By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

DALLAS, Texas — One of the biggest news items for wheat growers at last week’s Commodity Classic in Dallas was the announcement that a considerable number of their fellow farmers support of the commercialization of biotechnology in wheat.

Of the nearly 7,000 producers who’ve already responded to a National Assoc. of Wheat Growers (NAWG) survey about their stance on development of biotech traits, 76 percent support it. Past NAWG president John Thaemert said 21,000 surveys were sent randomly to growers who each have more than 500 acres of wheat and 1,000 total acres in production.

“They needed some concrete evidence that growers will use it,” he said of private technology developers – ag companies and others – before any will commit to a multimillion-dollar, multi-year effort to create any genetically modified (GMO) wheat trait.

Drought tolerance is one desirable trait, he said; another would be nitrogen efficiency. Scab resistance is attractive to growers, and a trait that would make wheat gluten more digestible could make consumers happy.

There have been developments in seed breeding over the decades, but Thaemert said compared to those in crops with GMO traits, “it just takes years and years and years to see a little bit of improvement” in wheat.

He explained NAWG has struggled with its stance on GMO trait development because of customer concerns about it, especially since wheat is primarily a human food grain rather than primarily animal feedstock. Particularly, U.S. wheat’s customers in Asia could be resistant to buying such grain – although, Thaemert noted they seem less so after last year’s worldwide high prices and fears of shortages.

“They’re less particular when the cost of input doubles and they realize there are no negative effects and absolutely no documented issues with (GMO grains),” he said.

He sees education as key in gaining acceptance for any eventual GMO wheat overseas, and did not dismiss those customers’ fears lightly, explaining NAWG has to be “really cognizant” of wheat customers’ desires since U.S. wheat farmers export a full 50 percent of what they grow.

But, he said, the fact is that growers want to get as much as they can out of their input costs. NAWG literature points out wheat planting has been on a steady decline for the past few decades, competing with more profitable crops.

“We’ve got a hungry world to feed,” Thaemert said. “Producers have to be profitable at what they do, or they won’t do it.”
The NAWG survey consisted of answering one question, to either agree or disagree with the NAWG petition “to support the development of advanced technologies and biotech traits in wheat.” The petition itself may be viewed online at www.wheatworld.org/userfiles/file/Final%20Biotech%20Petition%20Language.pdf

According to NAWG, those producers who’ve responded so far in favor of the petition represent 7.5 million acres of wheat in 28 states.