Executives of the three leading corn and soybean seed companies said Thursday that the pace of federal regulatory approvals for biotech seeds, once granted at almost breakneck speed, has slowed in recent years.
The executives of Syngenta, Pioneer Hi-Bred and Monsanto who spoke to the annual convention of the Iowa Farm Bureau at the Polk County Convention Complex said their companies bear some responsibility for the problem.
"The time it takes to get approval has increased at least sixfold in the last five years," said Ben Hable, maize western product development head for Syngenta. It often takes several years to gain approval.
William Niebur, vice president for crop genetic research and development for DuPont, which owns Pioneer Hi-Bred, said: "Some of the problem is the volume of approvals that have to be done. And the federal agencies have tended to be underfunded."
Sam Eathington, line development director for Monsanto, noted that the technology "we are sending for approval has become more complex."
"The flip side is that other countries are becoming more progressive," he said. "In recent years, Brazil has become the leader in streamlined approvals."
Syngenta, Pioneer and Monsanto sell about 70 percent of the corn and soybeans in the United States and have the bulk of the genetically engineered biotech seed traits, which are used by up to 90 percent of Iowa farmers.
Speedy approval for new traits by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration has made the United States the world leader in genetically modified seeds since the biotech revolution arrived on farms in the mid-1990s.
The panel discussion Thursday had none of the animosity that has marked the seed industry in recent years, to the point where the U.S. Agriculture and Justice departments have opened an inquiry about possible antitrust violations. A hearing on the matter will be held in Ankeny on March 12.
Niebur, whose company filed an antitrust lawsuit against Monsanto last summer, came closest to touching on the controversy when he said at the end of the presentation: "Iowa farmers need strong competition in the seed industry."
The three plant breeders reviewed their companies' current offerings, which included "stacked" corn seeds containing herbicide and corn pest resistances.
The new stacked seeds on the horizon in the next year will enable farmers to reduce their conservation acreage from 20 to 5 percent. That land is planted with conventional seeds to help prevent pests from mutating into new resistant forms.
They noted that biotechnology hasn't provided the same spectacular yield gains for soybeans as it has for corn.
"Soybeans have been left behind," Niebur said. "We have to wake up. Soybeans plants are still losing too many leaves. We can get more pods on the plants."
The soybean market hopes for a boost when the government approves the next generation of beans that make zero-trans-fat cooking oils.
Pioneer had hoped that its Plenish high-oleic soybean would be approved by the Agriculture Department by summer, but still is waiting. Monsanto has filed for approval of its Vistive III soybean line.
Beyond that are two major targets of the seed companies, drought-resistant corn seeds and soybeans seeds genetically equipped to battle aphids.
Both of those seeds could be available by the middle of the decade. Hable noted wryly that researchers working on drought-resistant corn were frustrated by above-average rains in most of the Corn Belt this year.
"I never thought I'd see researchers complain about too much rain," Hable said to laughter in the audience.
But the seed men said they were convinced that drought-resistant corn seed, targeted for the western sectors of the Corn Belt in the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas, can find a market in Iowa.
Hable, of Syngenta, which owns the Garst, Golden Harvest and NK seed lines, said: "I would argue that every field in the Corn Belt is under some form of heat or dryness stress at some time during the growing season. Even in Iowa, stress can happen at 3:30 in the afternoon when the warm winds come in from the southwest."
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