Time out for genetically modified crops

Excerpt

A drive through the countryside last summer just about anywhere in the Midwest, brought up vistas of row upon row of exactly the same soybean plants, not a weed in the fields, not any plants taller than others. The uniformity was striking. In 1999, half of all soybeans planted in the United States and 25 percent of the corn crop were genetically modified.

Historically, genetic resources have been responsible for the strong economic growth of American agriculture. When Thomas Jefferson was president, he believed that the greatest service that could be rendered to any country was to add a useful plant to its culture. The global lead in agricultural production in the United States is in part the direct result of the introduction of useful plants, combined, of course, with technological knowledge, into the economic system of this country.

These uniform fields are the “newest” plants and the technology that created them is termed GM, for genetically modified crops. The take off date for GM crops was 2000, but they were pulled from the fast track in the fall of 1999.

At harvest time, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Consolidated Grain and Barge required farmers to segregate GM …