DOW JONES COMMODITIES SERVICE

 ACGF Survey: Nearly 1/4 Elevators Require GMO Corn Segregation

 26 October 2004

 By Gary Wulf

 CENTRAL CITY, Neb. (Dow Jones)--A new survey of nearly 1,200 country
 elevator locations conducted by the American Corn Growers Foundation
 Farmer Choice - Customer First program found that nearly one-quarter of all
 U.S. grain terminals are requiring segregation of genetically modified, or GMO,
 hybrids from conventional corn varieties this fall.

 Nearly two-thirds, or 63.3%, of all elevators are either segregating GMO
 themselves, requiring farmers to do so, or forcing producers to schedule
 delivery of such varieties at special times to avoid cross-contamination,
 the ACGF said in a press release Monday.

 "Apparently, nearly one-quarter of U.S. grain elevators are trying to
 segregate GMO/biotech varieties from conventional corn, perhaps to
 maintain or regain domestic or foreign markets," said Dan McGuire, director
 of the ACGF Farmer Choice - Customer First program, in the release. "That is
 understandable, given the fact that the U.S. only exported 1.9 billion
 bushels of corn in the marketing year that ended on Aug. 31."

 Baseline budget projections made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as
 recently as 1997, projected that the U.S. would be exporting about 2.7
 billion bushels of corn annually by the 2003-04 marketing year.

 "Clearly, the loss of export markets because of GMO varieties has had a
 year-over-year cumulative impact on U.S. corn ending stocks
 (inventories),"  said McGuire.

 The harvest-time survey of grain elevators in Arkansas, Colorado,
 Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
 Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota,
 Texas and Wisconsin indicated that 12.6% of all elevators are actually
 paying market premiums for non-GMO corn, ranging from 5 cents to 30 cents a
 bushel.


 The ACGF poll found that nine U.S. grain elevators were in fact, imposing
 discounts on deliveries of biotech corn this fall, ostensibly due to a lack
 of overseas export markets for certain varieties.

 Despite record yields expected this season, ACGF Chairman Gale Lush of
 Wilcox, Neb., notes that gross farm income per acre of corn has dropped
 $35.32 from 2003 because of much lower cash prices, estimated at just
 $1.95 per bushel by the USDA earlier this month.

 "GMO corn helped cause lower prices, by sending lucrative European and
 Asian corn customers to U.S. export competitors," claimed Lush.

 The entry of biotech StarLink corn hybrids into commercial marketing
 channels disrupted U.S. corn exports badly in 2000, after traces of
 StarLink  were detected in some food products, such as taco shells. Although
 StarLink was approved for use in animal feed, it had not been approved for
 human
 consumption.

 The unintentional commingling of StarLink with other varieties of corn in
 the food chain led some to question the safety of the food supply,
 prompting South Korea - historically a leading customer for U.S. corn - to
 immediately turn to China to fill its needs.