FARMERS GEAR FOR FIGHT OVER GMO FOODS, Austin, Tx
(c) 2000 Reuters Limited.

San Antonio, Texas, January 7  - Farm groups around the U.S. must brace for
a bruising battle over GMO goods demonized in Europe as "Frankenstein food'
and must do more to counter claims by environmental activists the technology
is unsafe

A REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN and delegates attending the annual Beltwide Cotton
meeting here said Thursday the debate over genetically modified organisms
(GMO) will intensify, especially after two supermarket chains said recently
they will remove GMO products from their shelves.

The controversy over GMO foods has spread from Europe to Japan and poses a
threat to the U.S. agro-business industry since more than 35 percent of
corn, 55 percent of soybeans and about 50 percent of cotton plants GMO
seeds.

"The anti-GMO sentiment is already starting to have a chilling effect in
this country," Representative Henry Bonilla (R-TX), a member of the House
Appropriations subcommittee providing funding for conservation and commodity
programs, told delegates in a speech.

"This chilling effect could reach into Congress and the appropriation
process. I would hate to see this happen," he added.

Bonilla said farm groups must be "the loudest voice at the table" to counter
the environmental lobby. This would include the lawsuit against life
sciences company Monsanto (NYSE:MTC) for selling GMO crops without first
insuring that they were safe.

The controversy over GMO foods has spread from Europe to Japan and poses a
threat to the U.S. agro-business industry since more than 35 percent of
corn, 55 percent of soybeans and about 50 percent of cotton plants GMO
seeds.

"It's going to be something we have to deal with," Art Simpson, the National
Operations Manager of Stoneville Pedigreed Seed Company, told Reuters in an
interview.

Jimmy Hargett, a farmer who plants 1,000 acres of corn and 5,000 acres to
cotton in Bells, Tenn., said farm groups should take a more active stance on
the issue.

"The media that's been put out on GMOs, those people don't know what they're
fussing about," he said.

Bonilla said that under pressure from well-financed environmental groups,
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has begun a process that could
potentially result in rules which will "strangle the new technology."
"We cannot let these radical extreme fringe groups win," he said. Hargett
said the rising scare over GMOs has not yet hit his sales of farm products,
but such a prospect hangs over an industry already struggling from low
commodity prices.

"I have that fear," said Allen Helms, a farmer who plants 3,000 acres of
cotton, 1,500 acres of cotton and 2,000 acres of soybeans in Clarkedale,
Arkansas. "There's a lot of value and a lot of quality in the (GMO)
products."