05/11/05 Farmer reappointed to biotech committee

Duane Grant is a Rupert area farmer who has just been reappointed to the USDA's Advisory Committee on Biotechnology. He's the only farmer among this year's nine appointees who serve two year terms and meet quarterly. Earlier this week the committee submitted to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns two papers. One deals with traceability in labeling. GRANT "We delineate exactly how US food manufacturers are responding to various requirements for labeling and traceability globally." The second is a biotechnology planning document. Grant says it lays out three possible scenarios for the future. GRANT "One possible future for example we called 'cornucopia' a future where biotechnology was widely accepted, where biotechnology flourished. On the opposite side of that would be what we called 'biotechnology goes niche.' Foreign customers continue to express a preference for conventional crops and biotechnology slowly withers away to where it's used only for production of crops that will be consumed domestically." 80 percent of the US cotton acreage is biotech. Soybean biotech plants total about 84 percent, corn is in the mid 70's and canola is around 70 percent biotech. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott