From Jean-Pierre Zrÿd, University of Lausanne
Your article on genetically modified crops in the US
(25 September, p 18),
mentions the fact that the American company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) will
require suppliers to segregate GM from non-GM crops. However, it failed to point
out that ADM has been offering a premium of 18 cents a bushel (about 4 per cent
more than the normal price) to farmers who grow Synchrony soya beans.
Synchrony varieties were developed by DuPont, through conventional breeding,
to tolerate the sulphonylurea herbicides used to control annual broadleaf weeds,
but well known for leading to the development of resistant weeds and for having
some residual environmental toxicity.
If non-GM soya sells well in Europe this winter, Synchrony’s benefits will be
very evident to ADM. The actions of anti-GM activists in Europe and the US will
therefore have had the interesting effect of encouraging American farmers to use
an environmentally unfriendly herbicide.
Switzerland
