Duane Hauck helped me understand the difference between public seeds and patented seeds. Varieties of seeds developed in the public sector are sold to farmers, who may save and replant them. Seeds with transgenic technology in them are patented. Farmers buy them and must pay license fees. They may not save and replant without paying the license fee.

NDSU is a leading research site in developing new varieties of crops. In particular, they work with wheat, durham, flax, barley, and oats. Those varieties that incorporate transgenic technology are licensed. Those that do not are public domain. At NDSU Rough Rider Genetics is the entity that keeps track of licensed materials.

A good person to talk to about the different kinds of seeds is Dale Williams, Seedstocks Director, 1-0455.

North Dakota became the epicenter for the controversy over GMO crops last year because it is a leading producer of spring wheat, and wheat is used in human food—flour and bread—whereas corn and beans are mostly livestock feed. Opposition to transgenic wheat concentrated their forces in ND, even though Minnesota and South Dakota were also working with Monsanto to develop transgenic varieties. NDSU had decided to work with Monsanto on transgenic wheat because MN and SD had already agreed to do so through unilateral, executive decisions at high levels. NDSU opened discussion with constituents in the state before making their decision, but reasoned that if MN and SD were working with Monsanto and if transgenic wheat took off the way soybeans had (80% of all soybeans in US are transgenic), the breeding program here at NDSU might become defunct, and area producers of wheat might use transgenic varieties less adapted to the region. They needed to buy in to stay competitive.

Wheat production is still largely based on public varieties, about 75%, whereas soybean production is based largely on privatized varieties, only about 9-10% being public. Years ago the public varieties of beans captured 30% of the market, but after transgenic varieties appeared in the public sector, that percentage dropped. Historically beans and corn varieties were developed in the private sector because there is a lot of money in those crops.

The debate about transgenic wheat was centered in North Dakota because of several factors. First, NDSU did not ignore petitions received from organic and conventional farmers, and they did not make executive-level decisions without discussion because they knew that there was a constituency composed of organic farmers (NPSAS) in the state, and they wanted to try to address everyone’s concerns. ND has the second largest concentration of organic farmers in the country, California being first. In an attempt to be open, NDSU put their policies out on the web in places easy to find, and they worked with Monsanto to establish certain milestones that had to be met before transgenic wheat could be released (published in brochure, “Bringing New Technologies to Wheat”). They established a coexistence group, consisting of 18 members drawn from various constituencies, such as NPSAS, conventional farmers, bio-tech farmers, the State Ag Department, NDSU representatives, and Monsanto. Brad Brummon, extension agent in Walsh County worked with Theresa Podall of NPSAS to get money from USDA to establish the coexistence group. After the group was established, Monsanto was invited to participate, and they provided some money to give more release time to Brummon to work on the coexistence project.

Professor Gary Goreham facilitated the group, which was supposed to work together for two years, but it broke down after 18 months. Its purpose was to identify issues, identify best management practices, and vote on the practices. NPSAS pulled out in Nov or Dec of 2003 during the voting stage. NPSAS concentrated their efforts instead on trying to get a state oversight committee, but their proposal never made the ballot. The coexistence group has published a document named, “Suggested Best Management Practices for the Coexistence of Organic, Biotech and Conventional Crop Production Systems.”

Note: there are 20 million crop acres in ND, 200,000 acres of which are organic.

Monsanto pulled the plug on transgenic wheat in April of 2003 because they were having difficulty reaching agreed upon milestones. Big issues included Canada’s decision not to go along, the wheat growers in ND didn’t get fully on board with transgenic wheat, and there was concern about international markets (60% of ND wheat is exported). Hauck said that he didn’t think the market was the major barrier because an Ag economist from NDSU, Wilson, had argued that the domestic market share would remain strong. Hauck thinks that if the biotech companies had been willing to work together to produce a drought-resistant strand, a blight-resistant strand, and a herbicide-ready strand, there would have been more buy in by farmers, but Monsanto didn’t want to work with other companies.

There has been some reaction by legislators in ND, who are biotech oriented. They have criticized NDSU for not acting unilaterally on the wheat issue. There is a center of excellence in genomics idea being discussed in the state.