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USA
February 26, 2009
More than three-quarters of wheat growers responding to a recent
U.S. National Association of
Wheat Growers (NAWG) survey approved a petition supporting
the commercialization of biotechnology in wheat.
The survey was commissioned by NAWG as a project of the NAWG
Foundation to measure and document the level of support of
biotech trait commercialization among wheat growers.
Anecdotal evidence has long suggested many wheat producers would
like biotech traits in their arsenal, and national wheat
organizations support biotech commercialization. However,
private technology providers need to be assured of ground-level
support for their efforts before undertaking the decade-long,
multimillion-dollar path toward commercialization of a trait.
“Until now, there has only been speculation about the breadth of
grower support for biotechnology in wheat,” said NAWG CEO Daren
Coppock. “This petition was designed to gather those answers
from across our wheat producing areas, and now we have an
objective and clear answer.”
To date, the survey has enjoyed a 32 percent response rate, with
approval rates similar across states and farm sizes. The survey
was mailed in January and February to about 21,000 producers
with more than 500 acres of wheat and 1,000 acres in total
production.
More information about the petition and survey is available
online at
www.wheatworld.org/biotech.
Items posted there include the full petition language, an
expanded Q and A about the effort and numerical break-outs of
results by state and farm size. |
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