SPOKANE — The Washington Grain Commission is asking farmers what they want to do next regarding genetically-modified HB4 wheat.

HB4 wheat is a transgenic wheat trait owned and sold by Bioceres Crop Solutions, based in Argentina. The trait incorporates drought tolerance transferred through a sunflower gene. According to Bioceres, HB4 wheat demonstrated up to a 43% yield improvement in targeted environments.

The USDA in August approved HB4, the first GMO trait ever deregulated in the U.S for wheat.

“This is coming,” commission executive director Casey Chumrau told farmers during a presentation alongside Washington State University wheat breeders Arron Carter and Mike Pumphrey during the Spokane Ag Show.

“The Midwest is all in … They are very excited about this,” she said. “The Midwest hard red winter wheat states are really looking hard at this. They still are in the research phase of this, but if they can get it integrated into varieties that are well-adapted to the Midwest, this is likely something that will be coming to the market.”

Colorado State University has collaborated with Bioceres in Argentina, sharing germplasm from their varieties, and working on permitting to bring them back to Colorado to continue the breeding process, Chumrau said. Anything viable is likely three to five years away, she added.

Private companies could also be working with Bioceres, she said.

Customer choice

U.S. Wheat Associates and National Association of Wheat Growers issued a document in 2008, outlining steps a company would have to take to earn the approval of the industry before bringing a GMO trait to market.

Any company would have to approach each country that represents at least 5% of all U.S. wheat sales to receive governmental approval for importing.

Bioceres has agreed to the principles, Chumrau said. The company must now work with seven of the top 10 customers of U.S. wheat, including Mexico, the Philippines, Japan, China, South Korea, Nigeria and Taiwan, to receive approval. Five top markets for Pacific Northwest wheat are included in those seven — the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

Tolerances for GMO wheat need to be negotiated on a country-by-country basis.

“Some of these customers are going to be the challenging ones,” Chumrau said.

Some of the cautious customers do accept other GMO crops, such as corn or soybeans. Historically, those are more accepted because they’re going into feed for animals instead of human consumption, Chumrau said.

The commission and the national organizations have been in close contact with customers following the USDA announcement, Chumrau said.

“I think it’s probably been a little bit easier for us because it’s not a U.S. company coming forward” with the new trait, she said. “It’s been really beneficial for us to be able to say, ‘Hey, we’re in contact, we’re following this … We’re working on your behalf, we understand the sensitivity around this issue.’”

Deregulation, or approval, of the trait, is different from commercialization.

The industry is committed to providing customer choice, Chumrau said.

“If there are customers who don’t want GMO, we will still be able to supply the wheat that they want,” she said. “If there is a country or specific customer that is willing to take GMO, then they can get that.”

Pros and cons

As stewards of grower dollars, the commission wants to have the discussion with farmers about GMO wheat in general, and future investments into research.

“Do we need it? Do we want it? … We are looking to you to know what you need and what you really expect from the research dollars we are investing on your behalf,” Chumrau said. “There are a lot more questions, still, than answers on this. We are still really early in the process.

“We don’t want to take tools out of your toolbox,” she added. “If this is something that everybody says, ‘Absolutely, we have to have this, it’s the only way we’re going to stay in business,’ then that’s going to be the message. If on the other side you say, ‘Until all the customers come to us and say “Absolutely, we’re really happy with GMOs,”’ then that’s the message. But we need to make these decisions with your input.”

Possible pros include yield, pest and disease management, drought or other weather tolerance and new weed control possibilities.

Possible cons include the potential threat to export markets, consumer resistance, potential seed costs, the potential to depress prices due to oversupply and the logistics of keeping GMO wheat separate during storage and transportation.

Breeder perspective

The WSU wheat breeders have not done any trial work with GMO wheat, or the HB4 wheat in particular.

“We want to see how well it works for (farmers) in this environment,” Pumphrey said. “If it’s going to be something that’s unavoidable and it’s going to benefit you, the work’s not different than what we already do.”

Pumphrey wonders how well HB4’s drought tolerance trait would actually translate to dryland wheat farming in the Northwest.

“Our sole purpose is to make sure we develop varieties that are going to be beneficial to the growers of Washington,” Carter said. “We won’t go forward with it until we make sure it’s something that is going to be beneficial to the growers and accepted in our export markets, making sure all the pieces are together.”

HB4 does not reduce or add to the development time of a variety, Carter and Pumphrey said. They would likely fold it into promising “elite” varieties alongside other key traits, then bring it back for several more years of testing.

Next steps

The Washington commission has already made 12 presentations to farmers regarding HB4 wheat.

A total of 20 sessions are scheduled so far. Chumrau said the commission is available to speak to other interested groups.

The presentation opened and concluded with the disclaimer: “Conversations and questionnaires regarding GMO and (gene-edited) wheat are to inform the Washington Grain Commission on the future direction of research and marketing efforts and should not be an indication of a pro-GMO or anti-GMO stance.”