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An effort to genetically create a Roundup-tolerant grass seed stalls because of market, scientific and regulatory dilemmas
ALEX PULASKI
Five years ago, Madras farmer Ron Olson searched for a name for his new grass-seed company.
Borrowing from a nearby one-room schoolhouse founded 100 years earlier, Olson settled on New Era Seed. The name captured a fresh century's promise, Olson thought -- fitting for a venture to cultivate genetically modified grass seed on a commercial scale for the first time.
Seed giants Monsanto and Scotts had contracted with Olson and other growers, who foresaw picture-perfect golf course tee and greens, and sunny profits from grass designed to be immune to Roundup, Monsanto's leading herbicide.
Instead, their dreams are on hold. They have foundered on two fronts: fears in the divided grass-seed industry that genetically altered seed could contaminate a signature Oregon crop and dry up exports, and environmentalists' objections that the new product could morph into an unconquerable weed.
A year ago, New Era's seven growers brought in their first harvest. Now they await an uncertain federal approval process that could stretch another year or more. The delay, and resulting corporate orders, has left bare dirt where most of their promising grass acreage once grew.
The inability of Monsanto, Scotts and the Madras growers to get their new product off the ground highlights the complex scientific, regulatory and market hurdles agricultural producers face in developing new, genetically modified, or GM, crops even in a country that grows more bioengineered corn, soybean and cotton than anyplace else in the world.
To the naked eye, the Madras fields planted two years ago appeared just like any other in Oregon, the country's top grass-seed producer for decades. With $300 million in annual sales, Oregon's grass-seed industry ranks only behind nurseries and livestock in agricultural production.
But the Madras acreage was unique among the half-million acres of grass seed grown in this state. The creeping bentgrass plants were modified to resist Roundup. The world's most widely used herbicide, Roundup kills most weeds and grasses, including annual bluegrass -- a common weed on courses.
Scotts, the lawn and garden care company with annual revenues of $2 billion, and Monsanto, the agricultural chemical and seed corporation with annual revenues of $4.9 billion, are betting that their Roundup Ready bentgrass seed will first take root in the lucrative golf-course market.
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By Richard Black
BBC science correspondent in Germany
GM crops ensure adequate global food supply, conference told A major conference on genetically modified crops has opened in Germany with calls for Europe to embrace GM food more enthusiastically.
Several speakers said GM plants were shown to be safe, predicting Europeans would begin to accept the technology.
Not surprisingly, at an event organised by the biotech industry, the calls were greeted with enthusiastic applause.
But they must first overcome public mistrust in Europe about the technology and firms behind it.
So far, speakers said, there was no evidence that GM food posed any danger to human health.
They also said there was no evidence growing GM crops caused environmental harm - a claim which is hotly contested.
Canada is one country where agricultural biotechnology is widely used.
At the conference opening, the Industry and Resources Minister for the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, Eric Cline, said plants with modified genes could provide many other things besides food.
"We cannot ignore the potential that ag-biotech research offers," he said.
"Whether its greener fuels and fabrics, foods grown without chemicals added to it, more sophisticated drugs and, most importantly, ensuring an adequate food supply for the growing world population."
This is the first time it has come to Europe and that is no accident.
The organisers have brought it here now because they believe Europe is opening up for biotech business.
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By LIAM DANN
The global commodity boom may have the economy humming, but it is distracting investors from a vital long-term focus on research and development, say two biotechnology executives.
Jim Watson and Peter Lee agree that part of the problem is the easy money commodities such as milk powder and beef are making.
"There is a boom," said Watson, founder of Genesis Research. "There are good markets and prices for commodities and money goes into marketing and farm operations, but that just limits the focus."
He believed the commodity boom took the pressure off the need to develop new aspects of the industry.
Lee said he saw a similar phenomenon in the United States, from where he returned last year after a 27-year corporate career, to take over as chief executive of AgriGenesis, a subsidiary of Genesis Research.
He stepped down from that post on Friday, a casualty of the company downsizing by half because it was unable to raise funds.
AgriGenesis is trying to commercialise several innovative plant-based technologies.
Some of its research, such as its work on new pastures, goes to the heart of what made New Zealand agriculture successful in the first place.
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Monsanto, Divergence to develop nematode-resistant soybeans
US biotech giant Monsanto is to collaborate with pest-control firm Divergence to develop nematode-resistant soybeans.
Soybean cyst nematode attacks the roots of soybean plants during the growing season, and the annual US yield loss can amount to a billion-dollar problem for soybean growers.
As part of the collaboration, Monsanto will gain exclusive rights to Divergence's existing technology in this area and will provide funding for ongoing research performed by Divergence. Divergence will also receive milestone payments based on research and development success, and royalties once products reach the marketplace.
"Monsanto is committed to remaining a leader in providing important traits to growers that will allow them to realise maximum productivity and to investing in improvements that allow US soybean growers to be competitive in the world marketplace," said Robert Fraley, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Monsanto.
"Divergence is unique in its focus on controlling parasitic nematodes, and its use of innovative science in the discovery and development of leads gives Monsanto a running start in the search for tools to combat this problem," he added.
From the Divergence website:
Divergence Inc., a world leader in the application of genomics to agriculture and infectious disease, discovers and develops proprietary products for the safe and effective control of parasitic diseases. Plant parasitic nematodes are the largest unsolved pest problem in agricultural chemistry. Despite billions of dollars in annual crop damage, current means of control are limited and environmentally damaging. Parasitic nematodes also pose major health risks to humans and animals, and resistance to current drugs is increasingly a problem in livestock infections. Breakthroughs at Divergence are demonstrating that comparative and functional genomics can revolutionize the future of parasite control in plants, animals, and humans.
Since initiating operations in 1999, Divergence has successfully:
- developed a cutting-edge discovery
platform in comparative genomics and RNAi-based functional genomics
leading to the validation of parasite-specific molecular targets and
the rapid discovery of multiple novel nematicidal chemistries.
- demonstrated efficacy in greenhouse
trials of multiple classes of nematicidal chemistry acting by novel
modes of action in plant parasites.
- identified multiple
approaches to nematode resistant, transgenic plants which are being
developed for soybeans and other crops.
- raised over $9 million from investors
and received over $2.3 million in grants and contracts from the National
Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental
Protection Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture, and
the National Corn Growers Association.
- created a significant intellectual property portfolio, including pending and issued patents submissions and trade-secrets, around our discovery platform, molecular targets, chemistries, and transgenic methods for parasite control.
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