November 18, 2004, 315 Morrill Hall, 2:00
What is the relationship between NDSU and Monsanto?
Monsanto has the patent on a roundup resistant gene derived from a bacterium. They were working with several institutions, among them UMN, SDSU, NDSU, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and some northwest states. They were successful in putting it in wheat but worked with these groups to develop varieties of hard red wheat.
Do you expect Rough Rider wheat to come out soon?
Actually the term is round-up resistant wheat. The marketing arm of the NDSU research Foundation is RoughRider Genetics -a brand that the REs. Foundation had to develop in order to reach compliance with Monsanto on selling Round-up resistant soybean cultivars developed by NDSUNo, when a company puts this kind of technology on the shelf, it doesn’t stay current (times out sort of).
How does a school like NDSU profit from such a relationship?
Monsanto releases the technology and profits from selling Roundup and from Tech fees. Schools like NDSU get a rebate on the tech fees.
Why was Round-up resistant wheat withdrawn?
We had agreed that four things had to happen: 1. markets had to be ready, 2. separate handling systems had to be in place, 3. regulatory approval in US, Japan, and Canada, 4.simultaneous release in Canada and US. Also Monsanto withdrew because of potential greater market profits in other crops. Total acreage of hard red wheat compared to other crops is small.
Did public pressure have an influence?
Yes, the public did get involved on this. Many people are very much opposed to this technology despite its widespread use. He discussed the ubiquity of the products that come from biotech.
Any particular advocacy groups influential in resisting it?
Locally, the Dakota Resource Council, and then there are international groups like Greenpeace.
What about public relations? Is that what it should be?
There needs to do more work in public relations. This is a technology with tremendous possible benefits, e.g., biomass for fuel.
Is pollen drift a problem?
Not really. He explained that wheat self-polinates and that the pollen very quickly deteriorates.
What about allergic reactions?
It would have to be approved by regulatory agencies before it was released. It was going through that process when it was released.
He gave me copies of fliers distributed by NDSU but developed at UC Davis on Agriculture and Biotechnology.
Dale Sullivan