GM resistance

The USDA reported June 29 that biotech varieties accounted for 73% of all field corn planted in the U.S. this year, up from 61% from last year. Meanwhile, I got this email from a Germany biotechnology research group over the weekend, clearly frustrated by continued harassment in Europe about biotech research. It reads:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In a repeat of last year’s events, parts of a trial field with GM maize in Forchheim (Baden-Württemberg) have once again been destroyed. The field is part of the coexistence research programme funded by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV), which is investigating practical questions of coexistence between genetically modified and conventional maize farming. Another attack happened in Gießen: Once again, parts of a trial field on land belonging to the University of Giessenhave been destroyed. The field is being used to investigate whether genetically modified barley has undesirableimpacts on beneficial soil fungi like mycorrhizas. The project is being publicly funded as part of the biological safety research programme.

TK: Here is a link to the story. Clearly, some fringe elements in Europe continue to hamper research by government authorities and commercial application of biotechnology in agriculture. With three quarter of corn planted and 87% of cotton planted to GM varieties, it is not so in the U.S. The breakthrough for GM in fresh fruit and vegetable production in the U.S. has not arrived, but can it be far off?