Farmers have a choice

Andrew McGuire (amcguire@unlvm.unl.edu)
Wed, 2 Sep 1998 11:55:30 -0500

I would like to comment on the "Terminator" technology of Monsanto and
Zeneca and on the subject of farmer choice. The argument against these is
that the diversity of crops will be reduced because farmers will lose the
"age-old practice of saving and breeding crop varieties." This argument
makes the assumption that farmers will buy these crops to completely
replace the ones they already have and can save.

Don't farmers have a choice to make? They are not being forced to buy
these seeds. I think that whatever we may say here about these
technologies, the farmer is the one who makes or breaks them. Are all the
farmers who have planted Roundup Ready corn and soybeans, or Bt corn being
duped by the chemical companies? I don't think so. I believe that they
are making the decisions that they think are best for them, at that time,
in their situation. I may not agree with their decision, but I am not a
farmer and so can only comment.

The question I have is what makes one farmer choose to farm in a way that
most of us would think of as responsible, and others (the majority) to farm
in other ways? What is the motivation of one vs. the other? It is
obvious that arguments against transgenic crops have not made a big impact
in their decisions so far, so do we change our strategy, if there is one?
Maybe some of the farmers on the list could comment.

Andy McGuire, Extension Educator
amcguire@unlvm.unl.edu
P.O. Box 736 office 402-254-2280
Hartington NE 68739 fax 402-254-6891
University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension

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