Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Court challenges stall new biofuel crops

The same technology used to engineer most of the corn and soybeans that farmers grow could produce new feedstocks for biofuels - fast-growing trees or hardier perennial grasses that need little fertilizer. But the genetically engineered feedstock that is closest to commercialization, a eucalyptus tree, is now ensnared in a lawsuit. And government regulations also are a challenge, making it difficult to even field-test biotech versions of potential biofuel feedstocks, including switchgrass, a crop that could be grown in Iowa, experts say. "Something has to be done to make this sane," said Steven Strauss, a tree breeder at Oregon State University who has conducted research for the company that developed the eucalyptus tree. "This is too big a tool to put it on the shelf." Genetic engineering is faster than conventional breeding and allows scientists to add traits to plants such as tolerance to drought or cold temperatures and resistance to insects. Conventional breeding is much slower with perennial crops such as trees and grasses than with faster-growing annual crops like corn. Critics of the gene-altered tree believe the USDA has been too lenient on biotechnology and don't think the tree's potential for biofuel makes it worth putting it into production. They say the tree, which is engineered to tolerate colder temperatures than the tropical climate where it normally grows, could take over Southern forests and uses too much water. The lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and other groups in a Florida federal court last year seeks to force the USDA to do a more extensive study of their environmental impact...more

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