New Study Says Costs of Roundup Ready Wheat Are Greater Than Benefits

New Study Says Costs of Roundup Ready Wheat Are Greater Than
Benefits
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 14:24:51 -0600

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, August 30, 2005

CONTACT: Dr. Charles Benbrook, 701-371-1564, Tuesday only; Dena Hoff,
406-687-3645; Todd Leake, 701-594-4275; or Kevin Dowling, WORC staff,
406-252-9672

New Study Says Costs of Roundup Ready Wheat

Are Greater Than Benefits

Industry Could Lose Up To $272 Million

(FARGO, N.D.) - Introduction of genetically modified wheat would lower
income for wheat growers and the wheat industry, according to a report
released today.

Published by WORC (Western Organization of Resource Councils),
Harvest at Risk - Impacts of Roundup Ready Wheat in the Northern Great
Plains examines the likely consequences of Roundup Ready wheat adoption and
projects economic impacts on wheat growers and the wheat industry.

"This is a technology for which there is really no compelling
need," said Dr. Charles Benbrook, author of the study. "Existing weed
management systems are stable, the price of weed management is not
increasing, and farmers are managing resistance to currently used
herbicides."

If Roundup Ready wheat is introduced, increased seed and
herbicide costs and reduced wheat prices would outweigh the operating cost
savings from Roundup Ready wheat's simplified weed management by as much as
$37 per acre, the report concludes. Farmers who do not plant Roundup Ready
wheat would also face increased costs and lower income, ranging from $5.60
to $18 per acre.

"Overall, the wheat industry could lose $94 million to $272
million," Benbrook said.

Benbrook said the wheat industry needs an in-depth and
independent study of the factors and impacts of GM wheat so that the
technology does not reduce farm income in the long run.

"I don't see any advantage to the farmer in the introduction
of Roundup Ready wheat," said Todd Leake, a North Dakota wheat grower and
spokesperson for the Dakota Resource Council.

The report projects costs per bushel and per acre for farmers
adopting Roundup Ready wheat and for non-adopters under a best-case
scenario and a worst-case scenario. In either case, farmers would lose
money from introduction and use of Roundup Ready wheat.

The report finds mostly negative affects from nine factors
affecting the costs and benefits of growing Roundup Ready wheat: emergence
of resistance, gene flow, disease pressure and related problems, impacts on
seed plus herbicide expenditures, market rejection, dockage, yields, grain
quality, and wheat prices.

Harvest at Risk is the latest WORC report analyzing the
probable effects of commercial introduction of Roundup Ready, genetically
modified wheat. An earlier report by WORC found that introduction of
genetically modified wheat in the U.S. risks the loss of one-fourth to
one-half of U.S. hard red spring and durum wheat export markets and up to a
one-third drop in price.

WORC commissioned the study to answer questions about gene
flow and contamination, weed resistance, disease problems and cost and
returns, said Dena Hoff, WORC Chair, farmer, and member of the Northern
Plains Resource Council.

"There are other unanswered questions about the impacts on
soil and water and human and animal health that should be studied," Hoff
said. "We're going to have to work together so that we don't put our
harvest at risk."

Monsanto indefinitely postponed development of Roundup Ready
wheat in May 2004.

Dr. Benbrook runs Benbrook Consultant Services, based in
Sandpoint, Idaho. He has a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison and an undergraduate degree from Harvard
University. He has served on the President's Council on Environmental
Quality, in staff positions in Congress, and as Executive Director of the
National Academy of Science Board on Agriculture.

WORC is a regional network representing farmers and ranchers in Colorado,
Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The Dakota
Resource Council and Northern Plains Resource Council are members of WORC.

-30-

Note to Editor: Harvest at Risk and related material are available at
www.worc.org.

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This GMO news service is underwritten by a generous grant from the Newman's
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