VALLEY CITY, N.D. -- To think that any part of the misguided and untruthful information provided by a recent op-ed by Kristine Mattis ("Bio-technology is overkill," Page 5, Dec. 15) would mean nearly every soybean or corn producer in the country along with the greatest science researchers and science based regulatory system in the world are totally ignorant.
Farmers have been planting biotech soybeans for 12 years (last year, on more than 95 percent of U.S. soy acres) because of the tremendous benefits we receive, including higher yields, lower costs, greater weed and pest control, improved water and soil quality, and substantial energy savings. Biotechnology use in crops is widely supported and deemed safe by the vast majority of the credible science and research community.
Incredibility
Hopefully, the opinions of the author, who identified herself as a graduate student at the University of North Dakota, were not derived from her studies in the Earth System Science studies at UND. If they were, I would suggest that the UND administration, the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education and the state legislature need to measure the credibility of information being forwarded through this program. No agricultural technology in modern history holds more promise for food security, resource conservation and the environment farming than biotechnology.
The studies Mattis cites are seriously flawed and soundly debunked by the science community. For example, the science journal Lancet, which published the Arpad Pusztai study she cites, later had to retract it because it was flawed.
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Biotech and feed
And farm animals avoid biotech crops? Ridiculous. Seventy-five percent of U.S. corn acres contain biotech crops, and much of it goes to animal feed. Maybe the idea that livestock avoid biotech cornfields stems from the fact that harvesting equipment leaves fewer biotech ears on the ground to glean. That's because insect-protected biotech corn produces stronger, straighter stalks, so fewer ears escape the harvester. Our biotech cornfields are full of deer and my neighbor's cattle love the feed on the corn stubble.
Overseas pressure
African countries have rejected biotech shipments, not because of health concerns, but out of fear that some of the seeds might be replanted. Starving African nations are happy to accept U.S. grain, as long as it is ground up first. African leaders fear their citizens might plant some of the biotech seeds and jeopardize any potential exports to Europe.
Because of pressures from Greenpeace and other radical groups, Europe continues to have an anti-science policy toward biotechnology. However, this attitude is rapidly changing around the world as sound-thinking policymakers and consumers are looking at the science and truth of the technology and accepting its use. Hopefully, our educators will take the cue from President-elect Obama, who also has endorsed biotechnology.
Editor's Note: Skogen is chairman of Growers for Biotechnology in Valley City, N.D.
