Family Farmers Warn of Dangers of Genetically Engineered Crops.

• Author: Christison, Bill

[Bill Christison delivered this speech on July 18, 1998, in St. Louis, Missouri at the "First Grassroots Gathering on Biodevastation: Genetic Engineering." --Ed.]

We want to thank the Gateway Greens and the co-sponsors for making these important meetings a reality. How appropriate that this first international meeting should be held in the hometown of Monsanto. I am encouraged by the international participation at these meetings. I am sure we can learn much from you all.

Just one word about our organizations. The Missouri Rural Crisis Center is a statewide organization of 4,000 families. Our primary focus is social and economic justice for all. The National Family Farm Coalition headquartered in Washington, DC has more than 30 farm and rural organizations from 35 states as member groups. Our purpose is to coordinate, facilitate and disseminate information.

Personally, I am a fourth generation family farmer and our primary crop is soybeans.

A few short years ago, I began to hear about biotechnology as it relates to agriculture. At first, it was BGH which our organizations vigorously opposed. Then I began hearing about a genetically engineered soybean which would withstand the chemical Roundup, a product brought to fruition by Monsanto. First, I wondered if this was a soybean that I should consider raising on my farm. The advertisement sounded good ... use a single low cost chemical. The promise was that you could use less chemicals and produce a greater yield. But let me tell you, none of this is true.

The first problem--they wanted us to sign a production contract which limited what we could do with our production. It is our practice to produce our own seed for the following year's planting. Because the contract forbids this, it would have cost us three times as much for seed. And then there's a problem of paying a patenting fee of several dollars per bag. We found chemical cost for our farm would escalate to a minimum of twice as much and we should not be applying less chemical, but actually more chemical. Then we found GMO seed actually produces a lower yield because of the varieties that had been altered.

Last year's yield book in Missouri printed by Pioneer Seed Co., a seed company with 45% of the market, shows a five-bushels-per-acre average reduction in yield from GMO varieties.

A further problem ... we have weeds that are resistant to Roundup already. The acceptance of GMOs by the US farmer is predicated on the fact that farmers are...