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  • From: "Jill Taylor Bussiere" <jdt AT itol.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Interesting
  • Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 07:32:57 -0500


Kevin,
Yes, some farmers like the Biotech stuff. But there are things going on
within those figures - at least in Wisconsin. It is not the same people
entirely in those statistics - some drop and others pick up. Also, at least
in Wisconsin, most of the GE crops are grown for domestic use - feed for
cattle, etc. in Wisconsin. Here is a bit about a study by the Program on
Agricultural Technology Studies - out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and the University of Wisconsin-Cooperative Extension called The Adoption
and De-adoption of GMO Crop Varieities in Wisconsin.
http://www.wisc.edu/pats/listall.html

A survey was conducted to determine the adoption patterns of GMO's in
Wisconsin.

"For both Bt-corn and HT(herbicide tolerant) soybeans, slightly over 20
percent of GMO adopters in 1999 discontinued their use in the year 2000.
However, there were far more adopters of HT soybeans than there were of
Bt-corn (23% vs. 6% respectively) from 1999 to 2000. These data suggest
that while overall Bt-corn and HT-soybean use was fairly stable in Wisconsin
from 1999 to 2000, there was considerable turnover among the individual
adopters and non-adopters from year to year. "

Here is the conclusion:

"Even though we have yet to do a more complete analysis of the determinants
of adoption and "disadoption" of GMOs crop varieties in Wisconsin, our
preliminary data analyses suggest that the performance of GMO crops plays a
leading role in farmers' decisions to adopt of "disadopt" GMO in 2000. When
asked to evaluate the performance of GMO crops compared to conventional
varieties, the "continuing adopters" of Bt-corn and HT-soybeans (those
planted GMOs in both years) are more likely to report highter per acre yield
and profit of GMOs than are the disadopters (those who used GMOs in 1999 but
discontinued doing so in 2000). The reasons why farmers have divergent
experiences with GMO crop performance warrants further study.

"Finally, our analyses suggests that while the widely anticipated marketing
difficulties were a concern for some GMO disadopters, (2) marketing concerns
and uncertainties appear to be much less important than crop performance
variables such as costs and net returns in shaping farmer decisions to adopt
or disadopt these varieties, at least thus far. Whether the marketing of
GMO crops will be a growing or diminishing concern for farm producers, and
how it will influence Wisconsin farmers' decisions to plant GMOs, is still
an open question. However, the fact most of Wisconsin grain crops are used
for domestic livestock feed suggests that their experiences with and
evaluations of GMO crop performance are likely to dominate in adoption
decision-making unless consumer resistance in the U.S. grows markedly from
its modest current levels."
FOOTNOTE
"(2) Approximately 21 percent and 10 percent respectively, of Bt-corn and
HT-soybean disadopters cited the potential uncertanities in marketing GMO
crops as a reason for discontinuing use of these GMOs in 2000."



> This is Interesting! I didn't think Bio-Tech Crops were going to survive
the
> "white-hot" light different groups are/where shining on them. Kevin Ancell





  • Interesting, Kevin Ancell, 04/02/2001
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: Interesting, Jill Taylor Bussiere, 04/02/2001

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