JAMESTOWN, N.D. -- Mike Brandeburg braved icy roads Monday to weigh in on one of the state’s most controversial farm issues: the pending release of genetically modified wheat.

Renewed efforts to squash the commercial release of genetically modified wheat in North Dakota could rob North Dakota State University of research dollars and the state’s farmers of a valuable production tool, said Brandeburg,

who farms near Edgeley.

If the high-tech wheat is commercialized, North Dakota stands to lose much more, said

Janet Jacobson, an organic farmer from Wales, N.D., and president of the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society.

The wheat’s commercial release would jeopardize international markets and the livelihood of the state’s organic farmers, said Jacobson, one of four panelists at a meeting in Jamestown on Monday.

“The risks far outweigh the benefits,” Jacobson told about 15 farmers who attended the first of four statewide panel discussions on genetically modified wheat.

What farmers on both sides of the issue seemed to agree on was that biotech research should continue at NDSU.

Federal approval of St. Louisbased Monsanto Co.’s genealtered wheat could come in 2005 or 2006, said Dale Enerson, a state Farmers Union economist.

Monsanto has developed technology to alter the genes of hard red spring wheat making it resistant to the company’s herbicide, Roundup.

Monsanto has pledged not to release the wheat until there’s

market acceptance and other concerns are satisfied.

Farmers have embraced “Roundup Ready” soybeans and corn because the technology allows them to kill a wide range of weeds with just one herbicide.

NDSU has partnered with Monsanto to develop a genetically modified spring wheat variety that can stand up to North Dakota’s harsh growing conditions.

U.S. farmers export half the wheat they produce and 75 percent of their overseas customers don’t want wheat that’s genetically modified, said Leland “Judge” Barth, a marketing specialist with the North Dakota Wheat Commission.

The commission supports a go-slow approach to the release of genetically modified wheat, said Barth, a panelist.

Foreign consumers have resisted the technology because they don’t have confidence in their food regulators, said Al Schneiter, chairman of NDSU’s plant sciences department.

On Feb. 7, Jacobson and four other members of the state’s Coexistence Working Group resigned, saying the process is a failure.

The group, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and formed by NDSU, set out to resolve conflicts about biotech wheat between farmers.

Jacobson said representatives from biotech companies and NDSU officials refused to assume responsibility for liability issues that are created with a biotech wheat.

The resignations came a day after a group called the “Go Slow with GMO Committee” announced it plans an initiated measure that would create state barriers to a federally approved biotech wheat.

Another panel discussion, sponsored by the North Dakota Farmers Union, will be held today in Dickinson and Minot.

A fourth discussion scheduled in Devils Lake on Monday was canceled because of poor road conditions.

Readers can reach Forum reporter

Jeff Zent at (701) 241-5526