Milling & Baking News - July 9, 2013 - 24

News Feature 

soybeans. The issue of limited export
markets for bioengineered wheat remains. A similar situation remains for
rice, with no bioengineered varieties
grown in the United States, and like
wheat, also had a discovery of an unapproved variety a few years ago.
The fact remains that about 90% of
the area planted to corn and cotton,
about 93% of area planted to soybeans
and about 95% of area planted to sugar beets in the United States are of bioengineered varieties. In addition to the
“big four,” other bioengineered crops
in the United States include alfalfa, papaya, squash and the aforementioned
sugar beets.
The U.S.D.A. randomly asks farmers as part of its June Agricultural Survey “if they planted corn, soybeans

85% of total U.S. corn planted acres, the
percentage of bioengineered planted
corn increased in 10 states, decreased
in two states (North Dakota and Wisconsin) and was unchanged in one
state (top-producing Iowa). The percentage in the 35 states lumped into
“other states” was estimated at 88%,
up 3 percentage points from 2012.
South Dakota had the highest percentage of acres planted to bioengineered corn at 96% (up from 94% in
2012), followed by North Dakota at
94% (down from 96% last year), Nebraska at 93% (up from 91%) and
Missouri at 92% (up from 86%). Iowa,
Kansas and Minnesota all came in at
91% and Michigan at 90%. Of the 13
major states, Wisconsin had the lowest percentage of corn area planted to

operations planting bioengineered
varieties are not included in the sample. But the relative standard error is
small at 0.4% for all bioengineered
corn and soybean varieties.
Despite years of lawsuits attempting to block the use of bioengineered
sugar beet seeds, the vast majority of
sugar beet area is planted to Roundup
Ready seed. Although the U.S.D.A.
does not survey for bioengineered
sugar beets, the trade and the Sugar
Industry Biotech Council estimates
about 95% of total planted area of
1,207,600 acres in 2013 is planted to
Roundup Ready sugar beets. Adoption of bioengineered sugar beet
seeds by U.S. growers was by far the
most rapid of all major bioengineered
crops grown in the United States with

Soybeans

Cotton

Corn

Canola

Grown in 11 countries
81% of global planting

Grown in 15 countries
81% of global planting

Grown in 17 countries
35% of global planting

Grown in 4 countries
30% of global planting

Source: International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications

or upland cotton seed that, through
biotechnology, is resistant to herbicides, insects or both.” The insect resistant varieties include only those
containing bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)
but may contain more than one gene
that may be resistant to different types
of insects. Conventionally bred herbicide tolerant varieties are excluded,
the U.S.D.A. said. The vast majority
of bioengineered seeds planted are
“stacked” gene varieties that contain
both insect and herbicide resistant
genes rather than just insect resistant
or just herbicide tolerant genes.
In its June 28 Acreage report, the
U.S.D.A. estimated the area planted to
bioengineered varieties of corn in the
United States in 2013 at about 87.6 million acres, or 90% of total corn planted
area, up two percentage points from
last year. That total included 5% of the
area planted to insect resistant only
varieties (down from 15% in 2012),
14% planted to herbicide tolerant only
varieties (down from 21%) and 71%
planted to stacked varieties (up from
52% last year).
The U.S.D.A. includes 48 states (all
but Alaska and Hawaii) in its corn estimating program. In the breakout of
the 13 major states that account for
24 / July 9, 2013 Milling & Baking News

bioengineered varieties at 84% (down
from 86% in 2012), followed by Indiana
at 85% (up 1%), Ohio at 85% (up from
76%) and Illinois and Texas at 89%.
For soybeans the focus is just on
herbicide tolerant varieties about 72.3
million acres, or 93% of total soybean
area, planted to bioengineered varieties in the 31 states included in the
U.S.D.A.’s soybean estimating program. That total was unchanged from
2012, although the percentage declined in 8 of the 14 major states and in
the 17 “other” states. Growers in Mississippi planted 98% bioengineered
varieties, the highest percentage of the
14 major states, followed by Arkansas
and South Dakota at 97%, Nebraska
at 96% and North Dakota at 94%. The
lowest percentage of bioengineered
varieties was planted in Ohio and Wisconsin, both at 89%.
Like corn, upland cotton includes
insect, herbicide and stacked varieties.
Those three combined equaled 90% of
total cotton area planted, down 4 percentage points from 2012, the U.S.D.A.
said, with the largest decline in Texas
at 85%, down from 91%.
The U.S.D.A. noted its biotechnology estimates were subject to sampling variability because all farming

government approval for the seed
occurring as recently as 2005. The rapid acceptance was largely the result
of reduced production costs related
to Roundup Ready seeds, in part because fewer trips across the field were
needed for weed control.
Shortly after bioengineered sugar
beet seeds were approved, several
groups opposed to bioengineered
crops filed lawsuits against the
U.S.D.A. in an attempt to block continued use of the seed. Those attempts
finally came to an end in November
2012 with dismissal of one of the key
cases involved in the legal actions, although the possibility of further legal
action persists.
The United States remains the leading country in terms of bioengineered
crops planted with about 175 million
acres and its average adoption rate of
90% across all crops in 2012, the ISAAA
said in its latest annual update. Brazil
was second with about 92 million acres,
but led the world with the largest increase (21%) from 2011. Argentina was
third with 60 million acres and Canada
fourth with 30 million acres.
Despite restrictions on many bioengineered commodities, the European
Union planted a record 322,678 acres of
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

http://www.bakingbusiness.com http://www.world-grain.com

Milling & Baking News - July 9, 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Milling & Baking News - July 9, 2013