Biotech Research Gets $1.3 Million from USDA

October 1, 1999

USDA will provide grants totaling $1.3 million for research on the environmental effects and risks associated with agricultural biotechnology. Seven universities will receive the grants to study such subjects as the effects of transgenic insect resistance on wild sunflowers, the risk of bollworm adaptation to Bt crops and "gene flow from transgenic cucurbits into the wild."

The grants are designed to support research on introduction into the environment or large scale deployment of genetically engineered organisms. The program also supports developing statistical methodology and measures of risk associated with field testing.

Ohio State University will get $230,000 to study the effects of transgenic insect resistance on wild sunflowers; North Carolina State University gets $223,000 to assess the risk of bollworm adaption to Bt crops; University of California-Davis gets $175,000 to study the incidence and origin of new viruses in multiple virus-resistant cucurbits; the University of Minnesota gets $203,151 to examine "resistance evolution" of corn root worms in resistant transgenic corn and weedy grasses.

In addition, the University of Maryland gets $110,000 to field test a hyper virulent fungus; the Agricultural Research Service in Madison, WI, gets $250,000 to study gene flow from transgenic cucurbits into the wild; Kansas State University gets $165,000 to study the potential for gene-escape in imidazolinone-resistant sunflowers and the impact on related wild species.

Additional information on the grants and the grant program can be found on the USDA's web site Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research Grants Program.