Subject: Bt backlash in NE (fwd)

From: Victor Guest <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 01 Aug 1998 12:09:18 WST

Folks - I just had a conversation with a crop consultant who serves 
hundreds of farmers in NE and IA.  In the course of the conversation, 
in which he professed to wanting "to help farmers find another 
direction", he related this story:

"Last week there were three thumps heard throughout northeast 
Nebraska.  The first was farmers falling off the Bt bandwagon as they 
realized that they had paid $135 a bag for Bt corn when $75-a-bag seed 
would have sufficed: there are no corn borers worth controlling this 
year. The second thump was seed dealers fainting as they realized that 
they wouldn't be able to sell the expensive seed next year as the 
double whammy of no-need-for-the-product and $2/bu corn reality hit 
their farmer customers.  The third thump was Bt seed growers pounding 
the ground in denial as they realized that their seed corn crops were 
becoming nearly worthless." 

What a fragile system this could turn out to be....   -- Wyatt

Wyatt Fraas, Martin Kleinschmit

Beginning Farmer Sustainable Agriculture Project
Center for Rural Affairs
PO Box 736
Hartington, NE USA 68739
402 254-6893  fax -6891
[email-masked], [email-masked]
http://www.cfra.org