The Future of GMO

A new potato from Simplot called Innate has the potato industry looking hard at GMO technology. Snake River Sugar Companies, Duane Grant says that GMO products are making a big impact on the food industry.

GRANT: I've been involved in the biotech evolution for about the last 15 years. We have successfully transitioned to Roundup Ready sugar beets starting in 2006 and that's kind of what I'm here to tell the story about is what happened in our industry. How did the marketplace respond as we transitioned from conventional beets? Was there pushback? How did our producers respond?

He says that the transition to biotechnology has been taking place since 1997.

GRANT: And it has been a steady, steady growth globally in the adoption by farmers of biotechnology. Just a little under 500-million acres annually planted to biotech crops. They are dominated by corn, soybeans and cotton. You put sugar beets together with sunflower, alfalfa, rice. You could also add in there papaya. GM papaya dominated the Hawaiian papaya industry. The Hawaiian papaya industry would not exist.

Grant says there are a lot of fruits and vegetables in the marketplace that depend on GM technology.

GRANT: So the message here is, hey! Potatoes aren't first. This is a very successful technology. It's moving forward. So that's the message. It's not just a Monsanto technology. It's not just a technology for high capital, very intensive ag for the western world. This is a global technology that's being adopted globally.

That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.