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By Ken Roseboro
The Organic and Non-GMO Report

Excerpts:

One of the claims made by proponents of genetically modified crops is that GM technology increases farmers’ seed choices. They also claim that farmers in countries that restrict GMO production have fewer seed options. But recent research shows the opposite—that instead of increasing farmers’ choice, the introduction of GM crops has limited farmers’ seed options.

Angelika Hilbeck, senior scientist at the Institute of Integrative Biology at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), and several other researchers analyzed seed catalogs in Spain, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. They found that in Spain—the largest European country to adopt GM corn—farmers’ seed choices declined overall and increasingly became a choice among GM varieties.

“Non-GM cultivars of maize were replaced with fewer GM cultivars,” Hilbeck said.

But, in three EU countries that ban plantings of GM corn—Germany, Austria, and Switzerland—farmers have either many more corn seed varieties available to them now than in the 1990s (Germany and Austria) or at least the same number (Switzerland).

Hilbeck presented their findings at a conference on GM crop cultivation in Bremen, Germany in June 2012.

Decreasing non-GMO seed choices in US

Hilbeck said that decreasing farmer seed choices in the United States because of GM technology led her to see if there was a similar trend in Europe. “We could not find any evidence to the contrary, which is what developers and proponents of GM technology in agriculture claim: increased choice,” Hilbeck said. “All evidence points to a decline rather than an increase.”

Proponents of GM crops claim that demand for GM seeds is strong as evidenced by the high adoption rates of GM corn and soybeans by US farmers, but a big reason for this is that large seed companies are phasing out non-GMO varieties. As a result, farmers have little choice but to buy GM seeds.

Research by Hilbeck and others found that the number of non-GMO corn seed varieties in the US decreased 67% from 3,226 in 2005 to 1,062 in 2010, while the number of GM corn seed varieties increased 6.7%.

“Farmers are facing fewer choices and significantly higher prices in seed,” says Kristina Hubbard, author of the Farmer to Farmer Campaign report. “Seed options narrow when a handful of companies dominate the marketplace.”

Iowa farmer George Naylor says he has trouble finding non-GMO soybean seeds: “Some seed companies don’t offer any. One company’s soybean seed lineup is all Monsanto’s Roundup Ready2 (seeds).”

Reduced seed options for organic farmers

GM technology has also reduced seed choices for organic farmers. Several organic corn seed companies have reported testing seed and finding low levels of GM presence. Organic farmers have had their crops rejected by buyers and suffered economic losses when their crops tested positive for GMOs. As a result, some US organic farmers have stopped growing corn because of the GMO contamination threat.

In Canada, organic farmers lost the market for organic canola due to GMO contamination.

“With the proliferation of GM canola, it is almost impossible to buy uncontaminated seed, let alone contend with contamination from pollen drift,” said Arnold Taylor, an organic farmer and president of the Saskatchewan Organic Directorate, which filed a lawsuit against biotechnology companies for the loss of the organic canola market.

GMOs are also affecting rare heirloom corn seed varieties, says Jere Gettle, founder of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. “Over 50% of historic corn varieties are now contaminated with Monsanto’s GMO crops,” Gettle said, based on tests his company has conducted on heirloom seed.

Read the Full Article Here: http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/march2013/farmers-seed-options-GMO-producing-countries.php