Partnership Looks To Bring GMO Wheat To The U.S.

Colorado Wheat recently announced that the Colorado Wheat Research Foundation and Bioceres Crop Solutions partnered to advance climate-resilient HB4 wheat in the U.S.

“HB4 is a trait that has been put into wheat in South America by Bioceres, so it's been grown now in Argentina for a few years. So, it's a GMO trait, because what's been done is a scientist took a gene from a sunflower plant, which is known to be a pretty drought-tolerant plant," said Colorado Wheat Executive Director Brad Erker.  "They took a gene from a sunflower plant and put it into wheat. Within wheat, it's a gene that affects several hundred other genes to make the plants more stress-tolerant."

GMO Wheat Still Years Away

Erker said it could be several years before farmers can plant this HB4 wheat due to regulatory approval processes.

"We commit to adhering to all of these preconditions that have been set out by the farmers in the United States that we would meet before we start growing GMO wheat, and one of the most important of those is export market approvals.”

Erker said there are seven countries making up over five percent of U.S. wheat exports that have yet to approve GMO wheat.

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