Washington, DC, USA
March 29, 2012
Source: U.S. Wheat Associates newsletter
Farmers, flour millers, bakers and wheat food processors understand that the people who eat the food we grow and produce want to know we are maintaining quality and safety. Luckily, U.S. agriculture has a remarkable record of growing more and better crops with less. In fact, today U.S. farmers grow the same amount of food on half as much land as they did 50 years ago.
In wheat, conventional cross-breeding techniques have resulted in varieties with greater yields and improved functional quality that tolerate harmful diseases and other pest challenges.
“We have made huge progress in increasing the productivity of crops,” said Dr. Robert Thompson, a senior fellow of global agricultural development and food security at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Thompson is currently serving as a visiting scholar at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Brett Carver, Oklahoma State University wheat breeder and chairman of the National Wheat Improvement Committee, this week told farm broadcaster Ron Hays that the advent of molecular genetics is helping develop new wheat varieties in less time than traditional cross-breeding.
“We’re now using DNA information instead of field information to make selections that I would have never even dreamed of,” he said. “We still have a long way to go, but I think that translates into better varieties, just as much as [biotechnology] solutions will five to 10 years down the road.”
As we look to that future, productivity must advance at an even faster pace to meet increasing global wheat demand, while using less land, water and other inputs. Yet, wheat farmers face a number of challenges each year the can negatively impact productivity, including too little or too much moisture, high salinity and pressure from insects, disease and weeds.
Research will help our farmers succeed, as it has in the past, using both conventional and advanced tools.
Since 1996, biotechnology traits like herbicide tolerance and insect pest resistance have benefited crops like corn and soybeans after rigorous testing, regulatory approval processes. New research in biotechnology is exploring how to overcome an even broader array of food production challenges.
To date, wheat with biotechnology traits is not commercially available, but research is underway. Publicly funded research has dominated wheat breeding but private investment is increasing, often in collaboration with public programs. Combined with continued adequate support from the federal government (see Research Investment Crucial to a Reliable Supply of Quality Wheat, below), their work offers new hope for addressing agronomic challenges and, eventually, providing additional consumer benefits in wheat. The early work will focus on improving wheat’s ability to use water and fertilizer more efficiently, resist herbicides, tolerate salty soil conditions, resist disease and repel insects.
Researchers are also exploring methods to improve wheat's nutritional profile. Public research in Australia on wheat altered for high amylose starch content could provide increased fiber and slower starch uptake during digestion. Additional enhanced nutritional benefits are a possibility, including work that could help people with wheat allergies.
Farmers, overseas customers and consumers all need the results of this research for today and especially for tomorrow. As the U.S. wheat industry explores these innovations, protecting the quality, safety and affordability of the wheat supply will remain our first priority.
To read more about U.S. wheat industry positions on biotechnology research, visit our website at http://www.uswheat.org/whatWeDo/tradePolicy/biotech or the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) website at http://www.wheatworld.org/issues/biotech/.
Topics
Species
