current event 2

Monsanto Seed Co. has produced a new variety of soy bean that has what they refer to as stacked genes called RR2, meaning it is resistant to many parasites and herbicides. A Brazil soy group has recently issued a statement warning farmers in Brazil against planting this variety of soy since it has not been approved for sale to china yet. They are worried that farmers that are planting the samples of these beans that Monsanto is handing out may contaminate shipments of approved beans that are going to China.

I can relate to this article because I grow soy beans in Oil Trough for Wyatt Farms and am responsible for a lot of what goes on growing the couple thousand acres of beans we farm. I understand that anything that can effect your marketability of your product has the potential to be disastrous and can cause you to go out of business. In the economy today with fuel and fertilizer prices so high, it only takes a few bad years to sink a farm. I haven’t heard of the RR2 variety yet, though it has been approved in America and some European countries.

I believe the authors purpose was to inform the world about what was happening in Brazil with the trade between China and them, and also to tell about the new variety of bean Monsanto has produced. I believe he accomplished his purpose because he gives detailed explanations about the testing and approval of the seed. He explains that many other countries have approved the seed but apparently China is still refusing to approve of the seed and are looking closely at bean shipments coming from Brazil because they are concerned about RR2 contamination. It is not that the variety isn’t good, its that they don’t want to purchase soy beans that may contain the seed because they want to know what they are planting and consuming.

What I do not understand from the article is why China hasn’t approved of the seed yet. The variety has been approved in many other countries that haven’t found anything wrong with it yet that I have learned about. If there was something genetically wrong with it that could cause problems I believe it would have shown itself through all of the testing done by Monsanto and the farmers who grew the samples. I also didn’t understand what they did with the seeds produced by the RR2 seeds that the farmers grew that accepted the samples given by Monsanto. The passage wasn’t clear on whether they had destroyed them or if they were trying to get China to buy them. Also, I would like to know why they have to sell to China and not to a country that has already approved of the variety.

In conclusion, I thought the article was very informative in the struggles that Brazil is going through with the new seed variety. I am hoping to see how the variety will be accepted in the U.S. seeing as China is one of our largest consumers of grain that we sell to. I believe only time will tell what happens with this seed and the global market.