Genetix RoundUp

WTO UPDATE
In mid-May, after years of threats, the US finally declared its intention to lodge an official complaint with the WTO about the EU's policy on GM crops. The US is backed in its action by major GM crops exporters Argentina, Australia and Canada and several Southern countries including Colombia, Egypt, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico. The US claims that the current EU moratorium on the commercial development of
GM foods is an "illegal" trade barrier under WTO rules. The move threatens to bring the full force of WTO sanctions to bear in order to force GM food into European markets regardless of the wishes of European consumers. The US is likely to attempt to prevent any effective labelling of food derived from GM ingredients.
The US Administration has been lobbied heavily by GM companies such as Monsanto and by big US farming interests such as the National Corn Growers Association.

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has threatened a WTO case over GM on several occasions, most recently in January this year, but is believed to have been told by the White House to back off during attempts to secure European support for the invasion of Iraq. Given the current state of EU/US relations it will be interesting to see whether or not the US move will actually help smooth the path for GM crops in Europe.

Sources: Friends of the Earth Press Release available on-line at
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/us_files_wto_gm_complaint0.html

'Showdown over genetically modified crops' by Guy de Jonquières , Edward Alden and Tobias Buck Financial Times May 13 2003

BAYER BEWARE
Bad news for Bayer CropScience in Australia. Bayer had been hoping to launch their GM herbicide-tolerant hybrid oilseed rape 'InVigor' this year. In early May the state of Victoria announced a moratorium on the growing of the crop, effectively blocking its widespread commercialisation in Australia for at least another year. The only Australian state where the crop could now be grown this year is Queensland, which unfortunately for Bayer hardly grows any oilseed rape. Bayer's 'InVigor', or MS8/RF3, GM oilseed rape is already grown commercially in Canada and the US, and is one of the principle crops grown in the UK Farm Scale trials.

Source: 'Australia GM canola hopes fade with state ban' Reuters News Service May 9, 2003 archived online at
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=20737&newsdate=09-May-2003

SYNGENTA SEEDS
Syngenta has just announced plans to sell its new conventional hybrid barley seed only as part of a package which includes its own brands of chemical growth regulator and fungicide. This is thought to be the first time in the UK that seed has been sold as part of such a seed/chemical package. In many ways this is the logical extension to conventional crops of the way in which agro-chemical companies have sought to guarantee a market for their chemicals by marketing GM crops designed to be tolerant to their own brands of herbicide (eg RoundUp Ready and Liberty Link Crops).
Interestingly Syngenta's sales practices have prompted fierce criticism even from within the farming press.
A scathing editorial in Farmer's Weekly accused Syngenta's actions of being 'the first step towards a future when every input and production method is rigidly controlled from beyond the farm gate. That would reduce farmers to operatives working to the rules of multi-nationals'.

Sources: 'Freedom to farm - or freedom to follow supplier's orders?', Farmers Weekly, UK, Editorial. May 9, 2003 archived on line at http://www.gene.ch/genet/2003/May/msg00043.html

'Syngenta ties seed sales to spray', Andrew Blake, Farmers Weekly Interactive. 01.05.03 archived online at http://www.fwi.co.uk/article.asp?con=10148&sec=2&hier=66

TITLE: FREEDOM TO FARM - OR FREEDOM TO FOLLOW SUPPLIERS' ORDERS?
SOURCE: Farmers Weekly, UK, Editorial
DATE: May 9, 2003
------------------ archive: http://www.gene.ch/genet.html ------------------

FREEDOM TO FARM - OR FREEDOM TO FOLLOW SUPPLIERS' ORDERS?

What price freedom to farm? Producers' liberty to plan their businesses,
steadily eroded over the years by government and supermarkets, faces
another threat from one of the world's biggest suppliers of seeds and
pesticides. Syngenta's plan to sell its new hybrid barley only in a
package with its own pesticide products will confirm many critics' fears
about farming's future. At worst, such developments, taken to the
extreme, could destroy flexibility and lead to prescription farming.
Companies could dictate product choice, rate and timing of application.
Admittedly Syngenta's scheme leaves growers with some decisions - notably
regarding the use of nitrogen, herbicides and insecticides. But it could
be the first step towards a future when every input and production method
is rigidly controlled from beyond the farm gate. That would reduce
farmers to operatives working to the rules of multi-nationals. Three
powerful arguments spell out the folly of such a future. First, few
people are better placed to understand the land and its potential than
the farmers who work it. Although outside help is not only welcome in an
increasingly technical age but often essential, there are limits which
must be respected.

Second, the linked-product approach could encourage growers to abandon
efficient and responsible crop husbandry in favour of a regime dictated
by the manufacturers' interests. Third, it could leave specialist
suppliers who do not market all inputs vulnerable to others keen to
muscle in on their core business. Horticultural producers are already
familiar with the ever-tightening constraints imposed by supermarkets'
produce buyers. Once sucked into specific input regimes, many find it
impossible to break out without severe financial penalty. However
enticing such schemes may appear, whether they are to the long-term
benefit of UK farmers must remain open to doubt. If the critics are
correct, freedom to farm could become freedom to follow orders.

"Syngenta's plan to sell its new hybrid barley only in a package with
its own pesticide products will confirm many critics' fears about
farming's future.... it could be the first step towards a future when
every input and production method is rigidly controlled from beyond the
farm gate. That would reduce farmers to operatives working to the rules
of multi-nationals.... if the critics are correct freedom to farm could
become freedom to follow orders"
Farmers Weekly, 9 May 2003
http://www.fwi.co.uk/article.asp?con=10148&sec=2&hier=66

Syngenta ties seed sales to spray
By Andrew Blake 01 May 2003FWi

THE first commercial hybrid barley to hit the market this autumn will be sold as part of a package of seed, growth regulator and fungicides.Syngenta's Hybrid Barley System is believed to be the first offering to growers in the UK to link directly the purchase of seed to pesticides.The only other occasions where that link has been established are with seed treatments and genetically modified crops. Syngenta claims yields will be 1t/ha (0.4t/acre) ahead of the best six-row types.
And with a gross margin lift of nearly 20%, the package should make winter barley growing worthwhile again, claims the firm’s Robert Hiles."We are moving low output barley growing back towards profitability."
Based on six-row variety Colossus, formerly NFC 200-57, the hybrid kit’s 5ha (12-acre) modules will include the firm’s plant growth regulator Moddus (trinexapac-ethyl) and the fungicides Amistar (azoxystrobin) and Unix (cyprodinil).
"It offers unique access to hybrid barley technology. We won’t be selling the seed separately from the chemicals," said Mr Hiles.A key part of the package is the knowledge gleaned from five season’s field research.
Colossus, a Recommended List candidate, has a yield rating of 114% against current controls, he said.
The package comes with specific fungicides, notably Amistar, to guard against the variety’s acknowledged brown rust weakness.

But agronomists will continue to have plenty of flexibility to adjust other inputs like herbicides and insecticides.
"In detail the linked inputs — 5l of Amistar, 1l of Moddus pgr and 2.5kg of Unix for rhynchosporium control — are seen as essential," says Mr Hiles. Experience from trials and about 250ha (620 acres) of on-farm focus groups has been used to set the package’s sowing rate of 200 seeds/sq m. Syngenta hopes to have enough hybrid seed available, through selected distributors, for about 1% of the winter barley market this autumn. Half the payment will be due after the seed is delivered and half in the spring.