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Seed controversy sprouts
www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-wed_monsantodec26,0,6085830.story

Some say USDA's insurance break for Monsanto customers unfair
By Stephen J. Hedges
Washington Bureau
December 26, 2007
                                                   
          While the federal government doesn't usually endorse products,
the U.S. Department of Agriculture has struck an unusual arrangement with
agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. that gives farmers in Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa and Minnesota a break on federal crop insurance premiums if they plant
Monsanto-brand seed corn this spring.

 The arrangement has raised some eyebrows, particularly among organic farm
groups that argue the government agency should not be promoting corn that
contains an herbicide; the Monsanto brands contain chemicals that kill
weeds and insects.

     Monsanto's deal is legal, note USDA officials who point out that such
arrangements were encouraged in a 2000 crop insurance law that Congress
enthusiastically passed. The idea is to give farmers a break on their
insurance premiums if they use corn seeds that are higher yield and shown
to resist insects and other threats.

     USDA officials said they are aware of the appearance of favoritism
toward  one of the nation's largest ag companies.

 "We knew it would look that way," said Shirley Pugh, a spokeswoman for
USDA's Risk Management Agency, which administers federal crop insurance.
"But other companies can come and do the same thing. We are making the
discount available because the corn has shown the traits necessary to
reduce the risk."

 Pugh said the arrangement benefits not just farmers, but also taxpayers,
since USDA pays a portion of each farmer's insurance premium.

 Farm groups said the timing of the USDA-Monsanto agreement will help
farmers who face higher crop insurance premiums because of elevated corn
prices.

 "We're very supportive of the concept," said Ron Litterer, president of
the National Corn Growers Association, and a farmer in Greene, Iowa. "Not
only for Monsanto but for any biotechnology company that can make the case
that by using those products, it lowers the risk of providing a corn crop."

 The deal with St. Louis-based Monsanto occurred under a provision called
the Biotech Yield Endorsement program, which is part of the Agricultural
Risk Protection Act of 2000.

 No other companies have taken advantage of the program, Pugh said. The
insurance premium benefit to farmers, according to USDA, will be about $2
per acre, or $2,000 for a typical 1,000-acre farm.

 Crop insurance prices have skyrocketed for farmers as corn prices have
reached near-record highs in recent months. Today, corn trades at about $4
a bushel, double the price of about two years ago.

 Those prices have continued to stay high because of increased demand from
the ethanol industry, which uses the grain to make fuel, as well as
increased corn exports and demands from cattle-feeding businesses.

 Crop insurance rates can be as high as $50 an acre, according to Kurt
Koester, a vice president and co-owner at AgriSource Inc., a crop insurance
agency in West Des Moines, Iowa, involved in the pilot program. Several
years ago, Koester said premiums were about $15 to $20 an acre.

 "Farmers are going to face some really tough decisions here," Koester
said. 'They've got this high-value corn sitting out in their fields. When
you take the cost of this crop insurance, even with government subsidies,
there's going to be sticker shock."

 The pilot program with Monsanto covers the country's four most productive
corn states. It involves corn that contains YieldGard Plus with Roundup
Ready Corn 2 or YieldGard VT Triple technology from Monsanto, the company
said. The deal with the Agriculture Department was finalized this month.

     The corn grown is generally used as cattle feed and as raw material
for  ethanol plants.

 Monsanto won the BYE designation by providing three years' worth of
research that convinced the USDA's Federal Crop Insurance Corporation board
that its triple-stack corn variety produces higher yields under difficult
conditions, such as weeds and corn borer.

 "It really bore out what we've heard from our farmers, saying over and
over again that these triple-stack technologies in the corn plant help
protect against weeds and root worms," said Darren Wallis, a Monsanto
spokesman. "What this does is reduce the risk for the farmers."

 Monsanto, however, has earned the wrath of organic agriculture and
environmental groups, mostly for promoting the growth of genetically
altered crops. The presence of Roundup in its corn seed has also drawn
criticism.

 Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association,
characterized the USDA-Monsanto BYE arrangement as one of many examples in
which the department has sided with big agribusinesses instead of smaller
farmers and farm groups. He said the BYE program will leave farmers with
little choice but to buy Monsanto seed.

 "We definitely have a problem with all the benefits that [Monsanto] gets,"
Cummins said. "If you really look at our crop subsidy program and what's
given to farmers, you really see a lot of those subsidies going to purchase
genetically engineered crops."

     Cummins also said that the USDA-Monsanto arrangement excludes organic
farmers.

 Most of the corn acreage in the four states involved is insured, according
to USDA figures. Of the 11 million acres planted in corn in 2006 in
Illinois, about 9 million acres, or 79 percent, had federal crop insurance,
according to USDA. In Indiana, 68 percent of corn acres were insured, in
Iowa, 87 percent and in Minnesota, 89 percent.