Genetically modified wheat approved for U.S. testing, but may not be boon for Northwest farmers

Federal agriculture regulators announced Tuesday that they approved the testing process that could allow farmers in the U.S. to start planting a genetically modified strain of wheat from South America that produces good crops even in drought conditions.

The only way the new wheat, which was developed in Argentina by a company called Bioceres Crop Solutions, will have a major impact for Washington and Idaho wheat growers is if those countries that import Northwest wheat agree that they want it, said Casey Chumrau, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission.

“We don’t really know, yet, what the full effect will be,” Chumrau said. “In general, wheat growers are in favor of any tool that helps them produce a better, safer and more profitable crop.”

Washington farmers export more than 90% of the soft white wheat grown locally “so we are very protective of our export markets,” she said.

According to online descriptions, which are the same details on which Chumrau relied, the new “trait” in “HB4 drought-tolerant” wheat came from a process of copying some of the genes from sunflowers and combining them with wheat.

The result, according to Bioceres, is a wheat plant that produces high yields thanks to the drought-resistant genes from of the sunflower.

As a result, the HB4 wheat has shown to produce as much grain as conventional wheat plants during normal moisture years.

What’s more, the new trait apparently doesn’t reduce yields during less favorable years.

The implications could be huge, in that the trait could mean that U.S. farmers have far fewer losses during drought years, Chumrau said. But all the testing has been conducted in Argentina.

The HB4 trait, which can be added to any of the multiple types of wheat grown in the U.S., must undergo a series of tests in the U.S. before it can be sold commercially, she said.

“This process is strictly science based in terms of the regulatory process by the” U.S. Department of Agriculture, Chumrau said.

“By them deregulating it, it means they determined that it poses no plausible plant or animal health risk. I think it will be at least three to five years before it would be available in the U.S.”

If it does get full approval, its impact on area farmers could be muted for other reasons, she said.

“This particular trait is a drought-tolerant trait. Broadly speaking, that’s not the highest priority for us,” Chumrau said. “It’s also easier and faster to breed it into spring wheat. The majority of what we grow is winter wheat.”

As for farmers pirating HB4 seeds into Washington, the maker, Bioceres, is also required to develop a rapid test that would quickly show wheat with the modified trait.

The biggest hurdle would come from Washington wheat importers.

Most GMO crops are corn and soybeans eaten by livestock or made into processed food ingredients such as cornstarch, soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup.

The seed conglomerates have been experimenting with GMO wheat in the Northwest in recent years, although no modified variety has been approved for consumption by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and some foreign buyers are wary of engineered food.

But the new trait could help with global supply challenges because it uses less water, according to the National Association of Wheat Growers.

“As a wheat grower who has experienced drought firsthand, it is exciting to see a regulatory pathway where drought-tolerant wheat might be available to producers in the future,” Oklahoma wheat farmer and NAWG President Keeff Felty said.

“Over the past few years, wheat producers across the major-wheat producing regions have had to grapple with intense drought, and continued innovations like HB4 can be a tool that helps growers protect and stabilize their yields.”

Bioceres has received regulatory approval for food and feed use in Nigeria, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and South Africa.

Farmers are growing wheat with the HB4 trait in Argentina and Brazil. Bioceres also plans field trials in Australia with the intent to gain regulatory approval for cultivation there, according to a NAWG news release.

If the HB4 trait is accepted for use in the U.S. after field testing, it should not be a problem for shippers to separate the different strains of wheat, Chumrau said.

“The U.S. export system for agriculture is extremely sophisticated and very experienced in segregating different commodities and even different quality classes of the same commodities,” she said. “Corn and soybeans are already segregated based on conventional or GMO seeds.

“Because of that sophisticated system, customers will have that choice (of conventional or HB4 seeds) and still get that high-quality wheat that they have grown accustomed to.”

For now, the idea of a drought-resistant wheat variety will have to remain one until it can be tested, she said.

“At this point, it’s not available to us,” Chumrau said. If approved “we want to do it in the right way to preserve our markets and preserve all the great work that the industry has done over the decades to build these markets and maintain the relationships that we do have.”