February 22, 2001

Results of Studies On Biotechnology To Be Released At Conference

The impacts of biotechnology on production, the food system logistics, and international small grains markets are some of the topics to be covered at the Economics of Agricultural Biotechnology conference at the Doublewood Inn in Fargo on April 5.

The conference will review the results of studies by the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics at North Dakota State University. The conference is free and open to anyone with an interest in agricultural biotechnology. Information about the conference is available from David Lambert, chair of the NDSU Agribusiness and Applied Economics Department at (701) 231-7278.

"We were funded by the North Dakota legislature at their last session to do research on biotechnology and investigate markets for genetically modified organisms," says Lambert. "This is a conference to report the results of the many projects we were able to complete under this program."

The half-day conference starts at 8 a.m. with a presentation on the broader impacts of biotechnology on agriculture and consumers.

Economist Eric DeVuyst will summarize existing literature on currently available first generation products including discussions on farmer adoption rates, reactions of domestic and international markets and welfare changes resulting from the new technology. Second generation issues will also be discussed as the use of biotechnology opens doors for designing new crop and animal products.

DeVuyst will also present preliminary results of how domestic and world wheat prices might change under a variety of assumptions regarding consumer demand, trade policy, and farmer adoption.

Economists Cheryl Wachenheim and Cheryl DeVuyst will report on their research which centered on why the technology for round-up ready sugar beets is available but has not been released.

Lambert will discuss an approach that can be used to determine the value of biotechnology to end users of new products. That will be followed by a report from economist Bill Wilson identifying the costs of maintaining product identity through the hard red spring wheat and durum channels.

Won Koo, professor and director of the Northern Plains Trade Research Center, will share his work on how international markets will respond when new genetically modified varieties are released. According to Koo, recent experience in Bt corn demonstrates how different public policies in accepting genetically modified products can have significant impact on trade flows.

The morning will conclude with comments on opportunities for the North Dakota agribusiness industry in the next ten years.

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Source: David Lambert, (701) 231-7278 
Editor: Rich Mattern, (701) 231-6136, Richard_Mattern@ndsu.nodak.edu