The Seed Industry and Agricultural Biotechnology

portrayed by some environmental groups as an enemy of our ecosystem. I am here today, as a representative of the agri-business industry, to address concerns of agricultural biotechnology and its impact on the environment, particularly the concerns surrounding the environmental impact of gene escape from transgenic plants to wild plants and the development of resistance by pests to genetically altered hosts. For the past decade I have served as the president of Delta and Pine Land Company (D&PL). D&PL is a breeder, developer, and marketer of cotton and soybean planting seed. We’re based in Scott, MS, which is in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Our Company comprises three seed companies: Deltapine Seed, also based in Scott; Paymaster Cottonseed, based in Lubbock, TX, and Sure Grow Seed, based in Centre, AL. Our international division, D&PL International, is headquartered in Scott, as well. Through these divisions, D&PL provides seed varieties that currently plant more than 70 percent of US cotton acreage and 10 percent of Southern US soybean acreage. Delta and Pine Land Company became a provider of biotechnology in 1996 when we, in conjunction with Monsanto, introduced one of the first successful transgenic crops to the United States and the world. The crop was a variety of cotton called NuCOTN 33B. This variety contains a Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) gene that controls the bollworm and tobacco budworm, and pink bollworm pests that have historically plagued cotton farmers. Other seed companies have incorporated Bt genes into corn and potatoes. In 1997, D&PL and Monsanto introduced Roundup Ready cotton to the marketplace, and in 1998 we followed with our commercial introduction of The Seed Industry and Agricultural Biotechnology