This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English AgricultureReport.
Genetically engineered crops are part of American agriculture.But farmers also have to make decisions based on the markets fortheir crops. The market for corn, or maize, is a good example.Farmers want to increase their production. But they also want totrade in many different markets. In some cases these two desiresconflict.
In nineteen-ninety-eight, the European Union suspended theapproval of additional products made from biotechnology. Lately E-Uofficials have been considering new approvals. American corn farmersare watching closely. As Farm Journal recently reported, Europeanpolicy has had a big influence on what they plant.
Farmers can buy several kinds of corn that are geneticallychanged to resist damage from insects or chemical treatments. Suchkinds of crops are known as genetically modified organisms, orG-M-Os. Corn farmers who choose to plant these crops, but want tosell to the European Union, must meet E-U conditions.
Sometimes, a farmer plants genetically modified corn next to thefields of a farmer who does not. Researchers have found that windcan carry the pollen up to several kilometers. The corn can partlyfertilize the other crop. This gives it some of the geneticallymodified material. If tests show this has happened, the farmer withthe other crop may not be able to sell it to the Europeans.
In November of two-thousand-two, the directors of the IllinoisFarm Bureau, a farmers organization, took a position. They urgedfarmers in the state not to plant any kind of genetically modifiedcorn not approved by the European Union. The reason was simple. Muchof the crop corn from Illinois is processed and exported to Europe.Farmers, though, are still free to plant any kind of corn they wish.
The Department of Agriculture says forty percent of the cornplanted in the United States this year was genetically modified.That is up from thirty-four percent in two-thousand-two. But theplanting rates differ from state to state.
They are lower in states that export a lot of processed corn toEurope. They are higher in states where corn is fed mainly to cattleand other animals. In South Dakota, for example, seventy-fivepercent of all corn planted is biotech. In Ohio, it is nine-percent.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by MarioRitter. This is Steve Ember.