Farmers in South Dakota are watching closely to see how the new drought-tolerant biotech corn varieties perform when rainfall is six inches short over the last two months.

“I think it will be a good year even if we don’t have those 200 bushel yields,” Jared Questad, a farmer in Baltic, S.D., told KELO TV in Sioux Falls.

Questad, who is also a seed dealer for Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, has the new AQUAmax variety in test plots. Other farmers in the area are testing Monsanto’s DroughtGard. The trials will help determine the viability of the new products under real-world conditions.

“We’re going to find out this year because this is the largest, widest range testing that’s going to be done on these products,” said Larry Wagner, agronomy crops field specialist at South Dakota State University Extension.

Drought tolerance is another trait brought to field crops by biotechnology, says Corby Jensen, Monsanto’s technology development manager for Nebraska and the Dakotas.

“It’s about the whole package, eliminating weeds that can rob the soils of valuable water, better genetics, residue management, using no-till practices have been a proven way to conserve soil moisture. So, again it’s about putting all those pieces together to give yourself the best chance at success possible,” Jensen said. Read more.

A participant in Community Supported Agriculture has issued a spirited defense of biotechnology in crops, describing as “absurd” the anti-biotech claims made  by a staff writer for a local news blog. Michael Bendzela, who points out that his sole interest is as a local farmer in Maine, cites the conclusions of ag biotech experts regarding the technology’s safety in an opinion piece published by The Portland Press Herald.

Following a review of 24 long-term studies that have appeared in the Food and Chemical Toxicology Journal, agricultural scientist Steve Savage points out that results from all of the studies indicate there are no health risks associated with the cultivation and consumption of genetically modified (GM) crops.

Dr. Bruce M. Chassy, a professor of food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois, also emphasizes that “numerous peer-reviewed scientific articles” have established that GM crops are safe for consumption. Read more.

A Vermont bill requiring labeling of foods with ingredients derived from biotech crops would hurt farmers and confuse consumers in Vermont and beyond, according to North Dakota State Senator Terry Wanzek, writing in a Vermont news website.

“Biotechnology is an accepted tool of conventional agriculture,” wrote Wanzek, himself a farmer.  “Around the world, farmers have grown more than 3 billion acres of GM crops-that is, plants bred to have a natural resistance to insects and weeds, resulting in a bountiful and sustainable food ingredient.” READ MORE »