organisms grows over the summer along with their corn and soybeans. "I would hate to raise 1,200 acres of soybeans and find out I can't deliver them anywhere," Wolf said. "The issue is going to be too volotile to take that risk." Farmers are pinned in a scientific, political and emotional debate over the new crops, souped-up with genetic traits borrowed from other organisms. These plants have remarkable traits, growing their own insecticides or helping farmers control weeds. Sometimes to the dismay of farmers, the crops have also raised environmental and health concerns, leading to a backlash against genetically engineered foods in Europe and Japan. No one can predict whether a similar, though currently much smaller, backlash might grow into something big in this country too. The seed companies have staked their futures on the technology and say sales of genetically engineered seeds are on par with last year and in some cases are stronger. But across Illinois, grain elevators, mills and corn processors are telling farmers there is no guarantee the crops grown from the seeds will fetch top dollar in the fall. Some, including Frito-Lay Inc., have begun telling their Illinois farmers not to plant any genetically engineered crops at all. Last year, 168 million pounds of corn--some of it genetically engineered--was processed through Frito-Lay's plant in Downstate Sidney. This year, none of it will be genetically engineered. "There is some consumer confusion out there, so we thought it was an appropriate time to step back and wait and see," said Lynn Markley, a spokeswoman for Texas-based Frito-Lay. Illinois Cereal Mills, owned by Cargill Inc., is increasing its contracts for crops that aren't genetically engineered, a company spokeswoman said. Decatur's Archer Daniels Midland Co., one of the world's largest grain buyers, is paying premiums on every bushel of certain varieties of corn and soybeans that aren't genetically engineered, a company spokesman said. The Illinois Corn Growers Association surveyed river terminals, processors and mills to determine if the companies had set policies for buying or handling genetically engineered grain this fall. Many declined to respond, and others wouldn't commit one way or the other, said Mark Lambert, a spokesman for the association. "That is not what farmers want to hear," Lambert said. "That sent a pretty strong message. We have definitely gotten the impression that compared to last year, you are going to see less (genetically engineered) corn." The federal government, too, is signaling that regulations might tighten on engineered crops. The Food and Drug Administration has been holding hearings on genetically modified foods, and in January the Environmental Protection Agency, in consultation with seed companies, placed new restrictions on plantings. On Sunday, Greenpeace activists in Denmark climbed two cranes to block the unloading of a ship from Argentina that carried genetically modified animal feed. The protest came as delegates from more than 130 nations gathered in Montreal to resume negotiations Monday on a proposed treaty to regulate trade in genetically modified products. The U.S. and five other big grain-exporting nations rejected a treaty last year that would have required exporters of genetically modified crops to obtain permission in advance from the importing country. Farmers, who must read markets as well as they read the weather, are seeing plenty of indicators that the marketplace might have a bias against genetically engineered crops by the time the harvest comes in. "We have to plant in April and May, but the marketplace has until October or November until it has to decide," said Ken Dalenberg, a farmer in Mansfield, Ill. Because of that uncertainty, Dalenberg will plant about half as much genetically engineered corn as he did last year. Doug Whittaker, a seed dealer in Peoria County, said farmers are buying about half as much genetically engineered corn as they did last spring. "They don't want to be stuck with a crop the market doesn't want," Whittaker said. Instead, the farmers are going back to varieties bred and developed through more traditional means. Whether the trend is hurting the high-tech seed companies remains to be seen. The seed companies say they are seeing no decline in demand for genetically engineered seeds nationally. Spokesmen for bio-tech heavyweights Monsanto and Novartis said sales are similar to last year's and in some cases better. Since 1995, these companies have been selling varieties of corn, soybean, cotton and other crops that have qualities nature never put into those plants. Some bacteria--known by the shorthand Bt--are toxic to caterpillars. So scientists plucked out the genetic material that gives the bacteria that trait and implanted it in the genetic code of plants. Now, a farmer can plant corn that produces its own "worm"-killing insecticide. Other genetically engineered crops are immune to certain herbicides. Farmers who use Roundup Ready soybeans can spray their fields with the herbicide called Roundup and wipe out just about every plant in the field--except their soybeans. Farmers like the products because they can reduce the need for pesticides, a fact they thought would appeal to environmentalists. "We are taking a lot of the pesticides that people have cussed us for years for using and taking them out of the system," said Plainfield farmer Floyd Schultz. "Why all this folderol is totally beyond me." Some environmentalists aren't convinced the plants don't pose more of a threat than the pesticides do. They were given more cause for concern when a Cornell University study published this spring suggested that pollen from genetically engineered corn plants could potentially drift to milkweed plants and kill the caterpillars of Monarch butterflies. Some studies since have shown that the likelihood of Monarchs being killed by corn pollen is low, however. Others are worried about the potential for the immunity to herbicides to be picked up by weeds through interbreeding. Should this happen, it could create "superweeds" able to shake off the best chemicals farmers have to spray on them. By and large, these aren't the concerns shooing farmers away from high-tech seeds, however. And many of the farmers forsaking the new technology for marketing reasons say they will miss it. Wolf has had great success with the Roundup Ready soybeans he's giving up. "I know I will be fighting more of a weed problem this year," he said. But he'd rather battle giant ragweed than face an uncertain market for his beans. "There will be no question if I raise non-Roundup Ready beans that people will buy them," Wolf said. To some extent, Illinois farmers are a special case. First, the corn borer that genetically engineered corn is designed to kill hasn't been much of a problem in the last two years, reducing farmers' economic incentive to use the more expensive high-tech seeds. Also, Illinois is hooked into international markets more than many other Corn Belt states, exposing Illinois farmers to vagaries of the European and Japanese markets. "They are reading the tea leaves and seeing that there are not many advantages to genetically engineered crops, so they will perhaps go the other way," said Emerson Nafziger, a crop scientist at the University of Illinois. "A lot of farmers hope this issue goes away so they can produce whatever is appropriate to produce. It doesn't look very realistic at this point that that is going to happen."