CHICAGO, Ill. (Reuters) — Distributing biotech seeds to American farmers before they are approved in major grain export markets is not good for U.S. agriculture, an executive with Cargill Inc. said.
“We do not support the commercialization of (genetically modified) traits ahead of major market approvals,” Randal Giroux, vice-president of food safety for Cargill, told members of the National Grain and Feed Association.
“We have to recognize that when those major markets have not approved it, the threshold is zero,” he said.
“We have to make sure that we are seen as a credible and consistent supplier of agricultural products.”
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Early commercialization of biotech seeds, when acceptance of the grain has not been cleared in markets like the European Union, for example, has been hotly debated recently when the three top U.S. grain handlers, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland and Bunge, said they were either restricting or not accepting a biotech corn variety not approved in major export markets, like the EU or China.
The discussions centered on Agrisure Viptera, a biotech corn variety developed for its resistance to insects by Syngenta that was planted in the U.S. this spring before it was approved in major export markets.
