Civil Liberties, Health Care, Food Policies

Private, Public Companies Advance GE Wheat Technology

February 14, 2010

Farm & Ranch Guide - More food products are made with wheat than any other crop in the world, which makes genetically-engineered wheat vital in the future, says Dan Biggerstaff, a wheat industry advisor at Barkley Ag Enterprises LLP.

Biggerstaff knows his wheat. He was the former vice president of research at WestBred LLC before Monsanto purchased the Montana-based wheat and barley breeding company.

“Everything we hear is either biotech or GMO (genetically modified organism). I like to call it GE - genetically engineered,” Biggerstaff told the group of producers at the recent National Hard Spring Wheat Show in Williston.

He explained genetically engineering is something that is not so frightening to the general public and explains what is going on a lot better.

Producers understand that GE allows breeders to insert genes into plants through the seed to produce plants that are healthier, more productive, more resistant to drought, diseases, herbicides or a combination of any number of genetic traits.

But consumers don't always get it, he said. Biggerstaff said part of the problem out there in the marketplace is that GE is not explained in the right way, and producers need to be the ones to take the lead.

“You need to know enough about GE to sit down and discuss it with people,” he said. “We need to get educated as an industry.”

Biggerstaff encouraged producers to read about GE and the first book he said they should read is “Tomorrow's Table,” written by a husband/wife team. The wife is a molecular geneticist who explains the GE portion of the issue, while the husband, an organic farmer and professor, explains the food portion.

“It finds the middle ground and we should be in the middle,” Biggerstaff said.

Biggerstaff said he is not an employee of Monsanto and is not just representing Monsanto's part in the issue. Many, many companies are involved in GE, and they all are coming out with varieties that use traits to address production issues, he said.

“We need more wheat and we need more efficient wheat production,” he added.

Biggerstaff said a lot of people assume Monsanto came in and took over “this little company WestBred in Montana.”

In reality, he said, WestBred's owner Robby Barkley, who now owns Barkely Ag Enterprises, went looking for investors to help them bring in more wheat technology so the crop could be competitive with other crops farmers were growing.

“We needed to do a better job of advancing wheat,” Biggerstaff said.

But there were no investors out there who wanted to invest in wheat although WestBred was a premier wheat breeding company until Monsanto stepped forward and bought the company for $45 million.

“It's big news when Monsanto pays $45 million for a wheat breeding company,” he said. “And it's not just private companies. The public sector is critically important for wheat research. We need better wheat research.”

He said the demand for all major crops is rising as world population grows. About a 40 percent increase is projected by 2030 for wheat, Biggerstaff said.

When comparing corn to wheat, there has been a trend for more acres dedicated to corn than wheat, although wheat has more food grade products made with it.

“The gap has increased because growers will grow a product like corn where they can make better returns per unit of area,” he said.

Biggerstaff said the reason Monsanto is stepping forward now is due to that gap.

“The answer of why now for Monsanto is Monsanto sees an opportunity here to bring some of their technologies forward for wheat,” he said.

Not only Monsanto, but public universities and many companies are contributing to advancing wheat technologies ...

He said all breeding companies start with traits that fit into the exact right wheat and biotechnology is carried parallel with the breeding.

“You're not going to find a lot of difference at WestBred just because Monsanto bought it - not for a long time. Maybe it increases the speed,” he said, adding WestBred will continue with conventional breeding but molecular markers, dihaploid techniques and increased analytical testing will be added to its program.

Monsanto's acquisition will double the test plots that WestBred uses, allowing for double the number of cross breedings.

In addition, WestBred will be able to use robotics to do automated sample testing which is very high tech, utilize a mega chipper to look inside seeds and use an MRI for composition analysis which generates 10 times more data for the scientists at a cheaper cost.

All this equipment is already being used by Monsanto in corn and soybeans.

“The importance of this mega chipper is you can look at individual seeds without hurting the seed,” Biggerstaff said. In this way, traits can be picked out, such as drought tolerant genes.

He added that genetic engineering was on its way in wheat, to the betterment of the consumer, the producer, and the entire wheat industry.