State university breeding programs may face challenges

By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press

Monsanto's dominance in the corn and soybean industries hasn't been strongly felt in the West, but the seed titan is poised to exert influence on major regional crops like wheat and alfalfa.

Earlier this year, Monsanto bought the assets of WestBred, a Montana-based wheat breeding company, in a $45 million transaction heralded as the company's entrance into the wheat seed market.

Monsanto's foray into the wheat industry was initially shelved years ago, when the firm dropped its plan to commercialize herbicide-resistant Roundup Ready wheat in 2004.

Roundup Ready genes allow plants to withstand the herbicide glyphosate, which allows farmers to easily kill weeds without affecting their crops.

At the time, wheat groups in the U.S. and Canada were hesitant to embrace the technology, largely due to concerns that some foreign markets would reject the genetically engineered crop.

In 2009, however, major farm groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia released a joint statement endorsing the development and commercialization of biotech wheat.

In the West, the development of new wheat breeds has traditionally been the mission of public land grant universities. Monsanto's expansion into the wheat seed industry raises questions about how role of universities may change.

Monsanto develops transgenic traits in crops and produces seeds through its subsidiaries. The firm also licenses the technology to other seed producers.

Unless universities find a way to cooperate with biotech firms like Monsanto, they risk becoming obsolete within a decade, said Mark Darrington, an Idaho farmer and chairman of the joint biotech committee of the National Association of Wheat Growers and the U.S. Wheat Associates.

However, universities have a big opportunity to work with biotech developers because farmers will reject seed that's not well-adjusted to grow in their climactic conditions, Darrington said.

"I don't care if it's biotech or not, I'm not going to grow it," he said. "I think they have something the biotech people want."

Arron Carter, a breeder at Washington State University, said he doesn't fear being marginalized by Monsanto, partially because the episode with Roundup Ready wheat has taught the company not to be too aggressive in the wheat industry.

"I see it more as them looking for a partnership rather than coming to dominate the market," Carter said. "I think they're being more cautious this time."

Monsanto's presence in the alfalfa seed market is already established, but its position is also more complicated.

Roundup Ready alfalfa was commercialized in 2005, but the deregulation was reversed by a federal judge in California in 2007 and the case was recently appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, on Dec. 14 the USDA announced the completion of a draft environmental impact statement, as required by the court, which recommends the genetically-engineered crop once again be deregulated.

The decision won't have any immediate impact, since the plan must be opened up to public comment and then reevaluated before the agency can submit a final version.

In light of that process, it's unknown if Roundup Ready alfalfa seeds will be ready to plant in 2010, said Rod Christensen, executive director of the Northwest Alfalfa Seed Growers Association.

The prospect of re-commercialization has some in the seed industry worried about a market disruption when previously produced Roundup Ready is released from storage.

"The concern is there could be an oversupply of seed all of the sudden," Christensen said. "Obviously, if you have a lot of stuff on the market, it affects everybody."

Forage Genetics, which contracted with growers to produce Roundup Ready alfalfa seeds, continued to honor existing agreements after the injunction was in place, said Mark McCaslin, the company's president.

"We have been producing seed as permitted by the district court and have inventory available. We will be introducing RRA varieties back into the marketplace if and when the technology is deregulated," McCaslin said in an e-mail. "Sales of these varieties in the marketplace will be driven by grower demand for RRA."

The case of Roundup Ready sugar beets illustrates just how quickly Monsanto can dominate a market for seed.

Since the glyphosate-resistant beets were deregulated in 2005, their popularity has skyrocketed. Roundup Ready seeds now represent about 95 percent of the U.S. sugar beet crop.

Monsanto's swift rise in the seed industry can be attributed to demand for its products, as well as good timing, said Guanming Shi, an economist at the University of Wisconsin who specializes in the seed industry.

In the 1980s and 1990s, several legal decisions changed U.S. intellectual property law, allowing companies to patent living organisms, she said. Monsanto was quick to take advantage of these changes, which served as a catalyst for the company's incredible growth, Shi said.