A new hour and a new power are emerging in the West Texas cotton industry, as marked by last week’s groundbreaking ceremony for Monsanto‘s $140-million facility in Lubbock.
The St. Louis-based company announced at a Lubbock Economic Development Alliance news conference in January that the state-of-the-art plant will be its primary U.S. hub for all commercial cotton-seed-processing operations. The choice of Lubbock reflects the region’s importance within the cotton industry, said Ben Eberle, a Monsanto spokesman.
“Lubbock is pretty much right in the middle of one of the biggest cotton patches in the world,” Eberle said. “Because of the quality of the cotton that comes out of that area, the fact that so much cotton is produced there, it is one of the world’s most important.”
Nicolas Lopez/The Hub@TTU
Organic cotton farmers, who have a history of conflict with Monsanto, have so far issued no challenge to the company’s plans. However, LaRhea Pepper, a West Texas organic cotton farmer, said the new facility should be a cause for concern to her peers in the industry because of Monsanto’s history .
“They cannot keep their technology on their fields,” she said. “It’s cross-pollinating and causing GMO [genetically modified organisms] contamination.”
The function of the new facility will be to clean, delint, treat and bag all cotton seed produced by Deltapine, formerly the Delta and Pine Land Company, a major cotton seed producer Monsanto bought in 2007. The Deltapine brand includes several types of genetically modified (GM) cotton seeds.
Monsanto plans to hire more than 50 employees in Lubbock, 40 of whom will work full time, Eberle said.
The company’s genetically modified seeds have been the subject of controversy for decades. One example is the 2009 documentary David vs. Monsanto, which chronicles the story of a Canadian farmer sued by Monsanto in 1998 for patent infringement because he replanted the company’s patented Roundup Ready seed without permission. The farmer filed his own suit in response, alleging Monsanto trespassed on his property by contaminating his fields. Such contamination happens when pollen from GM plants reaches non-GM plants.
Computer rendered design of the future Monsanto facility. Image provided by Monsanto.
The Canadian Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, eventually ruled in favor of Monsanto, but the saga has continued. Monsanto has filed 147 patent infringement lawsuits against farmers since 1997, according to the company’s website.
The controversy surrounding Monsanto is not entirely foreign to West Texas growers who have watched closely the Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, or OSGATA. The association sued Monsanto in federal court in 2011 on behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and ag organizations, seeking legal protection in the event the plaintiffs’ crops became contaminated by Monsanto’s patented GM crops.
The only West Texas plaintiff on the OSGATA lawsuit was LaRhea Pepper, who is managing director of the agricultural nonprofit Textile Exchange. The organization’s 2013 tax filing, the most recent one available, indicates it received about $1.5 million from membership dues, gifts and grants, and conference fees.
Pepper said genetically modified seeds have affected all farmers, not just those who grow organic crops.
“The GMO technology was brought in as the savior for agriculture that would reduce cost because of reduced labor, this whole panacea of increased yields, et cetera,” she said. “The bottom line is, it is not delivering on its promise.”
Both the OSGATA lawsuit and its subsequent appeal were dismissed.
Organic cotton growing is a thriving business in the region. West Texas produces 80 to 90 percent of all the organic cotton in the U.S., even though only 20,000 of the 3.5 million acres of cotton in the area are organically farmed, said Shawn Wade, director of policy analysis and research at Plains Cotton Growers.
“It’s a very small niche of those planted acres,” Wade said. “But those growers are matching up pretty well with the market that they have available to them, and they are able to maintain the price premiums and stuff that help make that economically viable.”
Nicolas Lopez/The Hub@TTU
Wade said organic cotton growers face unique challenges in maintaining organic standards.
“They have got to deal with those pest issues, whether it’s weeds or insects, through alternative means,” he said. “They can’t use traditional pesticides or herbicides as well. So there’s a lot more reliance on tillage and hand weeding.”
Eberle said Monsanto and Deltapine are in the business of giving farmers the tools to fight pests and weeds, but will not interfere with the business of organic cotton growers.
“There is room for all sorts of production practices,” Eberle said. “So by no means is … Monsanto wanting to take any of those choices away from farmers. The idea is to give them more choices when they decide what to plant.”
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