AGRICULTURE: BETTER PRICES WOULD HELP FARMERS -- MYERS

There is a simple solution to agriculture's problems today, says state Rep. Peter C. Myers -- "better prices."

"Getting better prices is the hard part," said Myers, guest speaker at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee. Myers, a former U.S. deputy secretary of agriculture under President Ronald Reagan's administration, discussed agriculture issues at the meeting.

Southeast Missouri is a great agricultural area, said Myers, who is president of the Christian group Adopt a Farm Family of America.

"We're in the 'cat-bird' seat for agriculture," said Myers. "We're in the center of the United States, and we have a great water supply for irrigation. We can raise anything except citrus fruits here."

Farming costs higher

Myers, who was a farmer for 28 years, said farm production costs were 10 times higher than they were a decade ago.

"Tractors and other farm equipment, and supplies, have increased, but farm product prices have not," he said. "Then you toss in a bad weather year or two in the mix, and farmers are struggling."

Farmers depend heavily on exports -- especially grain, Myers said, and "expanding those exports are important." The problem is that United States has competition in exporting.

"If we cut back on production, other countries will increase their production," said Myers. "That's something we can't control."

Meanwhile, the Southeast Missouri area is looking into a couple of projects to increase use of its own crops.

"We're discussing an ethanol plant at Malden," he said, "and we're looking into another rice mill operation."

Myers also touched on genetic options.

Genetic engineering, the transfer of single genes between organisms, accelerated early in the 20th century, when scientific plant breeders started using the principles of genetics to make disease-plants that had better structure, appearance and higher yields.

The use of the genes are regulated, said Myers. To make a long process short, genetic engineers isolate a gene, and shoot it into a cell of the plant they want to improve. Then they grow that cell into a mature plant. If everything goes right, the offspring of that plant will contain the new gene. With correct breeding, so will the plant's successive generations.

Many seeds planted this year have acquired resistance to insects or herbicides.

Since 1987, 48 genetically engineered crops have been field-tested. Most were major crops like corn, but transgenic barley, broccoli, carrot, chicory, cranberry, eggplant, gladiolus, grape, pea, pepper, raspberry, strawberry, and sugarcane, have entered field testing.